2025 URS Schedule:
| Time | Main Room – LSC 1 | Secondary room – LSC 2 |
| 8:30-9:00 | Sign-in and poster pin-ups | |
| 9:00-9:15 | Opening statements | |
| 9:15-10:15 | Rapid Fire Talks – 8 Total (see below) | |
| Co-op Projects | ||
| 10:15-10:30 | Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) Regulatory T-cell (Treg) therapy could control rejection of hiPSC-CM grafts, a promising heart failure treatment
Phoebe McNair-Luxon |
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| 10:30-10:45 | Development of a human monocyte-derived macrophage assay to screen for anti- and pro-inflammatory compounds using whole blood stored at room temperature for more than 48 hours
Michaela Grace Monachello Schweitzer |
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| 10:45-11:00 | Designing Islet-specific TCR Tregs for Type 1 Diabetes
Emily Sie Yan Leong |
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| 11:00-11:15 | Break | |
| Directed Studies Projects | ||
| 11:15-11:30 | Bowel preparation facilitates pathogen colonization in an intestine-on-a-chip model
Brian Deng |
The Stress Test: Assessing Gut Microbial Replication via PCR Assay
Asmita Jain |
| 11:30-11:45 | Helminth infection elicits sex specific microglia differences in a multiple sclerosis mouse model
Susan Zhang |
Gut barrier disruption is observed in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis and manifests as systemic inflammation modulating the activity of microglia in the mouse brain
Burak Ozkan |
| 11:45-12:00 | Intestinal microbiome-modulation of microglia in the developing brain
Shreya Gandhi |
Discovery and In vitro Characterization of Two Novel Human TMPRSS2 Inhibitors as Leads to Potential Drugs Against Influenza A (H1N1) Viruses
Michelle Ho |
| 12:00-1:00 | Lunch and Posters | |
| 1:00-2:00 | Keynote: Dr. Megan Levings | |
| Directed Studies and Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences | ||
| 2:00-2:15 | Engineering gp70 chimeric autoantigen receptor T cells using MRL/lpr derived cells
Elizabeth Adefolaju |
Expression of Truncated SurA Potentially Disrupts BrkA Maturation in Escherichia coli
Andrew Huang, Aivi Tran, Cyrus Yong, Thomas Yeung |
| 2:15-2:30 | Investigating the influence of the BrkA autochaperone region on recombinant protein surface expression and activity
Gabi Reznik, Artemis Melville-Bowser, Miles Da Silva, Natalia Blanco |
Type 1 fimbriae may sterically hinder Antigen 43-mediated autoaggregation in Escherichia coli
Catherine Pepin, Brian Deng, Alex Pei, Lester Cheng |
| 2:30-2:45 | Autodisplay of the Burkholderia cepacia lipase and its chaperone foldase using the BrkA autotransporter system
Mya Bal, Monica Leca, Samantha Tang, Delphine Zhou |
Development of a Model for Intimin Expression and Detection at the cell surface of Escherichia coli BL21
Carolyne You, Asha Octoman, Claire Rollins, Nicholas Taraviras |
| 2:45-3:00 | Utilizing BrkA passenger domain to surface display lead remediator EC10 on Escherichia coli
Norman Li, Renee Li, Arshia Tavangar, Le Qi Chen |
Expanding Biocatalytic Applications: Surface Display of Dimeric Sorbitol Dehydrogenase Using BrkA Autotransporter
Kerry Shi, Kristen Tien, Carleton Young, Ashine Zhang |
| 3:00-3:15 | Evaluating the impact of geneX and BrkA expression on outer membrane stability in Escherichia coli
Jeyah Cruz, Joshua Lin, Georgia Langdon, Victoria Rogers |
Chaperone protein SurA may be necessary for the secretion of BrkA in E. coli BW25113 during the stationary phase
Melika Hajimohammadi, Salva Sherif, Joshanne Palces, Rana Ghadymimahani |
| 3:15-3:30 | Ag43-Mediated Autoaggregation of Escherichia coli Requires the Passenger and the Autochaperone Domains but In Vitro Passenger Domain Folding and Self-Interaction Does Not Require the Autochaperone Domain
QingRu Kong, Keheng Wang, Ran Tao, Zurui Zhu |
Developing a Chloramphenicol-Selectable Cpx Stress Reporter and Investigating BrkA-Induced Envelope Stress in E. coli strain BW0052
Arian Afshari, Amy Kim, Ramdeep Kailay, Sherinay Xierenayi, Mohammed Akif |
| 3:30-3:45 | Captivity reduces gut microbial diversity and metabolic pathway abundance across mammals with different diet and gut fermentation types
Tiffany Wu |
Sociodemographic Factors have Nuanced Effects on Gut Microbiome of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Patients in Zimbabwe
Tien Do, Steven Chen, Savitha Singarajan, Thomas Yuen, Susana Chung Wang |
| 3:45-4:00 | Stretch break | |
| 4:00-4:20 | Final Remarks and Prizes | |
3×1 Presentations (aka Rapid Fire Talks)
| 1 | Interaction between salmonids symbiotic microbial communities and their environment
Jasmilan Saini |
| 2 | Understanding the role of urobiome-derived lysophosphatidic acid in renal tubular epithelial cell and barrier functioning
Pailin Cui |
| 3 | Peritonitis Model Development to Assess the Efficacy of Cationic Liposomes Containing TLR7/8 Agonists (Resiquimod) in Combination with Antibiotics
Tien Do |
| 4 | An Examination of the Intracellular Domain of NCAM-1 and Its Phenotypic Effects on RIG-3 Mutations in Caenorhabditis elegans
Charlotte Lee |
| 5 | Development and validation of a serum bactericidal antibody assay to evaluate functional antibody responses against Klebsiella pneumoniae
Sina Hakimpour |
| 6 | Exploring the Accessibility of Functionally Important Conserved Epitopes on Prefusion-Stabilized SARS-CoV-2 Spike
Paria Sokhanran |
| 7 | Impact of Integrase Strand Transfer Inhibitor Treatment on the Gut Microbiome of People Living with HIV
Edward Sobczak, Jordan Drotsky, Emily Huang, Emily Wiebe |
| 8 | The Type 3 Immune Response: A Hero or Villain in Crohn’s Disease?
Mya Bal |