Congratulations
to our NSERC USRA winners!
DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGY
UNDERGRADUATE AWARD
WINNERS
2009-2010
NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award Winners
Annually, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) awards Undergraduate Student Research Award (USRA) to outstanding students. The recipients of these awards are funded to carry out research in collaboration with an NSERC funded faculty member during the summer months. For more information about this award, visit the NSERC web site (http://www.nserc.gc.ca/index.htm).
The following arethe recipients for the summer of 2010 with a brief description of their summer research projects.
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Julia Burke (supervisor: Dr. B. MacDougall-Shackleton) Examining stress response patterns, innate immunity and heterozygosity fitness correlations in a wild song sparrow population |
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Mario Cepeda (supervisor: Dr. S. Damjanovski) Creating DNA constructs to investigate how matrix metalloproteinases are regulated |
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Ryan Chen (supervisor: Dr. S. Singh) Studies on the essential functions of syntaxin 12 during mouse embryonic development |
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Sommer Foster (supervisor: Dr. B. MacDougall-Shackleton) Examining stress response patterns, innate immunity and heterozygosity fitness correlations in a wild song sparrow population |
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Mathew Hall (supervisor: Dr. A. Percival-Smith) Examining the role of individual domains of the protein Proboscipedia in Drosophila maxillary palp development |
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Ilia Kisilevsky (supervisor: Dr. K. Hill) Focus on skin histology and hair follicle development in the harlequin mice model |
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Graham Lloyd (supervisor: Dr. J. Staples) Using gas chromatography as well as mass spectrometry in order to assess the effects of various stages of hibernation on phospholipid abundance in the mitochondrial membranes of liver cells of 13-lined ground squirrels |
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Lotar Nunez (supervisor: Dr. G. Kelly) Reactive oxygen species modulate Wnt signaling during extrembryonic enoderm differentiation |
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Danielle Ouellette (supervisor: Dr. L. Zanettte) Examining the effect of brown-headed cowbird nest parasitism on songbird population characteristics |
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Michael Roubakha (supervisor: Dr. B. Neff) Investigating the genetic basis for the mediation of alternative male life histories in bluegill sunfish |
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Imran Shabbeer (supervisor: Dr. S. Singh) Studying the effects of gestational ethanol exposure on development of FASD in mouse model and subsequent genetic changes that result in FASD |
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Alyssa Smith (supervisor: Dr. G. Southam) Bacteria-mineral interactions; Life in extreme environments |
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Richard Stove (supervisor: Dr. B. Sinclair) Insects at Low Temperature |
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Joseph Stinziano (supervisor: Dr. B. Sinclair) The plasticity of desiccation tolerance in Drosophila |
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John Vincent (supervisor: Dr. A. Moehring) Investigating the genetic basis of hybrid sterility in a Drosophila species pair |
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Tishara Wijayanayaka (supervisor: Dr. M-A. Lachance) Delineating the yeast species Starmerella bombicola |
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Alexander Yan (supervisor: Dr. K. Hill) To determine the effectiveness of various biomarkers in the harlequin mutant mouse model of premature aging, with the ultimate goal of providing a framework for studying retinal disease etiology and drug testing relevant to human aging-associated retinal degeneration |
no photo | Amro Mohammad (supervisor: Dr. S. Macfie) Studying the reactions of plants to toxic metals at various concentrations |

















