Hello everyone! As CURF comes to an end, I wanted to send a message of appreciation to the college for assisting with research. In this post, I will talk about how my understanding of research changed throughout the semester and what resources I used. I will also be addressing what occurred in my research and…
Transporting Lipids Further
As I spearheaded my project through the Chancellor’s Undergraduate Research Fellowship, I have not only developed a new set of skills, but also learned to acknowledge and reconcile with my own limitations. Moving from broad topics in my previous research like atherosclerosis and thyroid carcinoma to a focused subject like apolipoproteinC-III (apoC-III), my approach to…
CURF3: my CURF reflection
Hello everyone! I had made significant progress in my research project this semester, and have learned many valuable experiences that helped me in conducting my research. In this last post, I will discuss my understanding of research, difficulties I faced during research, and reflect how my experiences in CURF helped me in becoming a experienced…
Almost (not really) finished!
Early this semester, my research mentor Dr. Swigonova explained to me the process for creating the 3D digital protein model that would eventually be 3D printed for use in teaching settings. I don’t consider myself the most competent user of technology but I was pretty confident that I could manage this new software, called Chimera….
CURF Final Post
As the semester comes to an end, so does my time as an Chancellor’s Undergraduate Research Fellow. I would like to take this moment to reflect on the transformative experiences that have shaped my understanding of the research process this semester. Throughout this journey, two qualities have emerged as fundamentals to being a researcher in…
CURF 3: Conclusion
Coming into this semester, I had a limited understanding of the skills that would be required to conduct my own research project. In addition, I was unsure of how the research process would look like for a computational biology field. Since I was not going through the traditional process of coming up with a research…
CURF 3: This Semester’s Reflections
To summarize the work of my CURF fellowship, the inception of my research project began with the observation that the proteins TERT and STAT5 physically and functionally interact to increase the expression of pro-calcification genes in Calcific Aortic Valve Disease (CAVD). This insight revealed a novel pathway by which calcification develops in valvular disease and…
CURF #3: My CURF
Hello everyone! Welcome to my final blog post on my research this fall semester. I still can’t believe the semester is almost over! As I reflect on my time at the lab, I am reminded of the incredible intricacies of the scientific research process. The research process is a systematic approach that is utilized by…
CURF Prompt #3: My CURF – Ilana Kersh
Throughout this process, my main main area of growth was in my ability to use the SPSS data analysis software. I had used this platform before, but never to this extent. I had to figure out which tests to run, decide which parts of my dataset to use, and make decisions on which parts of…
Community Research in Fayette County
Last weekend, our ACRI cohort traveled to Fayette County to explore community assets in Connellsville and Uniontown. We were able to meet with incredibly engaged community members, all of which were passionate about both the businesses they ran and the individuals that their businesses supported. The CBA, sustainability, urban studies and political science groups spent…