The Honors distinction is awarded to graduating seniors who have completed a year-long research project under the supervision of a faculty mentor and have presented their research at a public forum in the form of a scientific publication while also maintaining a high GPA.

The Division congratulates the following seniors who will be graduating with Departmental Honors this semester.

London Bales

Research Mentor: Dr. Casey Holliday, Pathology and Anatomical Sciences
Project: Orientation of jaw muscles and cartilages surrounding the neurocranium of the spiny dogfish (Squalus acanthias)

Lillian Bradshaw

Research Mentor: Dr. Don Tillitt, USGS
Project: The immune response to oil spills in largemouth bass

Nicholas Choma

Research Mentor: Dr. Aaron Stoker, Orthopedic Surgery
Project: Effect of concentration of estradiol on ACL metabolism ex vivo

Thomas Delong

Research Mentor: Dr. Bing Zhang, Biological Sciences
Project: Eaat1 as a regulator of circadian rhythms in Drosophila melanogaster

Spencer DeLucia

Research Mentor: Dr. Aaron Stoker, Orthopedic Surgery
Project: “Defining Patient Phenotype Clusters based on Chondrocyte Metabolic Profiles”

Kora Dowden

Research Mentor: Dr. Lixing Reneker, Opthalmology
Project: Histopathological evaluation of age-related meibomian gland atrophy and dysfunction

Elizabeth Fletcher

Research Mentor: Dr. Aaron Stoker, Orthopedic Surgery
Project: Evaluation of metabolic response of intervertebral disc to IL1-Beta with RANTES and IL-10 using an ex vivo rat tail model

Matthew Gao

Research Mentor: Dr. Aaron Stoker, Orthopedic Surgery
Project: Assessment of regional variation in osteoarthritic bone biomarker production

Jessica Garcia

Research Mentor: Dr. Manuel Leal, Biological Sciences
Project: Differences in neuron numbers between male and female Anolis evermanni and Anolis cristatellus

Madison Green

Research Mentors: Dr. Cheryl Rosenfeld, Biomedical Sciences, and Dr. Michael Roberts, Animal Sciences
Project: Effects of maternal oxycodone exposure on mouse placental development 

Andrew Jones

Research Mentor: Dr. Elizabeth King, Biological Sciences
Project: Identifying genetic background effects for cancer susceptibility

Benjamin Jones

Research Mentor: Dr. Erika Boerman, Medical Pharmacology and Physiology
Project: The role of endothelin converting enzyme-1 and neprilysin in perivascular sensory nerve dysfunction with inflammatory bowel disease

Dominique Joseph

Research Mentor: Dr. Charlotte Phillips, Biochemistry
Project: Histological response to myostatin and activin antibodies in the osteogenesis imperfecta murine model

Madison Knight

Research Mentor: Dr. David Braun, Biological Sciences
Project: Determining if the Arabidopsis cobra gene has a conserved function in carbohydrate partitioning

Meghan Lawlor

Research Mentors: Dr. Peter Sutovsky and Dr. Michal Zigo, Animal Sciences
Project: Characterization of porcine testicular angiotensin converting enzymes and their roles during fertilization

Mary LePique

Research Mentor: Dr. Marc Johnson, Molecular Microbiology and Immunology
Project: How does tetherin interact with ORF7a and/or Spike in SARS-CoV-2?

Camryn Long

Research Mentors: Dr. Cheryl Rosenfeld, Biomedical Sciences, and Dr. Michael Roberts, Animal Sciences
Project: Effects of oxycodone on trophoblast stem cells

David Meyerhoff

Research Mentor: Adamowicz, Vet Path
Project: Coronavirus vaccine exploration via expression of ACE2 receptor in mice

Maria Olivos

Research Mentor: Dr. Yves Chabu, Biological Sciences
Project: Tumor-macrophage interaction promotes tumor

Victoria Salathe

Research Mentor: Dr. D Cornelison, Biological Sciences
Project: Eph/Ephrins role in adult mice homeostatic vasculature

Stephanie Tarr

Research Mentor: Dr. Alan Parrish, Medical Pharmacology and Physiology
Project: Effect of Etv4 on metastatic behavior in renal cell carcinoma

Marissa Triller

Research Mentor: Dr. Andrew Scaboo, Plant Sciences
Project: An evaluation of the genetic architecture of soybean cyst nematode resistance at the Rhg1 locus

Audrey Wind

Research Mentor: Dr. Michael Roberts, Animal Sciences
Project: Finding the most efficient concentration of inhibitors A83-01 and PD173074 are needed for human pluripotent stem cells to completely differentiate to trophoblast

Yuki Yang

Research Mentor: Dr. Steven S. Segal and Dr. Aaron Morton, Medical Pharmacology and Physiology
Project: Enhancing myovascular regeneration with a biomaterial