Every year Clemson University College of Science recognizes some of its most outstanding undergraduate and graduate students during an awards ceremony in the Spring. Three genetics and biochemistry students were honored for their work, dedication and accomplishments at this year’s ceremony.
Brooke Dillingham: Outstanding Junior in Science
This award recognizes the best overall junior in the College of Science based on scholarship and character.
As a member of the Honors College, Dillingham started her research in Michael Sehorn’s laboratory as a Eureka! participant during the summer before her first year at Clemson. Her work involves evaluating DNA repair and genome stability through investigation of the BRCA2 novel binding sites. She has received research grants during her first and sophomore years.
Sehorn writes, “One of her strongest attributes is her passion and focus. These are attributes that demonstrate personal growth and maturity.”
Dillingham has participated in a cultural exchange in Germany and when she is not doing science, she is helping to promote it through writing articles for the Clemson News page and as a member of the Science Student Advisory Board. In addition, she is a mentor with the ClemsonLIFE program and a member of the Pre-Law Society. She enjoys fostering and training dogs from shelters, learning new recipes, reading, traveling and, of course, Clemson Football.
Dillingham plans to attend law school and work an as attorney in either health care, intellectual property or biotechnology.
Elizabeth Caldwell: Outstanding Senior in Science
This award recognizes the best overall graduating senior in the College of Science based on scholarship and character.
Caldwell is an active researcher in Sehorn’s lab, where she estimates she’s spent over 1,000 hours since arriving at Clemson. She is also one of 15 students chosen to participate in a special research project at Prisma Health that studied the role of surgical approach on cholecystectomy outcomes.
She received one of four National Scholars Program scholarships at Clemson and, as a part of this elite program, studied abroad in South Africa. Caldwell has also been named a Truman Scholar.
Alison Starr-Moss said of Caldwell, “She truly embodies the spirit of the Outstanding Senior, with demonstrable impact in every activity she pursues.”
Caldwell is the co-founder and president of Tigers for Accessibility, which serves to address accessibility barriers at Clemson. She is also the student representative of the University’s Accessibility Commission and serves as an Academic Success Center peer tutor and as the Inclusion Chair for the Phi Delta Epsilon South Carolina Beta Club. This fall alone, she has given four public presentations, including a TEDx Clemson talk.
Caldwell volunteers her time at the Clemson Free Clinic and as a hospice volunteer. In her free time, she enjoys hiking the national parks. She has visited 58 out of 63 of them. She also likes writing, baking new gluten-free recipes and watching science fiction.
After spending this summer as an intern in Washington, D.C., as part of the Truman Summer Institute program, she will pursue an M.D./Ph.D. in public health, which she will use to continue to bridge the gap between patient care, disability advocacy and scientific discovery.
Adam Gatch: Outstanding Undergraduate in Discovery
This award is given to a graduating senior who has performed outstanding original research in the sciences. Adam Gatch is a biochemistry major with minors in physics and chemistry with a 4.0 GPA over 158 earned credits.
Gatch has been involved in the research group of Feng Ding, where he uses methods from computational physics to study molecular interactions between proteins relevant to Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases. This research has resulted in five peer-reviewed publications, including two first-author publications, and five poster presentations.
“What sets Adam apart is his growing ability to independently formulate new research problems — an essential trait for a future scientist,” Ding said.
Gatch has also performed summer research at the Medical University of South Carolina using neuroimaging analysis to find predictive markers of response to drug therapy in Parkinson’s disease.
His body of work has already been recognized outside of Clemson. He is a Goldwater Scholarship recipient and recently became Clemson’s third Churchill Scholar and one of 16 nationally.
Outside of the lab, Adam serves as a tutor at the Academic Success Center, is a member of the debate team, works as an emergency medical technician and volunteers at the Paw Pantry.
After graduation, Gatch will complete a master’s in philosophy at the University of Cambridge before returning to the United States to complete an M.D./Ph.D.
Trudy Mackay, the director of the Clemson University Center for Human Genetics, is widely recognized as one of the world’s leading authorities on the genetics of complex traits. Her groundbreaking research uses the common fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster to discover the genetic roots of complex traits — traits that are influenced by multiple genes — that are important to human health.
This impactful research has led Dr. Mackay to be honored by the Linnean Society of London with the Darwin-Wallace Medal, one of the top international prizes in evolutionary biology.
“I was surprised and delighted to learn that I am the recipient of the 2025 Darwin-Wallace Medal. It is a great honor to join the ranks of the celebrated evolutionary biologists who are recent and past recipients of this prestigious award,” Mackay said.
The Darwin-Wallace Medal was originally awarded in 1908 to commemorate the anniversary of the reading of a joint paper, which introduced the idea of evolution through natural selection, by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace at a meeting of the Linnean Society on July 1, 1858. The first medals awarded in 1908 were awarded to Wallace himself and six others. The awards were given every 50 years until 2010, when the Linnean Society began awarding it to one person annually in recognition of the growing importance of research on evolutionary biology.
“Dr. Trudy Mackay’s receipt of the 2025 Darwin-Wallace Medal is a remarkable achievement and a testament to her pioneering contributions to evolutionary genetics,” said Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Robert H. Jones. “Her groundbreaking research continues to shape our understanding of complex traits and inspire the global scientific community. Trudy’s work exemplifies the excellence we strive for at Clemson, and this honor further underscores the transformative impact of her scholarship on human health and the future of genetic research.”
During her undergrad, biochemistry major and genetics minor Sam Harpst ’20 found a passion for the spirits industry. Today, Sam is the Operations Analyst & Project Manager for Statesville Contract Distilling, a division of Southern Distilling Company, located in Statesville, NC, where she oversees the lab.
Statesville Contract Distilling offers a diverse range of standard and custom new fill whiskies, extensive aged barrel inventory, warehouse barrel storage, private label production, and co-packing for more than 150 brands globally.
Some of Sam’s daily duties involve collecting and formatting data from the distillery operations department, including grain quality, enzymatic activity, ethanol production, process flow, sanitation, and spirit quality. She plans to continue her journey in the spirits industry and discover more and more about the science of fermentation.
“This industry is starting to grow at an exponential rate, and there are endless opportunities to further whiskey science!”
On Saturday, April 5th, three Genetics and Biochemistry undergraduate students ran a G&B sponsored table at the Be A T.I.G.E.R. Field Day. Be A T.I.G.E.R Field Day went from 9 a.m. – 12 p.m. prior to the Clemson Football Spring Game on the Littlejohn Lawn and was open to children grades kindergarten through sixth grade.
This event focused on games and activities teaching the T.I.G.E.R. character traits. Each letter in the word ‘TIGER’ stands for a character trait that is important for young children to understand and practice in their everyday lives:
The G& B table was run by sophomore biochemistry major Kaitlyn Anderson, senior biochemistry major Berkeley Cannon and sophomore biochemistry major Brittain Gaines. There were three major activities for the children at our table.
For the first activity there was a microscope and various plants sealed in petri dishes for the children to look at them under the microscope. The second activity included a mini centrifuge and a few test tubes with different mixtures.
“The kids could place the mixtures in the centrifuge and separate or mix the solutions,” says Gaines. “Some solutions we made were oil and water and colored water with glitter.”
The last activity on the table was coloring with micropipettes. After the children drew a picture with a sharpie on wax paper, they used micropipettes with the G&B students’ assistance to pipette colored water to color their drawings.
“Overall, everything turned out great and the kids really loved the activities!” says Gaines.
Kate Doran pictured in the middle holding the flag.
Junior biochemistry student Kate Doran recently attended the 2025 Annual American Chemical Society (ASC) meeting in San Diego, CA to present a poster of her research work.
The Annual ASC meeting is a function where individuals can get together and share their passion for chemistry, connect with one of the world’s largest scientific societies and advance scientific career opportunities.
“It was an absolute pleasure presenting at this year’s American Chemical Society meeting. The opportunity to travel to San Diego and present at such a large conference was an incredible addition to my Clemson experience.”
Kate worked with Riley Collins, a senior biomedical engineering student on her poster presentation. The title of the presentation was “Development of a 3D-Printed Device to Study How Bacteria Alters the 3D Migration of Breast Cancer Cells.”
“The goal of this work is to analyze cancer cell chemotaxis due to the presence of bacteria through the development of a 3D printed millifluidic device. The millifluidic device was designed in SOLIDWORKS and printed using PLA filament on an Ender3 Series 3D printer.”
The research is ongoing and is focused on hydrogels like collagen-I, to support the 3D migration.
Senior biochemistry major Albash Khan was part of the team that invented ThermaChill, which came in 3rd place at this year’s College of Science Catalyst Competition. The third-place position comes with a $500 prize.
ThermaChill is a self-heating and cooling lunchbox, highlighting the student’s innovation and entrepreneurship for creativity and sustainability. The ThermaChill team also included senior financial management major Karthik Beeraka, junior biochemistry major Maxwell BeGole and junior physics and computer science major Eli Skoglund.
The Catalyst Competition, which launched in 2021, is a two-semester program. Participating student teams receive support from professional consultants and faculty advisers. It is an entrepreneurship challenge that seeks to support students in developing their innovative business ideas in the areas of science and technology, where each spring, student teams present their ideas to a panel of judges in a culminating pitch competition for a chance to win cash prizes.
The brain is the most important organ in the body, being our command center and controlling everything from memory and movement to basics like the beating of your heart and breathing, deserves its own week of recognition.
Brain Awareness Week 2025, going on during the week of March 10-16, is the global campaign to foster public enthusiasm and support for brain science. In a Clemson News article written by our own senior genetics major Brooke Dillingham, assistant professor of genetics Dr. Tara Doucet-O’Hare and her research was featured.
Tara Doucet-O’Hare is an assistant professor in the Department of Genetics and Biochemistry and a member of the Clemson Center for Human Genetics. She studies dysfunctional chromatin remodeling’s impact on endogenous retrovirus expression and neural development by looking at how this incorporated DNA can lead to different cancers when mutated, such as clear cell meningioma and atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumors in the brain.
“These tumors tend to affect really young children. There are no targeted treatment options currently, and it’s hard enough for an adult to live through all of those things, let alone a young child,” she said.
Doucet-O’Hare has recently worked with a retroviral protein called an envelope protein, which is expressed on the membrane of cells and exported in extracellular vesicles. When mutations occur in the chromatin remodeling proteins, the envelop gene can be expressed when it’s supposed to be turned off, resulting in cancerous cells. This protein is more prevalent in cancerous brain cells.
“I showed if you knock out this protein in tumor cells, then you could essentially stop them from dividing so quickly and kill them,” Doucet-O’Hare said.
She and her colleagues at the National Institutes of Health have recently found a peptide that targets the envelope protein and is starting a pre-clinical trial with the National Cancer Institute and a neurosurgeon at the University of Miami to test its use as medicine.
Endogenous retroviruses were first discovered in chickens in the 1960s, leading Doucet-O’Hare to us chicken embryos in her research, obtained from the Clemson poultry farm, to model the migration of cells throughout development and to investigate the endogenous retrovirus life cycle since chickens develop similarly to humans.
The chicken embryo model also comes into use for the connection between retroviral proteins and chromatin remodeling. She looks at which mutations lead to tumors and how different mutations impact tumor location, cell origin and size.
Doucet-O’Hare plans to experiment with exposing the embryos to different carcinogens like BPA in plastics to see the downstream consequences on development in the future.
Senior biochemistry student David Hess has been booed by 40,000 people at Fenway Park in Boston – he was pitching a bad game. This is nothing compared to the years of chemo and radiation therapy.
After David was drafted in 2014 by the Baltimore Orioles, he made his major league debut in 2018. He signed with the Tampa Bay Rays as a free agent, and when he was traded to the Miami Marlins, David and his wife moved down to Miami. David was having a good season when he gradually started to feel a bit off in 2021.
“I started having shortness of breath, my ribs were popping out of place, I had to see a chiropractor on a regular basis. I thought it could be stress or COVID.”
He started to get worse, his game started to suffer and one morning, he coughed up blood, sending him to the ER. David’s blood pressure was extremely high, so they admitted him, originally thinking the culprit was stress but still wanting to run some tests.
A Diagnosis
“They performed an x-ray and came into the room. They said ‘Do you see that big shadow over your lungs? That’s not supposed to be there.”
There was a pineapple-sized, germ cell tumor on David’s lungs. The tumor was pushing his organs around and his windpipe was at 15% capacity. The doctors were amazed that David had been playing major league baseball.
Germ cell tumors are rare. As a fetus develops, cells form in eggs in the ovaries or sperm in the testicles. Rarely, these cells travel to other parts of the body and grow into germ cell tumors. The survival rate is over 90%. However, there is a chance that there may be something lurking under the tumor that is unseen and unknown.
Nine Lives
David went through nine weeks of chemotherapy and responded well.
“I went through the treatment and the good thing about this is that germ cell tumors shrink down quickly. It went from a pineapple-sized tumor down to a baseball or softball sized-tumor quickly.”
In the winter of 2022 David went in for a follow-up scan and the tumor had grown – he feared he was falling into that 5 – 10%. They started him on a rigorous 12-week treatment plan. David stayed optimistic.
“Here we go – round 2. It’s not ideal, but let’s do this.”
On the last day of David’s 12-week chemo and radiation treatment, he suffered a seizure in the doctor’s office and stopped breathing for a short time.
“I guess I am using up some of my nine lives here,” David says laughing.
When the scans came back after the round two treatment in spring of 2023, the tumor was still present. David’s oncologist sent around the scans and biopsies to different specialists around the country and one came back with some terrible news.
“The specialist called back and said, ‘I hate to do this, but this is not a germ cell tumor – this is clear and definitive angiosarcoma,’ which is a much worse diagnosis. Where we were looking at a 95% success rate, angiosarcoma is basically the opposite.”
Angiosarcoma of the lung is a rare, aggressive tumor that usually spreads from another part of the body and originates in the vascular or lymphatic system. The specialist that diagnosed David with angiosarcoma did not have any positive feedback.
“He told me to basically get my affairs in order, it was that bad. But my oncologist and my team at Greenville did not accept that.”
Staying Strong
David truly leaned on his faith, his competitive and passionate nature and his family, particularly his wife, Devin, during these times to give him strength and hope. He also always knew the end goal was to live and to live playing baseball again.
“The idea of this beating me did not cross my mind. I am also a huge Star Wars fan so through this process I felt like Hans Solo. Never tell me the odds.”
The oncologist planned to perform a lung surgery to remove as much of the cancer as possible, then David would go on to treatment with the ultimate goal of an open-heart chest surgery to extract the chest mass out.
Since David knew he was going to be home during the treatment after the surgery, he began to get back into the groove of things. He started coaching a travel baseball team and in summer of 2023, he enrolled in the biochemistry program at Clemson University and took Physics I and II online over the summer.
“The lung surgery went really well. In fall 2023, I started in person classes at Clemson while I was still doing chemo and coaching a travel ball team – I guess I just don’t know how to not do things.”
A Miracle Scan
The chest surgery was planned for right before Thanksgiving. A few days before the surgery, David and his wife went in for the pre-operative appointment so the doctor could get scans of his chest to map out the surgery.
“He came in and he said, ‘I don’t know what to tell you, we don’t need to do the surgery. The treatment wasn’t supposed to work the way it did, and something has happened in the last week since your last scan.”
The tumor in David’s chest had shrunk enough to where they surgery’s risks outweighed the benefits, so he went straight into chemo and radiation therapy again. By the spring of 2024, David’s lungs had stayed clear, and his chest was stable. However, by finals week, he had spots on his lungs again. David’s new treatment plan was six months of rigorous chemo and radiation therapy.
“A whole summer of treatment into the fall – I ended up having to take the fall semester off. I was down for the count. We get to the end of the treatment and my chest had stayed stable and my lungs were looking good. We thought this might have just been a Hail Mary.”
Third Time’s a Charm
David had his first post-treatment scan in October it was looking like the treatment had worked. However, it takes three scans to be certain that the medicine is out of your system to know it’s not a false positive.
David’s December scan came back good.
“Well, you get one more and that’s called a streak!”
In spring 2025 David enrolled back into courses as a biochemistry major at Clemson. His passion resonates over to his academics and beyond. After his grandfather died of cancer, David has been interested in working in the medical field, giving back. He was so excited to be back in the classroom.
“My passion is not just about performing well in the classroom but also helping the people around me just as much as my own personal growth.”
The last week of February 2025 David went in for his third scan and though they still have to keep an eye on it, the scan comes back with no evidence of disease.
“As of this moment I can say that I am cancer-free! It’s been a wild ride.”
David lives in Greenville, SC with his wife, Devin and their two cats, Stripes and Penny. He is currently enrolled in the biochemistry program at Clemson University, coaching a travel ball team, running a podcast with his wife called The 41 Life, is actively training to get back on the baseball field and is living his beautiful cancer-free life, constantly looking for ways he can help others.
Junior biochemistry major Gia Kennedy always knew she wanted to study abroad in college.
“In junior high I remember thinking about it and wanting to go to either Greece or Spain. After that, it kind of became a given; it wasn’t a possibility, it was something I knew I wanted and would be doing in college.”
This semester, Gia made those dreams come true through Clemson’s CEA CAPA Science and Engineering Program in Alicante, Spain. As a biochemistry major and a Spanish studies minor, this program fit Gia’s course of study perfectly.
Gia takes Cellular Biology, Plant Biodiversity, Ecology, and B1 Spanish at the University of Alicante. The innovative and dynamic University of Alicante (UA) allows you to attend class and activities with Spanish and other international students for an integrated experience. UA also offers modern buildings, green areas, sports facilities, a 24-hour library, a museum, and commercial galleries.
“After classes, I’ll come home and make dinner and will usually hang out with my roommate and have our other friends over or go sit on the beach and talk together.”
Gia typically spends the weekends in different places, exploring, touring and taking in new cultures.
“We’ve gone to small Spanish cities, Valencia, Madrid, Barcelona, London, and I just spent my 20th birthday in Switzerland! We always fly the cheap airlines so I’m usually walking around the airport in my nice dinner shoes and sweatpants and carrying an extremely overpacked bag which I think is funny.”
Gia’s family has even flown in, and they have visited Mallorca together. Other places that Gia has visited during her stay in Spain include Paris, Nice, Cinque Terre, Florence, Rome, the Canary Islands, Portugal, Amsterdam and Greece.
“Besides traveling, during the week when I have free time I’m most often at the beach. The beach is a ten-minute walk from my apartment, so I’ll go there and meet with friends to swim, tan, pass a soccer ball or just hang out.”
This experience has meant a lot to Gia, who is Hispanic and wanted to learn more about and immerse herself into the language and cultures in Spain.
“Overall, studying abroad has been one of the best experiences of my life and I cannot recommend it enough. I really love it here and already do not want to go back.”
Victoria Cipollino
Victoria Cipollino is a junior biochemistry major studying abroad this semester in Florence, Italy.
Originally from Northport, NY in Long Island, Victoria loves Clemson and participates in many different activities around campus.
“I am involved in bioinformatics research with Dr. Alex Feltus, America Reads tutoring, an FCA small group and Collegians for Christ.”
Currently, Victoria is studying at abroad through one of Clemson’s third-party programs, which are coordinated by other universities and study abroad organizations. She is studying at the Institute of Lorenzo de’ Medici in Florence, Italy (LdM). LdM is noted as one of the most distinctive and well-established study abroad institutions in Italy.
“A typical day for me includes attending my classes in the heart of Florence, enjoying a cappuccino and cooking dinner with my roommates.”
In her free time, Victoria enjoys taking long walks and exploring the markets at Mercato Centrale, where she can find fresh fruit, pasta and sauces. She also loves traveling around other cities in Italy.
“Traveling by train on the weekends is incredibly easy, with so many nearby cities to visit. This weekend, I’m deciding between Livorno and Venice! Florence offers excellent public transportation and endless places to explore, making it the perfect city for my study abroad experience.”
Victoria is working to become fluent in Italian, and there is no better place to practice. For Victoria the choice to study abroad was easy and the choice of Italy was an easier one.
“I chose to study abroad because I love meeting people from different cultures and experiencing new environments. Italy, in particular, holds a special place in my heart, as I grew up immersed in Italian culture.”
Senior biochemistry major Mary Grace Flowers has been selected to attend the 19th annual ACC Meeting of the Minds Conference at the University of Pittsburgh on March 28-30th. Only 5 students from each university are chosen to attend.
The ACC Meeting of the Minds is an annual research conference celebrating undergraduate research and creative inquiry at the 18 Atlantic Coast Conference member schools, including Clemson University and seeks to highlight undergraduate excellence in research and creative scholarship across many fields.
Mary Grace will be presenting a poster titled “Examining the role of sex in bone remodeling using differential feeding stresses.” Her research investigates bone remodeling in the facial skeleton using a cichlid fish model because these fish have immense range of facial diversity and have shown a significant capability for craniofacial bone remodeling.
The University of Pittsburgh says, “The weekend of events is designed to provide students with the opportunity to share their work, connect with peers from other institutions, to learn from and with each other, and of course to have some fun!”
Everyone wish Mary Grace luck at the Meeting of the Minds later this month!
