Tag: poster presentation

Three Genetics and Biochemistry undergraduate students, Kaitlyn Anderson, Berkeley Cannon and Brittain Gaines ran a G&B sponsored table at the Be A T.I.G.E.R. Field Day, an event for children that was before the Spring Football Game.

Biochemistry student Mary Grace Flowers represented Clemson University and the department at the 2025 Meeting of the Minds conference, a prestigious undergraduate research and creative inquiry conference that brings students from all 18 ACC member institutions together. Mary presented her research “Examining the Role of Sex in Bone Remodeling using Differential Feeding Stresses.”

Dr. Haiying Laing’s lab attended the 86th Annual 2025 Southern Section of the American Society of Plant Biologists Meeting and four Ph.D. students presented a poster on their dissertation research: Jiayin Liu, Xinya Lu, Amanda Minner and Ruikan Zhang.

Many G&B students participated in presenting their research at the 20th Annual Focus on Creative Inquiry (FoCI) event, Clemson’s university-wide poster forum that showcases undergraduate research, service-learning and other experiential learning activities supported by the CI program.

In April Dr. Haiying Laing’s lab participated in an outreach event at the Hemlock Festival in Mountain Rest, SC, where they engaged with the public, providing educational information on American chestnut trees and the restoration efforts. The lab also volunteered with The American Chestnut Foundation at a Chestnut Return Farm. They inoculated American chestnut trees with blight fungus Cryphonectria parasitica for resistance screening. Students involved include Jay Liu, Sky Lu, Roger Zhang and Stone Chen.

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.

“A huge thank you to Dr. Adam Melvin for his support throughout the preparation for this meeting and Clemson Creative Inquiry + Undergraduate Research Program for sponsoring our journey!”

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!

At the American Society of Microbiology Joint Branch Meeting of South Caroina (SC ASM) on November 9th, biochemistry and molecular biology master’s student Bryson Woodard received an Honorable Mention for his poster presentation titled, “Construction and Characterization of Transgenic Cell Lines for the Analysis of Glycosome Heterogeneity in Trypanosoma brucei“.

Bryson works in Dr. Meredith Morris’ lab in the Eukaryotic Pathogens Innovation Center (EPIC). The lab focuses on Trypanosoma brucei (the causative agent of African Sleeping Sickness) as a model organism and seeks to explore and close knowledge gaps within the parasite’s cellular biology.

“We are interested in the diversity of glycosomes, which are essential metabolic organelles within the Trypanosomes; previous research findings suggest that not all glycosomes are the same.”

To assess this diversity, Bryson and his lab mates use an endogenous tagging technique to attach fluorescent protein tags to essential glycosomal membrane proteins. These tagged membrane proteins allow analyzation of glycosomal diversity using fluorescence expansion microscopy and advanced forms of flow cytometry.

“To date, we have successfully attached our first fluorescent tag to our selected membrane proteins, subsequent attachment of additional tags and analysis is to follow.”

Attending the SC ASM fall meeting was an excellent experience for Bryson, where he was able to learn more about microbiological research happening in our state, network with other scientists and faculty and further prepare for his career as a physician.

“I am honored to have received an honorable mention for my poster presentation. I want to thank the conference organizers, my advisor, Dr. Meredith Morris and my lab mates for supporting me in these endeavors.”