From left, WNC Fallon campus Professor Holly O'Toole, research students Ellona Gehman and Lana Quint, and WNC's Dr. Gary Evett present their research group's scientific poster at the 2nd Annual NIH INBRE Statewide Meeting at UNLV.
Two students from the Western Nevada College Fallon campus presented the results of their summer research Aug. 24 at UNLV.
Ellona Gehman and Lana Quint accompanied Dr. Gary Evett and Professor Holly O’Toole to the second annual INBRE (IDeA Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence) Statewide Meeting.
“This research was an opportunity that I was so thankful to have been a part of,” Quint said. “I am thrilled, to say the least, to further my education so I can understand the complexity and undeniable importance of what we have learned in our short time of research.”
INBRE, through the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIH), gives hands-on research experience as well as exposes and trains students in a broad range of current cell biology, microbiology and molecular biological techniques used in research.
As undergraduate researchers, Gehman and Quint participated in presenting their poster to the other students and professors attending the event. The meeting also included the students attending presentations on bioinformatics and proteomics.
The purpose of INBRE-funded research is to provide students in NIH-underfunded states the opportunity to participate in collegiate biomedical research with the goal of funneling more students into doing biomedical research as a career, O’Toole explained.
The school reported their students at WNC Fallon worked on research involving newly discovered mRNA-splice variants of cyclooxygenase-1 and their role in inflammation. This student-involved research will be continuing into the summer of next year. WNC students interested in participating in the summer of 2018 may contact Evett or O’Toole at the college.
Gehman recommends the program as a great experience as a Jump Start student to gain a look at and participate in real research.