SPURA Students Present Posters at Neurobehavioral Research Symposium
First place in the undergraduate division poster contest went to Megan Jorgensen, a medical biology major, presenting "The Role of Endocannabinoid Signaling in Producing Injury-Induced Sensitization." Second place went to Joshua McWhirt, a biology major, presenting "Stress Induced Changes in Hippocampal Gene Expression."
“Every year we’ve had fantastic students in the SPURA program and this year’s group was no exception. They worked hard all summer, were engaged in their projects, and were great ambassadors at USD. Every one of our invited symposium speakers was impressed by the quality of the students in this program,” said Brian Burrell, associate director of CBBRe.
CBBRe hosts the SPURA program, which is a multi-disciplinary summer research program that gives USD undergraduate students the opportunity to conduct mentored, hypothesis-driven research in fields related to substance use and abuse and mental health issues. The laboratories that participate in the program incorporate a wide range of experimental methods including cognitive, behavioral, neuropharmacological, systems, electrophysiological, brain imaging, and molecular approaches. SPURA hosted weekly seminars throughout the summer on topics pertaining to research in addiction and related mental health issues, as well as opportunities for professional development. Lunches were also provided for all USD undergraduate researchers, sponsored by the South Dakota Biomedical Research Infrastructure Network (SD BRIN).
The symposium also hosted a graduate, postdoctoral and staff research poster division. First place went to Kelene Fercho from the Division of Basic Biomedical Sciences, presenting "Addition of Pupil Diameter Measurements Increases Brain Computer Interface Performance." Second place went to Hanming Zhang, also from Basic Biomedical Sciences, presenting "Inhibition of Phosphodiesterase 1 Confers Striking Therapeutic Benefit to HFpEF in Mice.”
