The ASPB Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows (SURF) program funds promising undergraduate students so they can conduct research in plant biology during the early part of their college careers over the course of 10 consecutive weeks. This year’s SURF recipients will present their research at Plant Biology 2022. Congratulations to these 2021 Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows and their mentors:
SURFers from Doctoral Granting Institutions
Amanda Dee, Northeastern University
Mentor: Carolyn Lee-Parsons, Associate Professor
Project: Developing and implementing an inducible synthetic biology tool for regulating alkaloid biosynthesis in Catharanthus roseus
Patricia Gallardo, Iowa State University
Mentor: Gustavo MacIntosh, Professor
Project: Role of isoflavones in the resistance of Glycine max against Aphis glycines Matsumura
Ashley Knight, Colorado State
Mentor: Robyn Roberts, Assistant Professor
Project: Screening for resistance in Colorado wheat varieties for Wheat streak mosaic virus and Stripe rust resistance
Harper Lowrey, Yale University
Mentor: Joshua Gendron, Associate Professor
Project: Functional studies of an F-box gene that links the circadian clock to plant growth
Lauren Owens, Cornell University
Mentor: Li Li, PhD – Research molecular biologist
Project: Identification and characterization of OrHis suppressors in the mutated OrHis Arabidopsis thaliana
SURFers from Primarily Undergraduate Institutions
Miriam Li, Williams College
Mentor: Cynthia Holland, Assistant Professor
Project: Biochemical Investigation of Anthranilate Phosphoribosyltransferase in Plants
Katherine Stegemann, Marian University
Mentor: Carina Collins, Assistant Professor of Biology
Project: Determining the Localization of OPS and Building a Molecular Model for OPS Function in Arabidopsis thaliana
Alyka Zahnd, Missouri Western State University
Mentor: Csengele Barta, Associate Professor of Biology
Project: Offense and defense strategies in plants’ chemical warfare for resources and survival: Can native “heroes” rescue other native plant species, sensitive to allelopathic inhibition, triggered by highly competitive invasive species?