Research Forum2011

Undergraduate

April 8
Friday | Welch Hall | 11am3pm cns.utexas.edu/researchforum

Welcome to the 2011 College of Natural Sciences Undergraduate Research Forum. With over 150 undergraduate researchers presenting their work, this years event demonstrates the breadth and quality of our undergraduate researchers and the outstanding faculty who mentor them. We are especially pleased to have so many research fellowship winners and academic honor students among the presenters. As you peruse the program you will see student participation from every department in the College as well as the College of Engineering and the College of Liberal Arts. This work is done in labs both at UT and across the country. We hope that you will spend time visiting with the students to learn more about their projects and their experiences. We are particularly indebted to our industrial partners who sponsored awards and volunteered the time of the many scientists and engineers who have agreed to serve as judges for the event. They have helped to make this an event of the highest caliber as we show off the tremendous talent evident in our undergraduate students. Finally, I would like to thank the University Co-op for both their ongoing support of undergraduate research in the College and of the many wonderful student events that would not be possible without their generosity. With all best wishes,

Mary Ann Rankin, Dean College of Natural Sciences

Freshman Research Initiative Research Stream Poster Presentations

The Freshman Research Initiative (FRI) program in the College of Natural Sciences incorporates authentic faculty research as a means of teaching large numbers of students on a timeline spanning their first two years at UT. This program has already involved over 2000 freshmen in faculty research in Biology, Biochemistry, Mathematics, Chemistry, Computer Science, Physics, Textiles & Apparel and Astronomy. The core of this program is a yearlong, potentially publishable research project that reflects the core interests of our faculty and fulfills degree requirements for the student. Students are members of a 30-student cohort a Research Stream in which they conduct independent, but parallel projects under the guidance of faculty, graduate students and peer mentors. Each freshman cohort will present an overall poster representing the work theyve just begun in their research stream.

Exploring the Physics of the Universe with White Dwarf Stars

Cell Signaling and Signal Transduction

Roux Stream
Section of Molecular Cell and Developmental Biology

Winget Stream
Department of Astronomy

Functional Genomics

Virtual Drug Screening

Iyer Stream
Section of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology

Robertus Stream
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Cell Fate Regulation

Vertebrate Interactome Mapping

Lloyd Stream
Section of Molecular Cell and Developmental Biology

Stevens Stream
Section of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology

BioBricks

Viral Evolution

Browning Stream
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Bull Stream
Section of Integrative Biology

Mitochondrial Gene Expression

Supramolecular Sensors

Appling Stream
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Anslyn Stream
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Nucleic Acid Aptamer Selection

Functional Materials Based on Metal Complexes

Ellington Stream
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Jones and Holliday Stream

Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Synthesis and Biological Recognition

Martin Stream
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Nanomaterials for Chemical Catalysis

Stevenson, Vanden Bout and Crooks Stream

Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Bioprospecting: Isolation of Biologically Active Natural Products from Endophytes

Siegel Stream
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Computational Nanoparticles

Henkelman Stream
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Brain Tumor Pathology

Cowperthwaite and Luci Stream

Center for Systems and Synthetic Biology and Section of Neurobiology

Frontiers of Linear Algebra Library Development

van de Geijn Stream

Department of Computer Science

Genome Evolution in Plants

Jansen Stream
Autonomous Vehicles
Section of Integrative Biology

Stone Stream
Department of Computer Science

Infinite Uniqueness- Democratizing Design

Simpson and Davis Stream

Computational Intelligence in Game Design

Miikkulainen Stream
Department of Computer Science

Division of Textiles and Apparel and Department of Computer Science

Linear Algebra Constructions and Applications Electronic and Magnetic Materials Research

Markert Stream
Department of Physics

Hadani Stream
Department of Mathematics

Computational Biology

Wilke and Ancel-Meyers Stream

Section of Integrative Biology

Biology of Biofuels

Juenger and Hawkes Stream

Section of Integrative Biology

Poster Presentations Alphabetical by First Author

Ultrasonic vocalizations reveal changes in emotional impact of cocaine and experience Mohamed Abdalla Esther Maier, Timothy Schallert, and Christine Duvauchelle School of Biological Sciences; Division of Pharmacology and Toxicology, College of Pharmacy UndergradUate research Fellowship 2010 EIF2 protein purification Sarah Abdellatif Grace Choy and Karen Browning School of Biological Sciences; Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Observing interactions between proteins involved in mitochondrial translation through the use of TAP-tags Xavier Acuna Anne Tibbetts, Jada Uzosike, Marissa LaMoure, Shiyi Geng, and Dean Appling School of Biological Sciences; Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; FRI Mitochondrial Gene Expression Stream cns sUmmer UndergradUate research Fellowship The effect of residual nuclear reactions on the radius of the white dwarf star in the binary NN Serpentis Jesus Aguilar-Landaverde Michael Montgomery and Don Winget Department of Astronomy; FRI Exploring the Universe with White Dwarf Stars Stream cns sUmmer UndergradUate research Fellowship Altered HCN1/2 distribution in the fmr1 knockout mouse model of fragile X syndrome Arvin Akhavan Darrin Brager, Kevin Dougherty, Nikolai Dembrow, Emma Tran, Chung Sub Kim, Dane Chetkovich, Kimberley Raab-Graham, Natasha Sonsanya, Peggy Huang, and Daniel Johnston School of Biological Sciences; Plan II Honors Program, College of Liberal Arts; Center for Learning and Memory UndergradUate research Fellowship 2010 Hospitalization risk for infants with pertussis, Texas, 2009 Genevieve Allen Rachel Wiseman and Leanne Field School of Biological Sciences; Department of State Health Services, Emerging and Acute Infectious Disease Branch Characterization of the Arabidopsis TTG1 Homolog from Beta vulgaris Shelby Allison and Jake Boren Antonio Gonzalez and Alan Lloyd School of Biological Sciences; FRI Cell Fate Regulation Stream cns sUmmer UndergradUate research Fellowship Effect of substituent position on ligand binding affinity for MUP-I Julie Amthor Kristen Procko, John Clements, Andrea Beckham, and Stephen Martin School of Biological Sciences, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Synthesis of translational regulatory genes in Arabidopsis Myranda Anderson, Victor Chu, Ashley Willies, Ryan Ngo, and Austin Moore Grace Choy and Karen Browning Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; FRI Biobrick Stream cns sUmmer UndergradUate research Fellowship Effects of increasing ligand hydrophobicity and conformational constraints on the thermodynamics of protein-ligand interactions Vincent Au Kristen Procko, David Cramer, and Stephen Martin Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; FRI Synthesis and Biological Recognition Stream cns sUmmer UndergradUate research Fellowship Search for a vaccine: Comparison of adaptive immune response to Streptococcus pneumoniae in individuals with and without type-two diabetes mellitus Upasana Bagaria Christine Mathews and Shaper Mirza School of Biological Sciences; The University of Texas School of Public Health, Brownsville Regional Campus Optimization of 140p Au-Cu nanoparticles on an MgO lattice using basin hopping algorithm Caitlin Bagwell Dan Sheppard and Graeme Henkelman Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; FRI Computational Nanoparticles Stream cns sUmmer UndergradUate research Fellowship Autonomous vehicles and traffic lights Alysha Behn Michael Quinlan, Crosby Cook, Mitchell McMullen and Peter Stone Department of Computer Science cns sUmmer UndergradUate research Fellowship A metamaterial waveguide for terahertz radiation generation and particle acceleration Will Berdanier Simeon Trendafilov and Gennady Shvets Department of Physics; Institute for Fusion Studies Expression of eIF(iso)4G1 and eIF(iso)4G2 within Arabidopsis thaliana knock-out plants Prakash Bhagudas Andrew Lellis, Laura Maybery, and Karen Browning Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Understanding primate spatial cognition: An analysis of mantled howler monkey (Alouatta palliata) travel paths Misha Blizard Mariah Hopkins and Kelsey Ellis School of Biological Sciences; Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama cns sUmmer UndergradUate research Fellowship Designing primary sequences for nucleic acid scaffolds, sensors, and circuits Benjamin Braun Xi Chen, Peter Allen, Zach Simpson, and Andrew Ellington Department of Computer Science; Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology cns sUmmer UndergradUate research Fellowship

Cascade amplification of enzyme-free DNA circuits in detection of in-vitro DNA and mRNA in C. elegans Neima Briggs Xi Chen, John Pierce-Shimomura, and Andrew Ellington School of Biological Sciences; Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry cns sUmmer UndergradUate research Fellowship Measuring emission coordinates of pulsars for relativistic positioning system Darius Bunandar Richard Matzner Department of Physics cns sUmmer research abroad Fellowship Characterizing the hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide-gated nonselective cation channel current Mauro Caffarelli Kevin Dougherty and Daniel Johnston School of Biological Sciences; Center for Learning and Memory Autonomous traffic planning Dustin Carlino Leonardo Setyanto, Tri Nguyen, Piyush Khandelwal, Michael Quinlan, and Peter Stone Department of Computer Science; FRI Autonomous Vehicles Stream Extracellular nucleotides regulate stomatal aperture in Arabidopsis Andrew Cervantes Angela Liu, Devin Fraley, James Onyirimba, Jonathan Torres, Iris Steinebrunner, Greg Clark, and Stanley Roux School of Biological Sciences; Department of Biology, Technical University of Dresden Importance of human hedgehog palmitoylacyltransferase (HHAT) for autocrine and paracrine sonic hedgehog signaling in pancreatic cancer Leslie Chang Elissaveta Petrova and Marilyn Resh Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; Department of Pharmacology, Department of Cell Biology, Weill Medical College, Cornell University; Cell Biology Program, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Improved training protocols with which to model two different types of alcohol-seeking behavior Roberto Cofresi Regina Mangieri and Rueben Gonzales Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; Institute for Neuroscience; College of Pharmacy SNPs in mouse mammary cancer cell lines and implications for metastasis Meredith Corley Scott Hunicke-Smith, Sarah Smith, and Andrew Ellington Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology; Department of Nutritional Sciences, School of Human Ecology Analysis of a conditional mutation in the C-terminus of Prp43p Christine Cucinotta Jennifer Hennigan and Scott Stevens School of Biological Sciences cns sUmmer UndergradUate research Fellowship RNA aptamer selection against EphA2 Ashley Dawson Bradley Hall, Gwen Stovall, and Andrew Ellington Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; FRI Aptamer Stream cns sUmmer UndergradUate research Fellowship 8

Neuroendocrine regulation of female dominance behavior Julia Ding Lauren OConnell and Hans Hofmann School of Biological Sciences UndergradUate research Fellowship 2010 RNA extraction of Thermosynechococcus elongatus BP-1 Kim Do Rebecca Knight and Jerry Brand School of Biological Sciences Behavioral effects of repeated spatial memory testing following TBI Amanda Dodson-Mooring and Courtney Lewis Deanna Adkins and Theresa Jones School of Biological Sciences; Department of Psychology, College of Liberal Arts Creating intelligent agents through shaping of coevolution Adam Dziuk Risto Miikkulainen Department of Computer Science cns sUmmer UndergradUate research Fellowship Creation of white dwarf photospheres in the laboratory Jennifer Ellis Ross Falcon, Gary Rochau, James Bailey, Michael Montgomery, Don Winget, Matthew Gomez, and Ramon Leeper Department of Physics; Department of Astronomy; Sandia National Laboratories Polyethylene glycol repair of crush-severed axons: Behavioral recovery and cellular mechanisms Jerry Fan Joshua Britt, Aleksej Zuzek, Christopher Spaeth, and George Bittner School of Biological Sciences Role of redox in translation initiation Hali Fechtmeyer Courtney Rose and Karen Browning School of Biological Sciences; Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; FRI Biobricks Stream cns sUmmer UndergradUate research Fellowship Effect of changing lipid composition on glucose transport Estefania Fernandez Breanna Vollmar and Tamir Gonen Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; Department of Biochemistry, University of Washington Identifying Atp10 as a possible accessory factor in the initiation of mitochondrial protein synthesis Shea Finch, Ryan Milligan, and Dhruva Tangellamudi Anne Tibbetts and Dean Appling Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; School of Biological Sciences; FRI Mitochondrial Gene Expression Stream cns sUmmer UndergradUate research Fellowship Visualizing hurricane storm surges Ruben Fitch Clint Dawson and Chandra Bajaj Department of Aerospace and Engineering Mechanics, Cockrell School of Engineering

Molecular profiles and evolution of dopaminergic cells Miles Fontenot Lauren OConnell and Hans Hofmann School of Biological Sciences; Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology UndergradUate research Fellowship 2009 The essential role of transcription factor RFX2 in ciliogenesis Sami Friedrich Mei-I Chung, Sarah LeBoeuf, and John Wallingford School of Biological Sciences The Hobby Eberly Telescope Dark Energy eXperiment fiber optic testing system Lindsay Fuller Jeremy Murphy Department of Astronomy The diabetic divide: Do college-level students understand the major differences between type 1 vs. type 2 diabetes? Sujata Ghosh, Oscar Ayala, Kelly Bahng, Claire Conroy, Gilpreet Kooner, Fan Feng, Jurhee Freese, Sameer Prakesh, Laila Ydazani, Justin Gonzalez, and Logan Connor Mary Steinhardt Dept of Biomedical Engineering; School of Biological Sciences; Dept of Nutritional Sciences; McCombs School of Business; College of Pharmacy; Dept of Kinesiology and Health Education Identifying factors involved in yeast mitochondrial protein synthesisLpe10p Paul Gonzales Mitzi Aguilar, Anne Tibbetts and Dean Appling Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; School of Biological Sciences cns sUmmer UndergradUate research Fellowship Education policy: A tool to reduce inequality Neeraj Goyal Matthew Hersh Department of Mathematics; Division of Statistics and Scientific Computation Mutation of eIF4E and eIFiso4E Cecilia Hall Courtney Rose and Karen Browning Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; FRI Biobricks Stream Hemolymph hormone levels in Carcinus maenus: A shore crabs response to aggression Rachel Hartnett Jim Wilson, Colby Tanner, Michelle Giltrap, and Deana Erdner School of Biological Sciences; Department of Zoology, Trinity College Dublin cns sUmmer research abroad Fellowship Gait switching in C. elegans Parkinson model Jennifer Hatcher Layla Young, Andres Vidal, Josh Russell, Scott Davis, and Jon Pierce-Shimomura Department of Psychology, College of Liberal Arts; School of Biological Sciences; Waggoner Center for Alcohol and Addiction Research

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Vibrational probe labeling of the Ras protein-protein binding interface Ellen Hayes David Walker and Lauren Webb Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Functional characterization of the TTG2 gene, a key regulator of plant pigment production, and the implications for biotechnology Austin Hembd Antonio Gonzalez and Alan Lloyd School of Biological Sciences UndergradUate research Fellowship 2009, cns sUmmer UndergradUate research Fellowship Pattern-based discrimination of organic acids and red wine varietals using arrays of synthetic receptors Jae Seok Heo, Anna Zhang, and Jennifer Xiao Lauren Gallagher, Matthew Lopez, Brenton Ray, Sunanda Dharmarajan, Alona Umali, and Eric Anslyn Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; Department of Psychology, College of Liberal Arts; FRI Supramolecular Sensors Stream cns sUmmer UndergradUate research Fellowship Development of a rational drug design process: Trends in binding affinity of increasingly basic heterocycles to the major mouse urinary protein (MUP-I) Ming-Chyi (Jennifer) Hsieh, Saundra Nguyen, and Shivani Patel Kristen Procko and Stephen Martin School of Biological Sciences; Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry cns sUmmer UndergradUate research Fellowship Examining the growth of transgenic Arabidopsis seedlings with different levels of apyrase in various phosphate concentrations Mamie Huang Daria Mckelvey, Marissa Vara, Greg Clark, Wu Jian and Stanley Roux School of Biological Sciences; School of Geosciences Repair from a chair: Computer repair as an untrusted cloud service Lon Ingram Ivaylo Popov, Srinath Setty, and Michael Walfish Department of Computer Science; Laboratory for Advanced Systems Research The effects of NPA and apyrase inhibitors on the growth rate of Arabidopsis root hair in low and high phosphate conditions Rebecca Izen Emma Tran, Greg Clark, and Stanley Roux School of Biological Sciences cns sUmmer UndergradUate research Fellowship Undisturbed soils? A geoarchaeological analysis at site 41-NU-54 in the Lower Nueces River Valley, South Texas Rebecca Izen Robert Drolet, Sheldon Landsberger, Robert Dull, and Maraigh Leitch School of Biological Sciences; Dept of Mechanical Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering; Dept of Geography and the Environment, College of Liberal Arts; Dept of Anthropology, College of Liberal Arts, Texas A&M University Corpus Christi cns sUmmer UndergradUate research Fellowship Effects of mauveine on a-keratin of wool Tessa Jacocks Cynthia Jay Department of Textiles and Apparel, School of Human Ecology 11

Identification and characterization of novel factor Msc6 involved in yeast mitochondrial protein synthesis Melissa Jarmel Jane Shin, Anne Tibbetts, and Dean Appling Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry cns sUmmer UndergradUate research Fellowship Genetic variation in leaf anthocyanin concentration on a latitudinal gradient in 447 wild accessions of Arabidopsis thaliana Sara Jeanes C. Randal Linder School of Biological Sciences Endocrine disruptors alter male sexual behavior Justin Jefferson Bailey Kermath, Lindsay Thompson, Fay Guarraci, Juan Dominguez, and Andrea Gore School of Biological Sciences; Institute for Neuroscience; Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology; College of Pharmacy; Department of Psychology, College of Liberal Arts; Department of Psychology, Southwestern University Rational drug design applied to SBT and MUP Sarah Jin and Andrew Pansick Kristen Procko and Stephen Martin Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; FRI Synthesis and Biological Recognition Stream cns sUmmer UndergradUate research Fellowship Viruses and their interference in immune function Collin Johnson School of Biological Sciences Scp1: A human Small C-terminal Gene Kimberly Jones Kathryn Pendleton, Clifford Ho, Leighanna Garcia, Adam Nguyen, Josh Beckham, and Jon Robertus Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; FRI Virtual Drug Screening Stream cns sUmmer UndergradUate research Fellowship Neuronal growth mediated by the small molecule natural product clovanemagnolol Danby Kang Zin Khaing, Drew Camelio, Dionicio Siegel, and Christine Schmidt Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; Department of Biomedical Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering Thermal adaptation of bacteriophage ST-1 Nina Kavarthapu, Monica Ramirez, and Maitreyee Nigalye Rick Heineman and Jim Bull School of Biological Sciences; FRI Viral Evolution Stream cns sUmmer UndergradUate research Fellowship Effect of sodium borohydride concentration on p-nitrophenol reduction by dendrimer-encapsulated nanoparticles Emily Keller and Claire Molof Katherine Marvin, Stacia Rodenbusch, David Vaden Bout, and Keith Stevenson Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; FRI Nanomaterials for Chemical Catalysis Stream cns sUmmer UndergradUate research Fellowship

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Genetic analyses of primary septum formation during yeast cytokinesis Nadia Khan Ryuichi Nishihama and John Pringle School of Biological Sciences; Department of Genetics, Stanford University Experimental mode amplitude modeling in pulsating white dwarfs Nicholas Kinnaird Michael Montgomery and Don Winget Department of Astronomy; FRI Exploring the Universe with White Dwarf Stars Stream cns sUmmer UndergradUate research Fellowship Temporal and spatial alterations in mutant swarm size of St. Louis encephalitis virus in mosquito hosts Evan Koch Claus Wilke and Alexander Ciota School of Biological Sciences; Center for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics cns sUmmer UndergradUate research Fellowship Using RNAi to study genes implicated in mammalian RNA processing Brian Lackey, Garrett Meeks, Katie Cude, Kendall Gardner, and Priya Prakash Albert MacKrell and Scott Stevens School of Biological Sciences; Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; FRI Vertebrate Interactome Mapping Stream cns sUmmer UndergradUate research Fellowship Synthesizing Arabidopsis thaliana genes: AT3G07400 and AT1G09320 Erica Lay, Fang Ho, Kevin Tran, and James Yu Grace Choy and Karen Browning School of Biological Sciences; Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; FRI Biobricks Stream RNA aptamer selection against dengue virus envelope protein for inhibition of viral and host membrane fusion Michael Ledbetter Brad Hall, Gwen Stovall, and Andrew Ellington School of Biological Sciences; Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; FRI Aptamer Stream The creation of Arabidospis thaliana plants with non-functioning genes 4E2 and 4E3 James Leidner Laura Mayberry, Grace Choy, and Karen Browning School of Biological Sciences; Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; FRI Biobricks Stream cns sUmmer UndergradUate research Fellowship Thin film deposition of magnetic material via electron beam evaporation John Lesicko John Markert, Rosa Cardenas, Isaac Manzanera, Mark Monti, Jeremy Paster, Shirin Mozaffari, and Raheem Bello Department of Physics cns sUmmer UndergradUate research Fellowship Geometry and electronic structure of a sexithiophene derivative Drew Lewis Peter Rossky and Bradley Holliday Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry cns sUmmer UndergradUate research Fellowship

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RNA aptamer selections against BMA_1027, putative surface protein on Burkholderia mallei Katherine Li Brad Hall, Holli Duhon, Kate McCaul, Katherine Brown, and Andrew Ellington School of Biological Sciences; Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; FRI Aptamer Stream Genetic analysis of Expansin 10 and Expansin 10P to epidermal cell fate regulation in Arabidopsis thaliana Edward Lie Tony Gonzalez and Alan Lloyd School of Biological Sciences; FRI Cell Fate Regulation Stream cns sUmmer UndergradUate research Fellowship Synapses in the motor cortex of fragile X mental retardation gene (Fmr1) knockout mice Ashley Liou Parbhat Garg, John Mendenhall, Yi Zuo, Andrea Gore, and Weiling Yin Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; Institute for Neuroscience; Division of Pharmacology and Toxicology, College of Pharmacy; Department of Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology, University of California Santa Cruz Virtual screening identifies novel inhibitor scaffolds of Homo sapiens carbonic anhydrase VII Damir Ljuboja Adam Nguyen, Thao Pham, Josh Beckham, and Jon Robertus School of Biological Sciences; FRI Virtual Drug Screening Stream cns sUmmer UndergradUate research Fellowship The bulb vacuum system (BVS) - negative pressure therapy for healing acute and chronic wounds in underdeveloped areas Damir Ljuboja School of Biological Sciences cns sUmmer UndergradUate research Fellowship Expressing single-chain antibodies in probiotic L. casei to reduce milk-borne HIV transmission Michael Loesche Shelley Payne and Hannah Marman School of Biological Sciences Short inverted repeats are hot spots for genetic instability in mammalian cells Steve Lu Guliang Wang and Karen Vasquez Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; School of Biological Sciences; Division of Pharmacology and Toxicology, College of Pharmacy; Department of Carcinogenesis, University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center UndergradUate research Fellowship 2010 Analyzing the regulatory roles of protein MET18 in Saccharomyces cerevisea DNA damage repair Katherine Luethcke Patrick Killion and Vishy Iyer School of Biological Sciences; FRI Functional Genomics Research Stream cns sUmmer UndergradUate research Fellowship Dynamical imaging experiments on liquids using nuclear magnetic resonance force microscopy Francisco Marquez Rosa Elia Cardenas, Mark Monti, and John Markert Department of Physics; FRI Electronic and Magnetic Materials Research Stream

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Global coordinate systems: Continuously moving Parseval frames on manifolds Eileen Martin Ryan Hotovy, Daniel Freeman, and David Larson Department of Mathematics; REU in Matrix Analysis and Wavelets, Department of Mathematics, Texas A&M University Neuropeptide regulation of paternal care in a monogamous cichlid fish Bryan Matthews Lauren OConnell and Hans Hofmann School of Biological Sciences UndergradUate research Fellowship 2010 Transformation of tomatoes with apyrase and annexin genes Daria McKelvey Noel Wat, Michael Wu, Greg Clark, Jean Gould, and Stanley Roux School of Biological Sciences; Department of Horticultural Sciences, Texas A&M University The effects of plaque size and number of phages in a plaque on the efficiency of plating of T7+ and T7choosy on IJ1142 Escherichia coli cells Heather Menzie Richard Heineman and James Bull School of Biological Sciences; FRI Viral Evolution Stream cns sUmmer UndergradUate research Fellowship Determination of the active site structure in the NS1A effector domain Christopher Miller Nandini Chari, Josh Beckham, and Jon Robertus Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry cns sUmmer UndergradUate research Fellowship Two planets orbiting the eclipsing binary NN Ser George Miller Klaus Beuermann, Frederic Hessman, Tom Marsh, Steven Parsons, James Hermes, and Don Winget Department of Astronomy; McDonald Observatory Responses to social challenge and opportunity depend on sensory modality Maggie Mitchell Lauren OConnell, Daniel Dykstra, and Hans Hofmann School of Biological Sciences UndergradUate research Fellowship 2009 Consideration of geometry in neural network application to Go Michael Mitchell Vinod Valsalam Department of Computer Science; FRI Computational Intelligence in Game Design Stream cns sUmmer UndergradUate research Fellowship Expression of the ttg2-3 mutation in Arabidopsis Joshua Moore Antonio Gonzales and Alan Lloyd School of Biological Sciences; FRI Epidermal Cell Fates and Pathways Stream cns sUmmer UndergradUate research Fellowship

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Use of site-directed mutagenesis to investigate the crystallization dilemma of C. albicans methionine synthase Shirin Mortazavi Devinder Ubhi and Jon Robertus Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Vibrational Stark effect measurements at the binding interface between mutants of Rap1A and RalGDS Robert Newberry Christina Ragain and Lauren Webb Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Seasonal variation in the phenolic secondary metabolites of Zostera noltii from the Bay of Cdiz Robert Newberry Emily Tollefson, Mara Jess Ortega, Eva Zuba, and Joanne Romagni-Colvin Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; Department of Chemistry, Pacific Lutheran University; Department of Organic Chemistry, University of Cdiz, Spain; Office of Sponsored Research, Bucknell University Engineering avidity effects in aptamers Wayne Ng Michelle Byrom, Arti Pothukuchy, and Andrew Ellington Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; Institute of Cellular and Molecular Biology Hh signaling pathway role in morphogenesis Van Nguyen Johann Eberhart School of Biological Sciences Energy exchange between filament forming laser beams in air David Nicholson Aaron Bernstein, Todd Ditmire, Gillis Dyer, Jennifer Ellis, and Lindsay Fuller Department of Physics Mothers and fathers attachment representations as predictors of their responses to their infants distress Sandra Noonan Leslie Frankel and Nancy Hazen Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, School of Human Ecology Carbonic anhydrase inhibition from virtual screening discoveries Zoe OConnor and Bryan Han DaMarcus Baymon, Clifford Ho, Adam Nguyen, Kathryn Pendleton, Josh Beckham, and Jon Robertus School of Biological Sciences; Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; FRI Virtual Drug Screening Stream In vitro selection of RNA aptamer against Hcp1; a major virulence factor in Burkholderia pseudomallei John Ostrominski Bradley Hall, Katherine Brown, Omar Qazi, and Andrew Ellington School of Biological Sciences; Institute of Cellular and Molecular Biology; FRI Aptamer Stream cns sUmmer UndergradUate research Fellowship The effects of serum on the corrosion properties of titanium Kathryn Pendleton Francesco Contu and Ray Taylor Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; University Texas Health Science Center, Houston Dental Branch

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Finding inhibitors specific to carbonic anhydrase VII using virtual screening Thao Pham Clifford Ho, Adam Nguyen, Kathryn Pendleton, Josh Beckham, and Jon Robertus Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; FRI Virtual Drug Screening Stream Potential role of ectoapyrases in gravitropic responses of primary roots and etiolated hypocotyls in Arabidopsis thaliana Trieu Pham Alex Chung, Mamie Huang, Jayson Tomy, Nathan Miller, Wu Jian, Greg Clark, and Stanley Roux School of Biological Sciences; Department of Molecular Cell and Developmental Biology, University of Wisconsin-Madison UndergradUate research Fellowship 2010 Protein aggregation optimization: An algorithmic approach Brandon Plost Department of Computer Science Speeding up multiple point geostatistics Brandon Plost Department of Computer Science; Schlumberger Information Solutions, Oslo, Norway; Schlumberger Information Solutions, Houston, Texas Evolution of a virus with error-prone DNA polymerase Megan Price Richard Heineman and James Bull School of Biological Sciences; FRI Viral Evolution Stream cns sUmmer UndergradUate research Fellowship Differential sensing of Cabernet Sauvignon at different stages of maturation Duan Quach and Ahmed Hussain Ruth Shear, Alona Umali, and Eric Anslyn Department of Management, McCombs School of Business; Department of Nutritional Sciences, School of Human Ecology; Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; FRI Supramolecular Sensors Stream cns sUmmer UndergradUate research Fellowship The transcriptomics of the stress response in Saccharomyces sensu stricto Hilary Rabago and Najwa Majida Patrick Killion, Michael Luo, Anna Tseng, Katie Luethcke, and Vishy Iyer Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, School of Human Ecology; School of Biological Sciences; FRI Functional Genomics Research Stream cns sUmmer UndergradUate research Fellowship Investigation of the potential role of wall associated kinase receptors in plant extracellular nucleotide signaling Vibhuti Rana Greg Clark, Bruce Kohorn, and Stanley Roux School of Biological Sciences; Department of Biochemistry, Bowdoin College Texas newborn screening program research study to detect severe combined immunodeficiency Lauren Rego Brad Rolf, Rachel Lee, and Leanne Field Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; School of Biological Sciences; Texas Department of State Health Services, Newborn DNA Analysis Group

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RNA aptamer selection against fluorescent proteins for signaling diagnostics Alec Rezigh Bradley Hall, Andrew Ellington, Gwen Stovall, Austin Rezigh, Milan Stojanovich, and Vladislav Verkhusha School of Biological Sciences, FRI Aptamer Stream cns sUmmer UndergradUate research Fellowship Molecular mechanisms of charge translocation by mitochondrial and bacterial respiratory oxidases Tara Saad Alexander Konstantinov, Tatiana Vygodina, Anastasia Kalinovich, and Natalia Atsarkina Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; Lomonosov Moscow State University cns sUmmer research abroad Fellowship Genetic analysis of the relationship between phosphoinositide-specific Phospholipase C Gene and TTG2 in epidermal cell fates of Arabidopsis thaliana Ashley Saenz Antonio Gonzalez and Alan Lloyd School of Biological Sciences; FRI Cell Fate Regulation Stream cns sUmmer UndergradUate research Fellowship The effects of an NMDA receptor antagonist in the hypothalamus on the estrus cycle of acyclic female rats Ahmar Sajjad Penny Riha and Andrea Gore Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; Division of Pharmacology and Toxicology, College of Pharmacy Finding a novel inhibitor for PTP1B Radhika Sakalkale and Candace Whaley Adam Nguyen, Kathryn Pendleton, Clifford Ho, Josh Beckham, and Jon Robertus Department of Spanish and Portuguese, College of Liberal Arts; School of Biological Sciences; Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; FRI Virtual Drug Screening Stream cns sUmmer UndergradUate research Fellowship Horizontal gene transfer and subsequent adaptations in T7lysin Brandi Sauer Richard Heineman and James Bull School of Biological Sciences; FRI Viral Evolution Research Stream cns sUmmer UndergradUate research Fellowship Visual learning in OpenNERO Peter Scamman Vinod Valsalam, Igor Karpov, and Risto Miikkulainen Department of Computer Science cns sUmmer UndergradUate research Fellowship Synthesis of cell surface saccharides of T. cruzi & Leishmania parasites Alex Schuppe Andrew Pardo, Roger Ashmus, Jamal Khamsi, Erika Monroy, Nathaniel Schocker, and Katja Michael Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; Department of Biochemistry, University of Texas at El Paso Targeting the RNA binding protein Musashi1 for therapy in tumors of neural origin Aaron Seo Christien Kluwe, Luiz Penalva, and Andrew Ellington School of Biological Sciences; Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology; Greehey Childrens Cancer Research Institute, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio UndergradUate research Fellowship 2009 18

Characterizing the expression pattern of the Arabidopsis TFVAC gene by promoter:reporter analysis Justin Shank Tony Gonzalez and Alan Lloyd School of Biological Sciences; FRI Cell Fate Regulation Stream cns sUmmer UndergradUate research Fellowship Identifying the Cox24 protein as a factor involved in mitochondrial protein synthesis Jane Shin Anne Tibbetts and Dean Appling School of Biological Sciences; Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; FRI Mitochondrial Gene Expression Stream cns sUmmer UndergradUate research Fellowship Obesity-induced activation of the androgen receptor Faryal Siddiqui Ramona Salcedo Price and Linda deGraffenried Department of Nutritional Sciences, School of Human Ecology Controlling cell fate: Differentiation of progenitor cells to dopaminergic neurons Karli Silverberg Zin Khaing and Sydney Geissler School of Biological Sciences; Department of Biomedical Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering Unimodality and the Alexander polynomial Sean Simmons Cameron Gordon Department of Mathematics Potential role for ethylene and auxin in extracellular nucleotide signaling in Arabidopsis root hairs Anusha Sivakumar Chris Ramirez, Megan Sanford, Greg Clark, and Stanley Roux School of Biological Sciences cns sUmmer UndergradUate research Fellowship Double-Peaked Narrow Emission Lines in AGN: Jets, Spins, or Twins? Krista Smith Sarah Salviander and Gregory Shields Astronomy Department, UT Austin Transparent testa glabra2 (ttg2) enhancer/suppressor screen identifies novel trichome mutants in Arabidopsis thaliana Tyler Smith Tony Gonzalez and Alan Lloyd School of Biological Sciences; FRI Cell Fate Regulation Stream UndergradUate research Fellowship 2009 Evolution of a recalcitrant strain of the ST-1 bacteriophage Preston Stolte Richard Heineman and James Bull School of Biological Sciences; FRI Viral Evolution Stream cns sUmmer UndergradUate research Fellowship Electric field oscillations in the linearized Vlasov-Poisson system Zachary Stone Philip Morrison Department of Physics 19

GUS reporter gene reveals the effects of natural variation in AREB1 promoter on gene activation Emeline Sukamtoh David Des Marais and Thomas Juenger School of Biological Sciences Calculation of enthalpies of formation via isodesmic and hypohomodesmotic reaction schemes Daniel Tabor Michael Harding and John Stanton Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Assessing the function and expression pattern of gene AT5G1200 in Arabidopsis thaliana Aimi Tanada Antonio Gonzalez and Alan Lloyd School of Biological Sciences; FRI Cell Fate Regulation Stream Genetic network underlying temperature-sensitive sex determination in the red-eared slider turtle (Trachemys scripta) is altered by exogenous sex steroid hormones or steroid hormone antagonists Caitlin Taylor Yuiko Matsumoto and David Crews School of Biological Sciences My research abroad experience: the regulation of Bartonella henselae pathogenicity factors Kelsey Temprine Maxime Quebatte and Christoph Dehio School of Biological Sciences; Biozentrum, University of Basel, Switzerland cns sUmmer research abroad Fellowship Automatic identification of key transitions in biofilm formation Travis Thatcher Benjamin Cooley and Vernita Gordon Department of Physics; Center for Nonlinear Dynamics Evolution and adaption of T717 bacteriophage Kevin Tien and Kim Brown Eric Miller, Rick Heineman, and James Bull Freshman Research Initiative, Viral Evolution Stream cns sUmmer UndergradUate research Fellowship Approaches to discover new human disease models through Boolean relationships of orthologous phenotypes Matthew Tien Edward Marcotte and John Woods Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology An exploratory study of the use of fiber technologies in the analysis of historical artifacts: A conservation plan for the Gone with the Wind garments Elizabeth Timmins and Rachel Core Nicole Villarreal, Jill Morena, Kay Gerhardt Jay, and Bugao Xu Department of Textiles and Apparel, School of Human Ecology Comparison of IMAC and TiO2 affinity chromatography methods for phosphopeptide enrichment Jacqulyn Tolson Marvin Mercado and Maria Person School of Biological Sciences; Protein and Metabolite Analysis Facility, College of Pharmacy 20

Producing antibodies against eIF3 subunits Duy Tran Grace Choy and Karen Browning Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; FRI Biobrick Stream Modeling ethylene binding to metal nanoparticles with DFT for olefin/paraffin separation Kelly Tran Zachary Pozun and Graeme Henkelman Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Identifying factors that function with Cox24 protein in yeast mitochondrial protein synthesis Michelle Truong Anne Tibbetts and Dean Appling School of Biological Sciences; FRI Mitochondrial Gene Expression Stream cns sUmmer UndergradUate research Fellowship A functional genomic characterization of stress response transcription factors in Saccharomyces sensu stricto Anna Tseng and Michael Luo Patrick Killion and Vishy Iyer School of Biological Sciences; Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; FRI Functional Genomics Stream Synthesis and characterization of mono- and bi-metallic palladium, platinum, and gold dendrimerencapsulated nanoparticles Patrick Tynan and Thomas Haviland Emily Keller, Claire Molof, Stacia Rodenbusch, Katherine Marvin, and Keith Stevenson School of Biological Sciences; Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; FRI Nanomaterials for Chemical Catalysis Stream cns sUmmer UndergradUate research Fellowship Investigating the role of Hip1r phosphorylation in clathrin-mediated endocytosis in Dictyostelium discoideum Dragoslava Vekilov and Fadi Al-Asadi Thomas Sosa and Theresa OHalloran School of Biological Sciences Obesity promotes melanoma metastasis by modulating Snai1 and KiSS1 expression Akanksha Verma and Randy Chu Kyoko Kushiro and Nomeli Nunez School of Biological Sciences; Department of Nutritional Sciences, School of Human Ecology cns sUmmer UndergradUate research Fellowship Acyl radical insertion of pterin Chen Wang Eric Anslyn and Jeff Pruet University of Texas Defining the role of NF-kB as a target for Omega-3 fatty acids in prostate cancer Kaitlin Whelan David Cavazos and Linda deGraffenried Department of Nutritional Sciences, School of Human Ecology; Dell Pediatric Research Institute

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Evolving communication using neural networks Jason Wolfe Vinod Valsalam and Risto Miikulainen Department of Computer Science; FRI Computational Intelligence in Game Design Stream cns sUmmer UndergradUate research Fellowship Carbonic anhydrase VII as an epilepsy target using virtual screening Yiling Wu Adam Nguyen, Clifford Ho, Katherine Pendleton, Josh Beckham, and Jon Robertus School of Biological Sciences; Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; FRI Virtual Drug Screening Stream cns sUmmer UndergradUate research Fellowship Effects of electrical stimulation on Schwann cell migration on polypyrrole substrates Jose Ybarra Matthew Lopez, Leandro Forciniti, and Dr. Christine Schmidt Cockrell School of Engineering

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Our research fellows in the College of Natural Sciences are supported by the following:
Beckman Scholars http://rshear.cm.utexas.edu/beckman/ NSF-REU Fellowships: NSF Center for Chemical Innovation (CCI): Molecular Tools for Conjugated Polymer Analysis and Optimization Population Research Center http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/prc/training-and-fellowships/undergraduate.php Environmental Sciences Institute http://www.esi.utexas.edu/research/reu/ Ecology, Genetics and Genomics Switchgrass REUs http://keittlab.biosci.utexas.edu/node/212 Cellular and Molecular Biology Summer Research Program http://www.icmb.utexas.edu/cmb/programs/ Undergraduate Research Fellowships www.utexas.edu/research/undergrad/index.html Semiconductor Research Corporation Undergraduate Research Opportunity Fellowships http://www.src.org/program/srcea/uro/ Howard Hughes Medical Institute www.hhmi.org Schlumberger Undergraduate Research Fellowships www.slb.com LSAMP Fellowships www.utep.edu/amp/ FRI Summer Fellowships cns.utexas.edu/fri FRI is supported by HHMI and NSF

For more information, visit the fellowship websites or contact: Sarah Simmons Office for Honors, Research and International Studies 232-9358 PAI 3.04 cns.utexas.edu/ohris

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Acknowledgements

Thank you to our Research Award & Summer Fellowship Sponsors

3M Bazaarvoice Carolyn Easter Life Technologies Microsoft Schlumberger Signature Science, LLC Yahoo!
Thanks to Our Evaluators

21st Century Technologies, Inc. 3M Austin Energy Regional Science Festival Bazaarvoice BuildASign.com CA Technologies Carolyn Easter ConocoPhillips Dresser Wayne Gemalto, Inc. Hewlett-Packard HomeAway Life Technologies Marjorie Morales Microsoft Polycom, Inc. Schlumberger Signature Science, LLC Terapio Corporation Texas Commission on Environmental Quality T3 (The Think Tank) United Space Alliance Yahoo! Thanks to the University Co-op for their support