Fralin Life Science Institute

Fralin Life Science Institute's Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows

The Fralin Center offers the Wilkins-Fralin Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships, or SURFs, during the summer. These fellowships support rising Virginia Tech sophomores, juniors and seniors to pursue life sciences research full-time during the summer, and high achieving life sciences majors are invited each spring to participate. Generally, six to twenty fellowships are awarded. Wilkins-Fralin fellows are mentored by a Virginia Tech professor in the life sciences.

Students are totally immersed in a project for ten weeks during the summer and presents the results to their peers and mentors at the end of the summer. Some past fellows have come away from the experience, not only with a better appreciation of what it is like to be a research scientist, but also with one or more publications in peer reviewed journals

Applicants must identify a faculty sponsor with whom they intend to work, and student and sponsor prepare the application together. Twelve fellowships of $3300 are awarded, and awardees are expected to work full-time (40 hours per week) for 10 weeks over the summer.

For the summer of 2008, 12 Fralin SURFs were selected from a pool of 26 applicants in the areas of Cell and Developmental Biology, Molecular Plant Sciences, Microbiology and Infectious Disease, and Vector Borne Diseases. The Obesity and Nutrition group gave out their fellowships separately during the academic year. The applications were reviewed by two faculty members each and were scored in a process much like an NIH F31/F32 review.

Several SURF students have been co-authors on peer-reviewed scientific publications or symposium abstracts .

1. Isaac Nardi worked in collaboration with William Silkworth, a graduate student in the Daniela Cimini lab. An abstract summarizing their results has been submitted for presentation at the next American Society for Cell Biology
   annual meeting, to be held in San Francisco, CA, December 13-17.
   • Mulitpolar Spindle Assembly as a Cause of Kenetochore Mis-Attachment and Chromosome Mis-Segregation in Colorectal Cancer Cells, W.T. Silkworth, I.K. Nardi, L.M. Scholl, and D. Cimini
2. Omotara Ogundeyi who was mentored in the Sharakhov lab presented a poster at the Virginia Tech Dean’s Forum on Infectious Diseases September 28-29, 2008.
   • Role of Chromosomal Inversions in Desiccation Resistant Malaria Mosquitoes, Omotara Ogundeyi, Maria Sharakhova, Donald Mullins, Igor Sharakhov.
3. Andrew Lucas is co-author on a peer-reviewed research article published in the August 2008 Molecular and Cellular Biology journal.
   • A Novel Heme-Regulatory Motif Mediates Heme-Dependent Degradation of the Circadian Factor Period 2

2008 Fralin Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows

Rachel A. Fee
Biological Sciences, Class of 2009
Molecular Plant Sciences
Functional analysis of effector proteins from the downy mildew pathogen Hyaloperonospora parasitica
Mentor: Dr. John McDowell, Plant Pathology, Physiology and Weed Science

Christine Frasca
Biological Sciences and Geosciences, Class of 2010
Cell and Developmental Biology Natural cancer inhibitors
Mentor: Dr. Jill Sible, Biological Sciences

Alexander J. Funk
Environmental Science, Class of 2009
Vector Borne Diseases
A population level survey of trematode parasitism in stream dwelling salamanders in the southern Appalachians
Mentors: Drs. Lisa Belden and Fred Benfield, Biological Sciences

Andrew Lucas
Biological Sciences and Chemistry, Class of 2009
Cell and Developmental Biology
Molecular basis for heme association to the human circadian protein PERIOD 2
Mentor: Dr. Carla Finkelstein, Biological Sciences

Li Ma
Biochemistry, Class of 2009
Vector Borne Diseases
The effect of Sindbis virus non-structural genes on the cell cycle of Xenopus embryos
Mentor: Dr. Kevin Myles, Entomology

James J. Meade III
Biochemistry, Class of 2009
Molecular Plant Sciences
MYB transcription factors controlling wood formation in Populus
Mentor: Dr. Amy Brunner, Forestry

Megan E. Moore
Biological Sciences, Class of 2008
Microbiology and Infectious Diseases
Evolution of host specificity in the bacterial plant pathogen Pseudomonas syringae
Mentor: Dr. Boris Vinatzer, Plant Pathology, Physiology, and Weed Science

Isaac K. Nardi
Biological Sciences, Class of 2010
Cell and Developmental Biology
Live-cell analysis of colorectal cancer cells
Mentor: Dr. Daniela Cimini, Biological Sciences

Omotara A. Ogundeyi
Biological Sciences, Class of 2009
Vector Borne Diseases
Ecological genomics of malaria mosquitoes
Mentor: Dr. Igor Sharakhov, Entomology

Nora Sherry
Biological Sciences, Class of 2010
Microbiology and Infectious Diseases
Phenotypic analysis of Bacillus anthracis sores lacking multiple lytic enzymes
Mentor: Dr. David Popham, Biological Sciences

Heather A. Tydings
Biological Sciences, Class of 2009
Microbiology and Infectious Diseases
The effect of native spinach epiphytic microorganisms on the growth of E. coli
O157:H7
Mentor: Dr. Monica Ponder, Food Science and Technology

John D. Welsh
Biological Sciences, Class of 2009
Cell and Developmental Biology
The PID domain drives Disabled-2 localization through novel ligand interactions
Mentor: Dr. Carla Finkelstein, Biological Sciences