糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock STEM Students Present Research at Arkansas State Capitol
Six 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock undergraduate students presented their research at the Arkansas State Capitol on Feb. 8.
The program, 鈥淧osters at the Capitol,鈥� ran from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., and the 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock students presented during the second block from Noon to 1:15 p.m.
Armin Mortazi, who studies Biology and Chemistry, was one of the six presenters. Mortazi鈥檚 team under Dr. Noureen Siraj developed research on an approach to combat multidrug-resistant bacteria that infect millions of people worldwide.
They used an ionic exchange method to synthesize an antibiotic and a dye. Dye absorbs heat, and when combined with the antibiotic, it creates a kind of combination therapy that showed promising results in their initial trials.
Mortazi presented this research at the capitol, where attendees included Representative Andrew Collins from his own home district, district 73. This event provided the students with an opportunity to expose and shine a light on their research.
鈥淥ur research has real-world implications, and I felt it was important to share it with someone who could take action to support it,鈥� Mortazi said. 鈥淚t was inspiring to see how much support and investment there is in scientific research and innovation, and it emphasized the importance of continued funding and resources.鈥�
This was several students鈥� first experience presenting research of this magnitude, including chemistry student Shiraz Atif. For his project, Atif researched ways to eliminate the textile industry鈥檚 contribution to water pollution. He used carbonized waste cigarette filters鈥� the largest pollutant globally鈥� to remove the pollutant dye in the water, presenting a low-cost adsorbent that could alleviate water pollution and cigarette waste in the environment at the same time.
鈥淚 definitely had some hiccups, but after a while it all became second nature,鈥� Atif said. 鈥淭his project has taught me a lot, the most important being that teamwork and being on the same page is crucial for major projects like this. If it were not for Dr. Siraj, the graduate students, and the other undergraduate students that work under her, this project would still be in the planning phase.鈥�
Research requires a lot of patience, and that鈥檚 something that these students had to learn when working on their respective projects. For Cecile Barnes, who is studying medical sciences, the research process was slow, but worth it in the end. In summer 2022, Barnes worked as an undergraduate student at University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (糖心Vlog传媒MS) in the Biomedical Science building. Her mentor at the time, Dr. Eric Peterson, came up with the idea for her to research liver inflammation of rats exposed to methamphetamine and the drugs that could weaken the effects.
Barnes worked with pioglitazone (PIO), an anti-inflammatory that lessens the impact of METH-induced inflammation on the liver. The goal was to see a decrease in the rats鈥� inflammation through the help of PIO, and although Barnes was unable to develop conclusive results, the project is still ongoing in Dr. Peterson鈥檚 lab.
鈥淭here were times we believed it was going in the right direction just to have to turn around and trouble shoot more ideas to try,鈥� Barnes said. 鈥淢edicine has always been a passion of mine, so getting to research, even though it鈥檚 not the field I plan on being in, was fun and insightful. Having this experience made me realize I want to explore clinical research either during or after I become a doctor.鈥�
The presenters included:
- Shiraz Atif, Chemistry, 鈥淐arbonized Waste Cigarette Filters as Novel, Low-Cost Adsorbents of Methylene Blue Dye鈥�
- Cecile Barnes, Medical Sciences, 鈥淐haracterization of the effect of a PPAR-y Agonist on METH-induced inflammation in Rodent Hepatic Tissues鈥�
- Arisha Ishtiaq, Chemistry, 鈥淚nvestigation of the mechanism of enhanced photothermal effect of combination ionic nanomedicines鈥�
- Mikiya McAdory, Chemistry, 鈥淪tudies in hydridic reduction of alkynyl hydrazones via sigmatropic rearrangement to form allenes鈥�
- Armin Mortazi, Chemistry, 鈥淐ombination Therapy Approach to Combat Multi-Drug Resistant Bacteria鈥�
- Licheng Xu, Ilhamm Kadhim, Nazneen Begum, and William King, Biology, 鈥淯p-regulation of Osh6 prolongs the G2 phase of the cell cycle鈥�