Guilford Tri-Beta Chapter Honored at Symposium

Guilford College Beta Beta Beta Sigma Phi Chapter received the Yokely Award for 25 years of Outstanding Chapter Activity in Continuous Membership and Participation in the National Beta Beta Beta Honor Society. The award was presented at the Annual Association of Southeastern Biologists/ Beta Beta Beta Symposium in Spartanburg, S.C., co-hosted by Wofford College and Furman University on April 16-19.  

Ten biology and chemistry students presented research at the symposium, with several winning awards for presentation and research excellence. In addition, Marvin Morales ’08 was elected the Southeastern District I Secretary for Beta Beta Beta for 2008-2009.

Presenters for the symposium were:

• Mahlet Abera ’08: “Preliminary crystallization study for the interaction between the c-terminus of plexin B1 receptor and the PDZ domain of Leukemia Associated RhoGEF (LARG) to activate RhoA” (with the University of Michigan)

• Adam Bruehl ’08: “Comparative pollen morphology of the genus Symplocos” (with The California Academy of Sciences)

• Ashley Campbell ’08: “Development of a Microfluidic Method for Transcription Factor Assays” (with Xavier University)

• Ashley Davis ’08: “Level of LLO at the time of Listeria monocytogenes infection does not affect its escape from vacuoles in Dendritic Cells” (with Wake Forest University)

• Graham Hickey ’08: “Characterization of an understudied bacterium, Azotobacter zettuovi” (with Melanie J. Lee-Brown, assistant professor of biology)

• Michael D. Iglesia ’08: “Binding Interactions Elucidate Function in Yeast Transcription Factor Iws1” (Guilford College and Duke University) and “Computational molecular dynamics of vibrational energy flow from dichloroethane to haloalkane dehalogenase” (with Robert Whitnell, associate professor of chemistry)

• Annie Irving ’08: “Completing the Puzzle: Classifying Two Strains of Azotobacter salinestris through Genomic Comparison of Ribosomal DNA and Metabolic Profiles” (with Melanie J. Lee-Brown, assistant professor of biology)

• Marvin Morales ’08: “Breeding Biology of Swainson’s Warbler on a Bottomland Hardwood Forest of North Carolina” (with N.C. State University)

• Clinton Orebaugh ’08: “TREX1 mutations in autoimmune disease” (with Wake Forest University and Leeds Institute of Molecular Management)

• Shelby Schwartz ’08: “Wildlife displacement: The effects of human activities andstructures on wildlifemigration anddispersal is Mbirikani group ranch, near Amboseli, Kenya” (with the School for Field Studies)

• Elizabeth Tyson ’08: “Case Study of Local Biodiesel Co-operative: Processes and Lifecycle Carbon Budget”

April 16, 2008