Rutgers Camden MARC Fellow, John Crespo, was recognized by his former high school, LEAP, in the February Alumni Spotlight. In this profile, he discusses how the LEAP academy set him up for a career as a researcher and advancing into the MARC program at Rutgers Camden. Following graduation, he hopes to pursue a PhD to study cancer and pain.
Rutgers Camden undergraduate students, including two MARC fellows, were recognized by the campus press for their achievements at this annual ABRCMS conference!
We are proud to announce that three Rutgers Camden Biology Undergraduates were selected for poster prizes at this year’s Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS). With the conference transitioning to a virtual format, we had the opportunity to recruit more students to join us for the conference. This year, 13 students attended watch party events of the 4-day conference and took home 3 awards for their research poster presentations.
Julianna Jimenez, mentored by Kimberly Moran, received a best poster award in the “Developmental Biology and Genetics” category for her research project, “The Use of Barr Bodies to Determine Sex in Samples of Forensic Significance.”
John Crespo, mentored by Nathan Fried, received a best poster award in the “Neuroscience” category for his research project, “Pilot Study Reveals Reduced Sleep Increases Sensitivity to Chemical Nociception in Drosophila melanogaster.”
Malaika Mahmood, mentored by Victoria Abraira, received a best poster award in the “Neuroscience” category for her research project, “A Machine-Vision Approach for Automated Locomotor Recovery Evaluation at Millisecond Timescales.”
We are incredibly proud of our research-active Biology undergraduates and can not wait to see them launch into their research careers following graduation.
We are proud to have brought mentors, fellows, and their support systems together this week for our first-ever MARC Science Retreat where fellows received their very own lab coats. We spoke about the fellow’s research and brought families and friends on a tour of the research facilities. It was truly heartening to see such a strong dedicated support system. Our fellows can not be successful without you all!
During our inaugural MARC Bioinformatics boot camp, eight undergraduate researchers came together to devote a week of their summer research experience to scan the genome of SARS-CoV-2 , the virus that causes COVID-19. Through a collaboration with the Rutgers Office of Advanced Research Computing, MARC Fellows learned the bioinformatics tools necessary to explore genetic variations in the genome of SARS-CoV-2.
The group explored the hypotheses that greater spread of COVID would increase the rate of mutations and that the alpha and delta variants would share common mutations within the spike protein gene. We’re proud that they were able to learn the tools of the trade and explore these lines of research in such a short period of time. We also are excited how they apply these tools to their own lines of research on campus.
You can see their presentation slides and video on our Bioinformatics page!
We are incredibly proud to announce our third cohort for the RUC MARC Program! Learn more about them at our Fellows Page!
Sashoya Dougan will be working alongside Dr. Anthony Geneva.
D’Erica Boskie will be working alongside Dr. Xingyun Qi.
John Crespo will be working alongside Dr. Nathan Fried.
Teresa Osorio will be working alongside Dr. Marien Solesio.
We would also like to congratulate Drs. Anthony Geneva and Xingyun Qi for becoming new MARC Mentors. One-on-one mentorship from our MARC Mentors is critical for the success of our MARC Fellows. Thank you!
Congrats to our second MARC cohort’s success getting into research programs across the country for the summer of 2021! Again this year, our fellows had to navigate the challenges of COVID and remote research. We couldn’t be prouder of their success. In the MARC program, we mentor undergraduates through their applications to competitive summer research programs where they participate in a 10-week full-time summer research experience at a University of their choice. Below is where our second cohort is spending their summer.
Anthony Monte Carlo decided to buckle down here at Rutgers Camden to put the finishing touches on a COVID-related research project he has led with Dr. Jinglin Fu.
Julianna Jimenez was accepted into a competitive internship program at the Cape May Forensics Unit of the Prosecutor’s Office where she’s bridging a research collaboration between their group and Professor Moran’s research here at Rutgers Camden.
Sienna Casciato was accepted into the University of Pennsylvania’s Summer Undergraduate Internship Program where she’ll balance both professional research development and hands-on research.
Taqdees Gohar was accepted into the Summer Program at the Institute for Basic Biological Sciences at Johns Hopkins Medical School where she’ll expand on the neurological research she’s been pursuing as a MARC fellow.
Congrats to the inaugural MARC cohort’s graduation and acceptance into highly rated PhD programs and research positions! We couldn’t be prouder of their work here at Rutgers Camden and can’t wait to see what they discover during their next steps into the world of research! The MARC program’s primary goal is to prepare Rutgers Camden undergraduates to take on leading roles in research after they graduate and eventually land a position in a PhD program. To accomplish this, it takes dedication from the students, a supportive community of friends and family, and a mosaic of mentors. We thank each and every component for helping in their success. See where they’re going below:
Shariq Khan was accepted into the lab of Dr. James Shorter at the University of Pennsylvania where he’ll study how proteins fold in human diseases!
Anna Liang was accepted into the lab of Dr. Wei Tong at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia where she’ll study the molecular underpinnings of leukemias!
Harjit Kaira was accepted into a PhD program at Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Computational Biology in Baltimore, MD!
William Myers was accepted into a PhD program at University of Michigan’s Program in Biomedical Sciences in Ann Arbor, MI!
We would like to congratulate Harjit Khaira, graduating in 2022, on receiving an honorable mention for her NSF GRFP application entitled, “Characterizing genetic mechanisms involved in measuring day-length in Drosophila melanogaster”. We’re incredibly proud of her research work and her success in receiving an honorable mention in this incredibly competitive grant. Congrats, Harjit!
Are you interested in a research career? Would you like to be trained by the best research mentors in the Philadelphia area to prepare you for pursuing a PhD in the biomedical sciences? If so, apply now to be part of the next cohort of MARC Fellows!