MICRO-CCS student projects
Submissions from 2026
A Tale of Two Symbionts: Comparative Cellular Localization of Two Manipulative Rickettsiella Strains in a Spider, Kaitlyn Costanza, Thea Bliss, and Matthew Doremus
Has Plant Domestication Compromised Plant Defensive Chemistry? Aphid Induced Stress in Tomatoes, Nhi Do, Satinderpal Kaur, Minxing Zhu, and Esther N. Ngumbi
Birds of a Tether Flock Together: Examining Centromere Tethering and Chromosome Segregation in Caulobacter crescentus, Jake Dwyer, Simon Kruczak, Rodrigo Arana-Garrido, and Paola Mera
Fungal Diversity in Lespedeza cuneata roots, Gwendolyn Happ, Sophia McDade, and Anthony Yannarell
Screening a Random HilE Mutant Library to Characterize HilD Regulation in Salmonella, Danista Kannah, Gracious Donkor, and James M. Slauch
Efficacy and Evolutionary Dynamics of 222 nm Far-UVC Against Vibrio cholerae, Kadicha Madakimova, Angus Wu, and Nkrumah Grant
Investigation of Biological Denitrification Inhibition by Specific Anthocyanins, Kristin Palazzo, Holly Anderson, Aislinn Geedey, and Angela Kent
How Does High-Oil Sorghum Change Potential Extracellular Enzyme Activity Across Soil Depth Profiles Under Drought Conditions?, Krystal Monique Role, Rounak Patra, and Wendy Yang
Recovering Plasmid-ID Barcoded Strains of Sinorhizobium meliloti From a Native Soil Microbiome, Kenny Sacks, Hannah Murray, and Katy Heath
Effects of Varying pH Levels on Prophenoloxidase Activity and Hemocyte Recruitment in Daphnia dentifera, Yusra Siddiqi and Carla Caceres
Soil Microbiome Effect on Seedling Diseases and High Throughput isolate Identification, Annalaysia Smith, Mara Krone, and Santiago Mideros
Submissions from 2025
Mother Knows Best? Effects of Plant Flooding on Beet Armyworm Ecology., Salome Garcia Arteaga, Minxing Zhu, Satinderpal Kaur, and Esther N. Ngumbi
Germinating Lactuca sativa Seeds in Treated Hydrothermal Liquefaction Aqueos-Phase (HTL-AP), Jaden F. Chandler, Camila Bogarin, Liam Reynolds, Brandon Hollenback, and Paul C. Davidson
The Effects of Polyethylene and Polypropylene Microplastics on Daphnia dentifera, Scott Eaves, Molly Fredericks, and Carla Caceres
Characterizing the Regulatory Interaction Between FliZ and HilD in Salmonella, Kennedy K. Harris, Gracious Donkor, Matthew Georgiou, and James Slauch
Isolating and Characterizing novel Veillonella Phages and Phage-Resistant Mutants, Luke Huss, Anubhav Basu, and Carin K. Vanderpool
Detecting Honeybee eDNA with Artificial Flowers, Gabrielle Kiel, Luke Settles, and Adam Dolezal
Comparison of the Ventral Nerve Cords of Plectus sambesii and Caenorhabditis elegans, Samantha Lares, Ellie Conklin, and Nathan E. Schroeder
Does Phage Resistance Trade Off with Plant Symbiosis Rhizobia?, Cole Maxwell, Chase Schwarz, David Vereau Gorbitz, Hunter Cobbley, Andrew Buechler, Carin Vanderpool, and Katy Heath
Assessing nitrous oxide flux in denitrification-inhibiting maize, Emma McCullough, Sakshi Paudel, Holly Anderson, and Angela D. Kent
Visualizing and Analyzing the Growth of Dark Septate Fungi Within Plant Roots, Sophia McDade, Mac Johnson, Ilana Fay Zeitzer, and Anthony Yannarell
Investigating Maternal Inheritance of Serratia ureilytica in Squash Bugs Through its Detection in Eggs and Nymphs, Hazma Salem, Ivan Mina-Zavala, Kacie Athey, and Sarah Hind
Submissions from 2024
The effect of preservation methods on the viability of microbial symbionts within a periodical cicada (Magicicada sp.), Daniella Ballestas, Noah Brown, Sierra Raglin, Katie Dana, and Anthony Yannarell
Propolis and Honey: Examining Antiviral Mechanisms Against Israeli acute paralysis virus, J Dillenburg, Sam Mowery, and Adam Dolezal
Assessing the Stability of Food Safety Relevant Soil Samples: A Survival Study Across Sampling Methodologies, Ray Elementi, Erin Kealey, and Matthew Stasiewicz
In Vitro Phenotypes of Pythium Isolates are Correlated with Disease Symptoms in the Greenhouse, Kimberly Hagemann, Santiago Mideros, and Harrison Hall
The Impact of Long-Term Nitrogen Addition on Legume-Rhizobia Symbiosis, Hayden Harbison, Danyang Duan, and Angela Kent
Reduced Iron as an Indicator of Nitrous Oxide Production, Gabrielle Jackson, William Eddy III, and Wendy H. Yang
Assessing the Activity of Cellobiohydrolase in Xanthomonas Cucurbitae, Elias Klingbeil, Iris Lee, and Sarah Hind
Elucidation of Gene Regulation That Allow Salmonella enterica to Survive in Low Magnesium Condition s, Fiona Lindsay-Olivera, Brooke Burris, and James Slauch
Diversity of Squash Plant Floral Volatiles Mediating Beetle Attraction, Bow Politowicz and Esther Ngumbi
AI Models for Neuron Segmentation: A Comparative Study, Stella Wilcox, Ellie Conklin, and Nathan E. Schroeder
The Friendliest Bradyrhizobia - The Spectrum of Partner Quality Amongst Soybean's Symbiont, Adam Zwawi, Katy Heath, and Amanda Griffin
