Discovery Online

Three University of North Dakota undergraduates were recognized for their research accomplishments recently at the Ninth Annual American Indian Health Research Conference and North Dakota IDeA Network of Biomedical Research (INBRE) Annual Symposium for Undergraduate Research in Grand Forks.  All three were recognized with the “Alan J. Allery Undergraduate American Indian Health Researcher of Promise” award.  They were:

Bethany Davis, Turtle Mountain Chippewa, a senior biology major and psychology/deaf studies minor.  She was honored for her presentation titled “Alpha-1A Adrenergic Receptor Stimulation Improves Mood in Mice.”  Davis’ mentor is Van Doze, pharmacology, physiology and therapeutics.

Melissa Wheeler, Diné from the Navajo Nation, a senior psychology major.  She was honored for her presentation titled “Alcohol and Other Drug Use among Northern Plains Indians.”  Her research also was the focus of an “outstanding poster” presentation, awarded by Psychologists in Indian Country at the American Psychological Association conference in Washington, D.C.  Wheeler is mentored by Jacque Gray, Center for Rural Health.

Sarita Eastman, Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate, a senior psychology major, was recognized for her presentation titled “Spirituality as a Protective Factor in American Indian Mental Health.”  Eastman’s mentor is Jacque Gray.

Also at the conference, Paula Carter, Turtle Mountain Chippewa, a UND Ph.D. graduate in counseling psychology, was presented an Allery award for “Graduate Health Researcher,” and Patty Lambert, Spirit Lake, a master’s degree student in English, received the Allery “American Indian Graduate Health Researcher of Promise” award.  Both women worked as graduate students for the National Resource Center on Native American Aging.

Two UND undergraduates were recognized recently at the Seventh Annual Undergraduate Research in Molecular Sciences meeting at Minnesota State University-Moorhead.

Erin Holdman, Kenora, Ontario, a junior medical laboratory science major, received a $400 Travel Award to present her work at the 2012 American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology meeting in April in San Diego.  Her presentation is titled “Immuno-enrichment of FAM129b from Rat Lung Tissue,” a study on melanoma and how a specific protein interacts with other proteins.  Holdman’s mentor is John Shabb, associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biology.

Joshua Maliske, Bismarck, N.D., also received a $400 Travel Award to present his work at the same meeting in San Diego.  His presentation is titled “TRPC1-STIM1-Orai1’ is the Core SOCE Complex in Proliferating Mesenchymal Stem Cells.”  His mentors are Brij Singh, Joyce Ohm and Biswaranjan Pani, all of the Department of  Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Doria Thiele, a Ph.D. student in nursing from Monmouth,Ore., was presented the 2011 Novice Researcher Award

recently by the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN) at their annual convention.  She received a $5,000 check from the organization to further her research study, titled “Maternal vitamin D supplementation to correct deficiency in mothers and breastfed infants.”  Thiele’s research interests include lactation, the breastfeeding relationship, the role of breast milk in disease prevention and developmental origins of diseases.  Her adviser is Cindy Anderson, director of UND’s nursing Ph.D. program.