Georgetown undergraduate and graduate students exhibited their own biomedical research in the 18th annual “Student Research Days Annual Competition and Exposition” last Thursday.
Sponsored by the Office of Biomedical Graduate Education, the conference is composed of undergraduate, pre-doctoral, post-doctoral and clinical divisions in which participants present biomedical science research ranging from biochemistry to oncology and tumor biology to neuroscience and surgery.
In addition to sharing their research with fellow students, faculty and biomedical scientists, participants showcase their work to a series of judges, who select posters from each division in order to determine the finalists who advance to the final round of oral presentations.
Judges base their selection on a variety of criteria, including presentation skills, the introduction and formulation of scientific hypothesis, results and figures presented and conclusions made based on the information found.
Despite the competitive component of the conference and the incentive of cash prizes that are awarded to the winners of the oral presentations, the majority of students in participation mostly enjoy sharing their findings with such an interesting audience and observing the hard work of others.
“The main purpose of the conference is to see the latest research that has been done – findings in the biomedical sciences that haven’t been heard about yet,” student participant Kevin Lehnes (NHS ’04) said. “For instance, we did our research on the pathways in which cell growth is mediated in breast cancer, and discovered that there is an alternative pathway of growth which prevents the commonly prescribed cell-growth inhibitor, Tamoxafen, from stopping cell growth.”
Jessica Duncan (NHS `04), who was presenting the poster with Lehnes, agreed that it was exciting to learn cutting-edge research regarding such pertinent medical issues.
“This is just our first time presenting in the conference,” she said, “but already it has been exciting to exhibit our research findings, and to see other similar work researched by such a variety of students interested in the field.”
Throughout past years the research event has expanded from participation by exclusively pre-doctoral students and post-doctoral fellows to include medical, bachelor’s and master’s degree students, with increasing participation from main campus science departments. The final round of judging takes place today from 2-5 p.m. in the Research Building.
