Spring 2021 Celebration of Undergraduate Research

The Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR) was pleased to host its first Celebration of Undergraduate Research at WashU. This month of virtual events included our annual Spring Undergraduate Research Symposium, which serves as a venue for students to present their research to the greater WashU community. This year's posters and pre-recorded talks highlight the diverse range of impressive research projects completed by WashU undergraduates. See a list of presenters organized by area of research here.

The Symposium ran concurrently with live student panels as well as Departmental events showcasing undergraduate research, including Senior researchers completing theses, capstones, and other culminating projects. Find recordings from our student panels below. 

An Investigation of the Etiology, Moderators, and Outcomes of Overcontrolled Youth 

In this panel, we endeavor to remedy this gap by discussing some of the etiology, moderators, and outcomes of this phenotype through our exploration of the effects of overprotective parenting behaviors and online learning on a group of community children oversampled for overcontrol. Our population of interest were assessed at 5-6 years old at baseline and 7-8 years old at a two-year follow-up session.

• Allison Hollender, Mentor: Kirsten Gilbert: The COVID-19 Era: Effects of Online Learning on Overcontrolled Youth
• Maggie Chen, Mentor: Kirsten Gilbert: Effect of Parental Overprotection on Child Overcontrol

 

Topics in Immunology: Navigating the Immune Landscape 

In this panel, four undergraduate researchers will share their current and past experience researching Natural Killer cells, Dendritic cells, B cells and T cells. First an overview of the immune system will be presented to provide an understanding of the central components and functions. 

• Lily Chang, Mentors: Todd Fehniger and Pamela Wong: Role of Eomes in Regulating Cell Death and Function of Human Natural Killer Cells
• Onyi Onyeador, Mentors: Todd Fehniger and Michelle Becker-Hapak: in vitro Validation of in silico Predicted Tumor Specific Antigens
• Justin Yun, Mentors: Carl DeSelm and Chloe Huntzinger: Role of Blocking CSF1R in cDC1 Differentiation within the Tumor Microenvironment
• Justin Li, Mentors: Daniel C. Link and Grazia Abou-Ezzi: Aberrant Cebpa Expression as a Trigger for Imapried B-lymphopoiesis