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UB's CURCA: Center for Undergraduate and Creative Activities presents four exceptional UB students selected to showcase their work in Albany.
Meerim, Jasmine, Ravinder and Amber
[Ravinder speaking] So I went online and I somehow came across CURCA, the Center for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities
and that was like the door for me to enter the research world. I looked at all the professors, I contacted them,
I was interviewed by various professors as they explained to me all of their research and I saw if it really interested me or not.
CURCA [Tim Tryjankowski, Director, speaking] was established to form a connection between our distinguished faculty and researchers here on campus
and also our very talented undergraduate students who are looking to engage outside the classroom in their realm of study.
That's very important, you need to have good hands. Some students are very bright but they can't work the bench, other kids can work the bench but they're not very good at it
and when you combine them then you have a very special student. Mee Rim can do this. So I recognized this and gave her the opportunity to do an experiment all by herself.
So, no we're almost at one year and this is the part where she's getting really good but now she wants to graduate, so I'm trying to figure out ways to make her fail. [smiles]
Amber was one of many kids that I interviewed and she picked up on things so quickly and was just really eager to learn and really motivated, an incredible work ethic.
She's just been incredible. She's been the best undergraduate student I've ever worked with in my entire career and so as a consequence I started giving her more and more responsibility
The SUNY Faculty Senate has called to Albany, NY, four students from each of our SUNY campuses to showcase their undergraduate research projects.
This will be a chance for all 64 SUNY campuses to showcase the undergraduate research contributions taking place on their home campuses.
Basically what I am working on is [Jasmine speaking] something than can be used to help cure what ails people. It can be used to make fighting cancer, combating cancer an easier task
for those who are in that field and for me I think that is a wonderful thing.
So, these patients are receiving multi-vitamins, so we want to see if there is less oxidative damage done, because that is bad, but it can also reduce the systematic oxidative damage which is good.
So, this study was done to see if it is good or bad to take multi-vitamins or supplements.
My part in this project was characterizing interactions between fluorescent SSB with single stranded DNA.
I also showed that interactions between these fluorescent proteins with reg G which is important for repairing DNA.
What we really want to do in this study is change the quality of life for individuals as they undergo radiation therapy.
It's a very difficult time, there is a lot of stress involved and if we can make them better in terms of their general health, in terms of their outlook, that's the sort of thing that we are looking to try to do.
I would strongly recommend anyone interested in any type of research to get involved because you can start anywhere.
I like the fact that what I'm developing now, what I'm working on now can be used in the future. What I'm developing now I can continue to develop upon
and it can be used by other students to make new research projects. It can be used by other scientists to make new products.
You've gotten experience designing research, [OK] you've gotten experience writing manuscripts, you've presented your data at national conferences,
you've given talks at national conferences, so those types of experiences, even if you're not going to study this exact thing, you are going to, those things are going to be crucial for you to be successful in graduate school.
The April 13th event, the Showcase, is an opportunity for elected officials to discuss with SUNY undergraduate students the research opportunities available on their campuses.
This is really a chance for all of SUNY to showcase undergraduate research and UB will be very well represented that day.
UB proudly presents Mee Rim Choi: I want to understand cancer.
Amber Dewey: I'm going to facilitate learning in children
Jasmine May: I want to help in the fight against cancer.
Ravinder: I want to improve the quality of patient care.
Now to Albany, video produced by Sam Avery and John Fink