College of Science

Dr. Pérez-Morales’ research students, Ahmed Mohiuddin and Ahsan Adil, review their protocols for the day before setting up experiments.

The McCarthy Lab investigated a number of questions related to human adaptation and evolution, the human brain, skull, and speech apparatus. Pictured left to right: Mohammed Syed, Dr. McCarthy, Maggie Sera, Jinkle Modi, Sanampreet Bhullar, and Akansha Bhatt.

Elizabth Kvitek and Rebecca Weber helping with the long-term Blanding’s turtle recovery program.

2019 NSSRP Participants in front of Birck Hall of Science

Dr. Fackenthal’s lab meeting! Pictured left to right: Sam Fackenthal, Donna Fackenthal, Jim Fackenthal, Ziyad Abdelrahim, Jessica Georgopulos, Nourhan Mohamed, and Zaain Ahmad.

Pre-vet Health Science major, Elena Garza, handling a large snapping turtle, while helping the DuPage Forest Reserve check aquatic turtle traps for a long-term Blanding’s turtle recovery project.

Dr. Sarathy and her research group analyzing data and preparing to solve the receptor conundrum using CRISPR. Left to right: Suhayl Khan, Dr. Sarathy, Ismail Syeedi, Surina Birk, and Faith Donner.

After her assay is over, Ciera Duffy, research student of Dr. Pérez-Morales, spends time analyzing and graphing her data for laboratory discussions.

Jakub Jancek will present his project, "Optimizing Kinect® Depth Sensing Using Dynamic Polarization," at the 48th Association for Computing Machinery Technical Symposium of the Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE) on March 8-11 in Seattle, Washington. Jancek's project traces its roots to Benedictine's Natural Science Summer Research Program (summer 2016) under the supervision of Dr. Grace Mirsky.  Read the press release.

Maseera Moine, Jessica Newhouse, mentor Dr. Sarah Shaner  and Sharyn Doden stand in the  lab where they  use electrochemistry to make new materials and modify the surface properties of electrodes.

Jakub Jancek and mentor Dr. Grace Mirsky work on optimizing Microsoft Kinect 360 sensor depth measurements using dynamic polarization.

Cecilia Do, mentor Dr. Preston Aldrich and Saaniya Attar used network methods and phython computer programming to study microRNA networks in nematodes and humans.

Dr. Sarathy and her students (from left) Sharyl Alendry, Tanushree Nair,  Ladan Haery and Hafsa Sirajuddin check out items from the freezer. Students worked on Dr. Sarathy’s ongoing study of bile acid diarrhea which has been repeatedly demonstrated in people with irritable bowel disease. Increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) production is associated with inflammatory conditions as seen in Crohn's disease. Thus, the goal this summer was to investigate if bile acids can modulate ROS production by colonic epithelial T-84 cells. The students were busy studying the role for oxidative stress in BAD and found that the bile acid CDCA induced ROS while LCA did not.

Jennifer Fedor, mentor Dr. David Rubush and Tyler Vavrek hold a model of the organic compound they synthesized.  They were synthesizing organic compounds that could be used to fight malaria.

Mentor Dr. Timothy Comar,  Elizabeth Rodriguez and Stefano Chiaradonna work on developing mathematical models.  Elizabeth modeled integrated past management systems using agent based models and impulsive differential equations based models and Stefano developed epidemiological models with partial vaccination strategies for the spread and control of HPV.

Jonathan Mason and Bruce Granick worked with mentor Dr. Kari Stone to employ an environmentally benign protein engineering strategy that utilizes protein scaffolds of robust heme-containing proteins to introduce manganese porphyrin derivative cofactors to provide for new entries into catalysis.

Morgan Schumacher (right) worked with mentor Dr. Robin Rylaarsdam in an ongoing investigation of McCune-Albright Syndrome, a rare disorder that causes spongy patches in bone tissue and results in frequent fractures and deformities in patients.  There is no treatment for this disease. The ongoing study is looking at the mutation in the gene encoding a cell to cell communication protein, Gs, which causes the disease. Students are helping to find binding sites on this protein that could serve as drug binding sites with the ultimate goal of finding a treatment for the disease.

Anna Scheidel, mentor Dr. Cheryl Heinz and Heinery Arevalo investigate flowers at the Youth Park in Beijing, China. They are observing the flowers for bees and other pollinators as part of the China Pollination Project.

Marko Saric and mentor Dr. Manmohan Kaur study fractals, an object that shows self-similarity at all scales—such as a fern or cauliflower. Marko researched how fractals can be algorithmically generated with the help of iterated function systems, determine conditions that lead to self similarity and use a computer system to generate fractals.

Mentor Dr. Robert McCarthy’s (above center) research focuses on the human fossil record.  Maimoona Fatima (left) worked on a project assessing the usefulness of postcranial skeletal data in mammalian phylogeny reconstruction and Jay Ahuja (right) 3D-printed hominin fossils that will be used in human evolution classes and research on skull morphology and body size and shape. In the photo above Dr. McCarthy and his students hold two of these skulls.

Electrochemistry - In Dr. Sarah Shaner's lab, students learn how to perform electrochemical experiments and gain experience in the synthesis and characterization of molecules, metal complexes and materials. Shown with her students, Sharyn Doden and Fauzia Mujid, lab work was also an important part of their work.

Protein Project - Jonathan Bell worked with Dr. Kari Stone to research utilizing metal-substituted hemoproteins in order to promote new kinds of reactivity.

Searching for accurate predictive algorithms to improve patient outcomes, Dr. Grace Mirsky's student, Jose Dieck, looked into how to decrease the number of false cardiac arrhythmia alarms for patients in intensive care.

Investigating the Interactivity of complex systems are Dr. Preston Aldrich and his researchers, Jermeen El-Zebet and Mudassir Yahya.  The research included examining complex biological networks with applications in genomics and the dispersion of invasive plants as well as applications of network theory in linguistics and scheduling.

Training students to "think like a scientist" is one of the goals of Dr. Peter Nelson's research. He is with student Jozef Palasiewicz as Jozef explains the equations he derived for a model on Ion transport across cell membranes. The "ion-jump" model explains the basic principles of bio-electricity in a way that's much easier to understand than the stand text book approach.

Skulls - Detailed research into the morphology of early hominids is the basis for research conducted by Dr. Robert McCarthy shown with student researchers Monica Kunkel and Jamine Bains.

Developing biosensors was one of the summer projects worked on by Dr. Scott Meyer's students, Jeremy Bingen and Dana Cairns. Below, lab work was an important part of their research.

Computing the structure of generalized symmetric spaces was the goal of Dr. Ellen Ziliak's research. Students computed specific examples of these matrix groups and observed patterns that describe these spaces. Once a pattern was observed, they worked to prove the patterns hold in the entrie Speical Orthogonal Group. Researchers Andrew norbye and Mark Hansen discuss their work with Dr. Ziliak.