Oct 30, 2019

St. Bonaventure University biology major Audrey Bui, ’21, was recognized for her poster presentation on plant-pathogen interaction at a regional biochemistry meeting.

Bui and two other St. Bonaventure students, Anna Hu and Claire Schaef, attended the Rustbelt RNA Meeting at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, Oct. 25 and 26 with Biochemistry Program Director Dr. Xiao-Ning Zhang to learn about RNA-related biomedical research and the development of new collaborations.

Bui, a senior biology major, presented the poster “The role of alternatively spliced Serine/Arginine-rich 45 isoforms in Arabidopsis thaliana innate immune response,” which earned an Excellent Undergraduate Poster Presentation Award. Bui was one of the three undergraduate students who won poster awards at this meeting.

<

Attending the conference was an amazing experience because I got to interact and share my work with other undergraduate and graduate students who were also passionate about their research,” said Bui. “I am also very grateful to Dr. Zhang for guiding me through my research process and for giving me the opportunity to work on such an interesting project.”

Hu, a junior biochemistry major, gave a talk at the meeting titled “The kernel of truth: The role of ASAP complex in abscisic acid response regulation during seed germination and early seedling development in Arabidopsis thaliana.” 

Schaef, a sophomore biochemistry major, was a co-author of both of her lab mates’ presentations.

“I am very proud of these students. They go above and beyond the required classroom learning and use actions to demonstrate their high achievements as undergraduate researchers,” said Zhang. “This is what makes our students stand out when they move on to their next stage after St. Bonaventure. I am happy to be here for them and provide them opportunities to grow professionally.”

The research that students presented at this meeting is a direct contribution to a recently awarded four-year $650,000 National Science Foundation project, which is under Zhang’s direction.

“We still have a lot of exciting work ahead of us. This is a great start of the project,” she said.

The Rustbelt RNA meeting is a regional scientific meeting that gathers 300 to 400 scientists from throughout the Midwestern and Mid-Atlantic United States to discuss RNA-related biomedical research. The meeting predominately features oral and poster presentations by undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral trainees.

Learn more about the biochemistry program and the NSF grant at www.sbu.edu/biochemistry.

______________

 

About the University: The nation’s first Franciscan university, St. Bonaventure University is a community committed to transforming the lives of our students inside and outside the classroom, inspiring in them a lifelong commitment to service and citizenship. In 2019, St. Bonaventure was named the #1 regional university value in New York and #2 in the North by U.S. News and World Report.