Research for Credit

Research for Pay

Internships

Readings in Biology

Undergraduate students are encouraged to participate in research during their time at Boston University. Each year, approximately 100 Biology students conduct research in both faculty labs and labs outside the BU Biology Department.

Other research opportunities include field-based programs like the Marine Semester and Tropical Ecology Program where students can gain valuable hands-on experience. There are also field courses like Dr. Schneider and Dr. Warkentin’s Herpetology (BI 416) which combines lectures, lab work, and field trips to give students firsthand experience in a natural setting.

Recent publications (current undergraduates and recent graduates listed in bold):

2021

Swain DL, Le TD, Yasmin S, Fernandes B, Lamaj G, Dasgupta I,Gao Y, Gong H, Morphological factors associated with giant vacuoles with I-pores in Schlemm’s canal endothelial cells of human eyes: A serial block-face scanning electron microscopy study, Experimental Eye Research (2021).

2020

Babbs RK, Beierle JA, Kelliher JC, Medeiros R, Anandakumar J, Shah A, Yao EJ, Chen MM, Bryant CD (2020). The demyelinating agent cuprizone induces a male-specific reduction in binge eating in the binge-prone C57BL/6NJ stain. Accepted, Appetite

Berman Z, Kaim A, Reed T, Felicione J, Hinojosa C, Oliver K, . . . Dekel S. (2020). Amygdala Response to Traumatic Childbirth Recall is Associated With Impaired Bonding Behaviors in Mothers With Childbirth-Related PTSD Symptoms: Preliminary Findings. Biological Psychiatry, 87(9).

Bhatt S, Pioso MS, Olesinski EA, Yilma B, Ryan JA, Mashaka T, Leutz B, Adamia S, Zhu H, Kuang Y, Mogili A, Louissaint AJ, Bohl SR, Kim AS, Mehta AK, Sanghavi S, Wang Y, Morris E, Halilovic E, Paweletz CP, Weinstock DM, Garcia JS, Letai A. (2020, November). Reduced Mitochondrial Apoptotic Priming Drives Resistance to BH3 Mimetics in Acute Myeloid Leukemia. Cancer Cell.

Cullion K, Petishnok L, Sun T, Santamaria C, Pemberton G, McDannold N, & Kohane D. (2020, April 19). Local anesthesia enhanced with increasing high-frequency ultrasound intensity.

Giraldo, P, Hsu, H. E, Ashe, E. M, Pablo A. Buitron De La Vega, Losi, S, Silverstein, M, & Lasser, K. E. (2020). Provision of Utility Shut-off Protection Letters at an Urban Safety-Net Hospital, 2009-2018. Journal of Ambulatory Care Management, 43(2), 179-182.

Eshraghi A. A, Shahal D, Davies C, Mittal J, Shah V, Bulut E, . . . Mittal R. (2020). Evaluating the Efficacy of L-N-acetylcysteine and Dexamethasone in Combination to Provide Otoprotection for Electrode Insertion Trauma. Journal of Clinical Medicine, 9(3), 716.

Hastings, M, Gauthier, J, Mabry, K, Tran, A, Man, H, & Kantak, K. (2020, March). Facilitative effects of environmental enrichment for cocaine relapse prevention are dependent on extinction training context and involve increased TrkB signaling in dorsal hippocampus and ventromedial prefrontal cortex.

Kaim A, Jaffe E, Siman-Tov M, Khairish E, Adini B. (2020, August). Impact of a Brief Educational Intervention on Knowledge, Perceived Knowledge, Perceived Safety, and Resilience of the Public During COVID-19 Crisis. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 17(16), 5971.

Lin, JH., Lin, IP., Ohyama, Y., Mochida, H., Kudo, A., Kaku, M., Mochida, Y. FAM20C directly binds to and phosphorylates Periostin. Sci Rep 10, 17155 (2020).

Lisk, C., Yuen, R., Kuniholm, J., Antos, D., Reiser, M. L., & Wetzler, L. M. (2020). Toll-Like Receptor Ligand Based Adjuvant, PorB, Increases Antigen Deposition on Germinal Center Follicular Dendritic Cells While Enhancing the Follicular Dendritic Cells Network. Frontiers in immunology, 11, 1254.

Mason, C, Clair, A, Peiffer, M, Gomez, E, Jones, A, Felton, G, & Hoover, K. (2020, March). Diet influences proliferation and stability of gut bacterial populations in herbivorous lepidopteran larvae.

McIntyre MK, Gandhi C, Schmidt M, Cole C, Bowers C (2020) In Reply to the Letter to the Editor Regarding Increasing Frailty Predicts Worse Outcomes and Increased Complications After Angiogram-negative Subarachnoid Hemorrhages. World Neurosurgery. 134: 676-677.

McIntyre MK, Gandhi C, Dragonette J, Schmidt M, Cole C, Santarelli J, Lehrer R, Al-Mufti F, Bowers C (2020) Increasing Frailty Predicts Worse Outcomes and Increased Complications After Angiogram-Negative Subarachnoid Hemorrhages. World Neurosurgery. 134: e181-188.

Ming T, McGovern K,Cheng HL, Waddicor P, Rieble L, Dao M, Chen Y, Kimble MT, Cantor E,Manfredonia N, Judson R, Chapdelaine-Williams A, Cain DW, Haynes BF, Alt FW. Conditional Antibody Expression to Avoid Central B Cell Deletion in a Humanized HIV-1 Vaccine Mouse Models. bioRXiv, 3 Jan. 2020.

Moskowitz NA, Dorritie B, Fay T, Nieves OC, Vidoudez C, Cambridge Rindge and Latin 2017 Biology Class, Masconomet 2017 Biotechnology Class, Fischer EK, Trauger SA, Coloma LA, Donoso DA, O’Connell LA. Land use impacts poison frog chemical defenses through changes in leaf litter ant communities. Neotropical Biodiversity. 2020.

Neri Mini F, Saltzman JA, Simione M, Luo M, Perkins ME, Roche B, Blake-Lamb T, Kotelchuck M, Arauz-Boudreau A, Davison K, Taveras EM. Expectant Fathers’ Social Determinants of Health in Early Pregnancy. Global Pediatric Health, 7. 2020.

Ray J.P., de Boer C.G., Fulco C.P., Bergman D, et al. Prioritizing disease and trait causal variants at the TNFAIP3 locus using functional and genomic features. Nat Commun 11, 1237 (2020)

Rich, H. E., Antos, D., Melton, N. R., Alcorn, J. F., & Manni, M. L. (2020). Insights Into Type I and III Interferons in Asthma and Exacerbations. Frontiers in immunology, 11, 574027.

Qiu S, Joshi P, Miller M, Xue C, Zhou X, Karjadi C, Kolachalama V. (2020, May 01). Development and validation of an interpretable deep learning framework for Alzheimer’s disease classification.

Santoso CS, Li Z, Lal S, Yuan S, Kok AG, Agosto LM, Liu X, Pro SC, Sewell JA, Henderson A, Atianand MK, Fuxman Bass JI, Comprehensive mapping of the human cytokine gene regulatory network, Nucleic Acids Research, Volume 48, Issue 21, 2 December 2020, Pages 12055–12073

Sato T, Verma S, Andrade C, Omeara M, Campbell N, Wang J, Wein, M. (2020, July 01). A FAK/HDAC5 signaling axis controls osteocyte mechanotransduction.

Scavo Lord K, Lesneski K, Bengtsson Z, Kuhn K, Madin J, Cheung B, Finnerty J. (2020, May 04). Multi-Year Viability of a Reef Coral Population Living on Mangrove Roots Suggests an Important Role for Mangroves in the Broader Habitat Mosaic of Corals.

Scully A, Zhang H, Kim-Berman H, Benavides E, Hardy NC, Hu JC;. (2020). Management of Two Cases of Supernumerary Teeth.

Simione M, Farrar-Muir H, Neri Mini F, Perkins ME, Luo M, Frost H, Orav EJ, Metlay J, Zai AH, Kistin KJ, Sease K, Hambidge SJ, Taveras EM. Implementation of the Connect for Health Pediatric Weight Management Program: Study Protocol and Baseline Characteristics. Preprint. 2020.

Simione M, Frost HM, Cournoyer R, Neri Mini F, Cassidy J, Craddock C, Moreland J, Wallace J, Metlay J, Kistin CJ, Sease K, Hambidge SJ, Taveras EM. Engaging stakeholders in the adaptation of the Connect for Health pediatric weight management program for national implementation. Implement Sci Commun 1, 55 (2020).

Smith NG, McNellis R, Dukes JS. 2020. No acclimation: instantaneous responses to temperature maintain homeostatic photosynthetic rates under experimental warming across a precipitation gradient in Ulmus americana.AoB PLANTS, plaa027.

Tian M, McGovern K, Cheng H, Waddicor P, Rieble L, Dao M, . . . Alt F. (2020, April 07). Conditional antibody expression to avoid central B cell deletion in humanized HIV-1 vaccine mouse models.

Uckelmann H, Kim S, Wong E, Hatton C, Giovinazzo H, Gadrey J, Armstrong S. (2020, January 31). Therapeutic targeting of preleukemia cells in a mouse model of NPM1 mutant acute myeloid leukemia.

Wulu JA, Voon T, Malik H, Platt M, Ezzat WH. The Case of Nasal Eccrine Ductal Carcinoma. Triological Society Combined Sections Meeting; 2020 Jan 23-25; Coronado, CA.

Zhang X, Fichot C, Baracco C, Guo R, Neugebauer S, Bengtsson Z, Fagherazzi S. (2020, February 07). Determining the drivers of suspended sediment dynamics in tidal marsh-influenced estuaries using high-resolution ocean color remote sensing.

Zheng XL, Xu WQ, Liu JW, Zhu XY, Chen SC, Han Y, Dai XQ, Goodman IG, Budjan C, Chen XS, Yin YP. Evaluation of Drugs with Therapeutic Potential for Susceptibility of Neisseria Gonorrhoeae Isolates from 8 Provinces in China from 2018. Infect Drug Resist. 2020;13:4475-4486

2019

Ali A, Laake L, Kriefall NG, Kenkel CD, Matz MV and SW Davies (2019) Recruit symbiosis establishment and Symbiodiniaceae composition influenced by adult corals and reef sediment. Coral Reefs 38(3): 405-415.

Babbs RK, Beierle JA, Ruan QT, Kelliher JC, Chen MM, Feng AX, Kirkpatrick SL, Benitez FA, Rodriguez FA, Pierre J, Anandakumar J, Kumar V, Mulligan MK, Bryant CD (2019).  Cyfip1 haploinsufficiency increases compulsive-like behavior and modulates palatable food intake in mice: dependence on Cyfip2 genetic background, parent-of origin, and sex. Genes, Genomes, Genetics.

Bryant CD, Babbs RK, Ruan QT, Kelliher JC, Kirkpatrick SL, Rodriguez FA, Feng AX, and Benitez F (2019) Cyfip1 haploinsufficiency increases compulsive-like behavior and food consumption: Parent-of-origin effects and potential implications for Prader-Willi Syndrome. Genes Genomes Genetics. 19 July 2019.

Bryant CD, Babbs RK, Ruan QT, Kelliher JC, Feng AX, Kirkpatrick SL, Benitez FA, Rodriguez FA, Pierre J, Kumar V, Mulligan MK (2019). Dissecting Cyfip1 and Cyfip2 contributions to compulsive-like behavior and binge eating in mice: implications for eating disorders and neurodevelopmental disorders with hyperphagia. European Neuropsychopharmacology

Bryant CD, Bagdas D, Goldberg LR, Khalefa T, Reed ER, Kirkpatrick SL, Kelliher JC, Chen MM, Johnson WE, Mulligan MK, Damaj MI (2019). C57BL/6 substrain differences in inflammatory and neuropathic nociception and genetic mapping of a major quantitative trait locus underlying acute thermal nociception. Molecular Pain.

Comer A. L, Jinadasa T, Kretsge L. N, Nguyen T. P, Lee J, Newmark E R, Kot K. L . . . Cruz-Martín, A. (2019). Increased expression of schizophrenia-associated gene C4 leads to hypoconnectivity of prefrontal cortex and reduced social interaction.

Chun J, Wilkins M, et al. “Recruitment of APOL1 Kidney Disease Risk Variants to Lipid Droplets Attenuates Cell Toxicity.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 116, no. 9, 2019, pp. 3712–3721.

Cullion K, Petishnok LC, Ji T, Zurakowski D, Kohane DS (2019) The Duration of Nerve Block from Local Anesthetic Formulations in Male and Female Rats. Pharmaceutical Research, vol. 36, no. 12, 2019.

Demirbas D, Huang X, Daesety V, Feenstra S, Haskovic M, Qi W, Gubbels CS, Hecht L, Levy HL, Waisbren SE, Berry GT (2019) The Ability of an LC-MS/MS-Based Erythrocyte GALT Enzyme Assay to Predict the Phenotype in Subjects with GALT Deficiency. Molecular Genetics and Metabolism, vol. 126, no. 4, 2019.

Fischer EK, Roland AB, Moskowitz NA, Vidoudez C, Ranaivorazo N, Tapia EE, Trauger SA, Vences M, Coloma LA, O’Connell LA. Mechanisms of convergent egg-provisioning in poison frogs. 2019.

Fischer EK., Roland AB., Moskowitz NA., Tapia EE., Summers K, Coloma LA. and O’Connell LA. The neural basis of tadpole transport in poison frogs. Proc. R. Soc. B. 2019.

Fulco CP, Bergman D, et al. (2019) Activity-by-Contact Model of Enhancer Specificity from Thousands of CRISPR Perturbations.” Nature Genetics. 

Gilbert J, Ioschpe A, et al. “NEXMIF/KIDLIA Knockout Mouse Demonstrates Autism-like Behaviors, Memory Deficits, and Impairments in Synapse Formation and Function.” The Journal of Neuroscience, 2019, pp. 0222–19.

Jehan F, Con J, McIntyre M, Khan M, Azim A, Prabhakaran K, Latifi R (2019) Pre-hospital Shock Index Correlates with Transfusion, Resource Utilization, and Mortality; The Role of First Patient Vitals. American Journal of Surgery 218(6): 1169-1174. 

Karmen CL, Reisfeld MA, McIntyre MK, Timmermans R, Frishman W (2019) The Clinical Value of Heart Rate Monitoring Using an Apple Watch. Cardiology in Review 27(2): 60-62.

Jung J, Kim SJ, Arias SMP, McDaniel JG, Warkentin K (2019) How Do Red-Eyed Treefrog Embryos Sense Motion in Predator Attacks? Assessing the Role of Vestibular Mechanoreception. bioRXiv.

Kim D, Lee D, Trackman PC, Roy S (2019) Effects of High Glucose–Induced Lysyl Oxidase Propeptide on Retinal Endothelial Cell Survival. The American Journal of Pathology, vol. 189, no. 10, 2019, pp. 1945–1952.

Maytin A, and Ligocki, I. “Dominance Hierarchy Establishment in the Invasive Round Goby, Neogobius Melanostomus.” Behavioural Processes, vol. 158, 2019, pp. 41–46.

McIntyre MK, Gandhi C, Long A, Van Hoof A, Li B, Patel V, Afridi A, Halabi M, Schmidt M, Cole C, Santarelli J, Al-Mufti F, Bowers C (2019) Age Predicts Outcomes Better than Frailty Following Aneurysmal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage: A Retrospective Cohort Analysis. Clinical Neurology and Neurosurgery 187: 105558.

Milstein NS; Musat DL; Allred J; Seiler A; Pimienta J; Oliveros S; Bhatt AG; Preminger M ;Sichrovsky T; Shaw RE; Mittal S;. (2019). Detection of atrial fibrillation using an implantable loop recorder following cryptogenic stroke: Implications for post-stroke electrocardiographic monitoring.

Mondragon, A.A., Yalonetskaya, A, Ortega, A.J., Zhang, Y, Naranjo, O., Elguero, J., Chung, W.-S., McCall, K. (2019) Lysosomal machinery drives extracellular acidification to direct non-apoptotic cell death, Cell Reports.Article

Oberoi AR, et al. (2019) Improving Support to Siblings of Children with Cancer through a Community-Academic Partnership. Clinical Practice in Pediatric Psychology, vol. 7, no. 4, 2019, pp. 371–382.

Pacheco AR,  Moel M, and Segrè D (2019) Costless Metabolic Secretions as Drivers of Interspecies Interactions in Microbial Ecosystems. Nature Communications. 

Ross SB, Jadick M, Spence J, DeReus H, Sucandy I, Rosemurgy AS (2019) Men Surgeons’ Perceptions of Women Surgeons: Is There a Bias Against Women in Surgery? Surgical Endoscopy.

Serena G, Davies C, Cetinbas M, Sadreyev R. I, & Fasano A. (2019). Analysis of blood and fecal microbiome profile in patients with celiac disease. Human Microbiome Journal, 11, 100049.

Traber KE, Dimbo EL, Symer EM, Korkmaz FT, Jones MR, Mizgerd JP, Quinton LJ (2019) Transcriptional Signaling Hubs in Epithelial Cells During Pneumonia. Mucosal Immunology of Acute Bacterial Pneumonia, 2012, pp. 159–183.

Wang M, Wilkins M, et al. “Contributions of Rare Gene Variants to Familial and Sporadic FSGS.” Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, vol. 30, no. 9, 2019, pp. 1625–1640.

Wecowski J, Ross SB, Jadick M, Justice A, Sucandy I, Rosemurgy AS (2019) THE Big Deal: An Institution’s Experience with Robotic Transhiatal Esophagectomy. The American Surgeon 85(9): 1061-1065.

Yalonetskaya, A., Mondragon, A.A., Hintze, Z.J., Holmes, S. and McCall, K. (2019) Nuclear degradation dynamics in a non-apoptotic programmed cell death, Cell Death and Differentiation.

Zhu H, Salim S, et al. Association of Plasma Amylin Concentration With Alzheimer Disease and Brain Structure in Older Adults. JAMA Network Open, vol. 2, no. 8, 2019.

Zhang, J, Echaide, C, Concepcion, J, Yu, G, & He, S. (2019). Assessing Risk Factors for Falls in an Acute Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 100(10).

Zhu T, McClure R , Harrison OB, Genco C, and Massari P (2019) Integrated Bioinformatic Analyses and Immune Characterization of New Neisseria Gonorrhoeae Vaccine Antigens Expressed during Natural Mucosal Infection. Vaccines, vol. 7, no. 4, 2019, p. 153.

2018

Babbs RK, Kelliher JC, Scotellaro JL, Luttik KP, Yazdani N, Ruan QT, Mulligan MK, Bryant CD (2018). Genetic differences in the behavioral organization of binge eating, conditioned food reward, and compulsive-like eating in C57BL/6J and DBA/2J mice and in an F2 cross. Physiol Behav. 2018 Dec 1;197:51-66.

Carrasco Pro S, Dafonte Imedio A, Santoso CS, Gan KA, Sewell JA, Martinez M, Sereda R, Mehta S, Fuxman Bass JI (2018). Global landscape of mouse and human cytokine transcriptional regulation. Nucleic Acids Res.

Goss, H., Jaskiel, J., & Rotjan, R. (2018). Thalassia testudinum as a potential vector for incorporating microplastics into benthic marine food webs. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 135, 1085–1089.

Huiting L, Samaha Y, Zhang GL, Roderick JA, Li B, Anderson NM, Wang L, Wang Y, Laroche FLF, Choi JW, Liu CT, Kelliher MA and Feng H. UFD1: a Novel Contributor to MYC-mediated Leukemia Aggressiveness. Leukemia.  2018. BU Cancer Center Retreat. 2018 Nov;32(11):2339-2351.

Hutchings N, Baghdasaryan S, Qefoyan M, Chiloyan A, Manoukian M, Atayan A, Bilezikian J (2018) Iodine Nutrition in the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh). Endocrine Practice: May 2018, Vol. 24, No. 5, pp. 468-472. 

Jiang L, Ash P, Maziuk BF, Ballance HI, Boudeau S, Abdullatif AA, Orlando M, Petrucelli L, Ikezu T, Wolozin B (2018) TIA1 regulates the generation and response to toxic tau oligomers. Acta Neuropathologica.

Kliman HJ, Quaratella SB, Setaro AC, Siegman EC, Subha ZT, Tal R, Milano KM, Steck TL (2018)  Pathway of Maternal Serotonin to the Human Embryo and Fetus. Endocrinology, vol. 159, no. 4, 2018, pp. 1609–1629.

Maytin A, Davies SW, Smith G, Mullen S and PM Buston (2018) De Novo transcriptome assembly of the Clown Anemonefish (Amphiprion percula): A new resource to study the evolution of fish color. Frontiers in Marine Science 5:284.

Mu L, Chen J, Li J, Arnold M, Sobotka S, Nyirenda T, Fowkes M, Christopherson M. and Sanders I (2018), Sensory Innervation of the Human Soft Palate. Anat. Rec., 301: 1861-1870. 

Sanders-DeMott R, McNellis R, Jabouri M, Templer PH. Snow depth, soil temperature and plant–herbivore interactions mediate plant response to climate change. J Ecol. 2018;00:1–12.

Singh N, Chin I, Gabriel P, Blaum E, and Masli S (2018) Dysregulated Marginal Zone B Cell Compartment in a Mouse Model of Sjögren’s Syndrome with Ocular Inflammation. International Journal of Molecular Sciences.

Santoso, C.S., Meehan, T.L., Peterson, J.S., Cedano, T.M., Turlo, C.V. and McCall, K. (2018) The ABC transporter Eato promotes cell clearance in the Drosophila melanogaster ovary, G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics 8:833-843.

Song, W, Zhou, L, Liu-Kot, K, Fan, H, Han, J, and Yi J (2018). Measurement of flow-mediated dilation of mouse femoral artery in vivo by optical coherence tomography. Journal of Biophotonics, 11 (11).

More achievements in undergraduate research including poster, conference, and symposium presentations, can be found through UROP.