Jazmin Ruiz, KarryAnne Belanger and Dr. Bill Ameredes attend the GSBS poster presentation.

“Our Summer Undergraduate Research Program is run by the GSBS and is a program in which undergraduate students who are in college can come to UTMB to work on a summer research project under the guidance of a selected faculty member and mentor,” said Dr. Bill Ameredes, associate professor of medicine. “Typically, we enlist some of the GSBS graduate students to assist with the mentoring.”

Ameredes called the program a “win-win,” giving talented undergraduate students the opportunity to do sophisticated research with top-notch mentors while generating solid scientific research that benefits the school.

Students are given the opportunity to learn the basic skills required to contribute to research efforts in a multitude of disciplines. UTMB has 21 departments offering research opportunities for students interested in almost any area of biomedical research, including molecular biology, toxicology, biochemistry, immunology, physiology, virology, genetics, microbiology and pharmacology.

A sample of the techniques a student might learn includes maintaining cell cultures, electrophoresis, chromatography, immunoassays, animal surgery, electrophysiology and neurochemical assays and protein and nucleic acid molecular biology.

The students attend various scientific seminars and journal clubs during the summer. Finally, all participants will display the results of their research efforts at a poster session at the end of the program.

“When I first came here, I was really intimidated,” said Belanger, 20, a student at Wheaton College. “I didn’t have any experience.”

Now, she is confident in her abilities and credits the program for giving her new insights into her chosen profession.

Jazmin Ruiz, a pre-doctoral student in the graduate school’s Preventive Medicine and Community Health graduate program, served as Belanger’s mentor for her asthma research in the internal medicine department.

“It was a pleasure to pass on my knowledge to someone who is genuinely enthusiastic and inquisitive about science,” Ruiz said.

SURP students submit an abstract and create a poster of their work and submit them for recognition at the end of the summer.  Ballinger was among the awardees and received recognition for her asthma research in the Immunity category. Awards are made possible by faculty donors.

Other award winners were:

Photos courtesy of Jennifer Reynolds, Galveston Daily News.