Deborah O’Dell, associate professor of biology and president-elect of the Virginia Academy of Science, presided over the Virginia Academy of Sciences Undergraduate Research Meeting on Saturday, Oct. 27 at J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College. Deborah Zies, associate professor of biology, was the invited speaker and spoke on “Smith-Magenis Syndrome: An Investigation of a Human Genome Disorder.” Lynn Lewis and Kathryn Loesser, professors of biology, served as judges for the research grant recipients along with Deborah Zies, Deborah O’Dell and Carleitta Paige, adjunct faculty member of biology. Faculty sponsoring students in competition for a $500 undergraduate research grant were: Lynn Lewis who sponsored Kathleen Blevins and Ryan Green, Theresa Grana, assistant professor of biology, who sponsored Sarah Marzec and Daniel Browne, and Andrew Dolby, professor of biology, who sponsored Abbigal Kimmit and Michael Carlo. Ryan Green was awarded a grant for his research project “A Study of Chloroquine’s Antiretroviral Characteristics.”
