Graduate Students
Dan Raymond
"We [the UMBTC] collectively add to the general knowledge of these cancers in hopes of helping those who develop the disease."
Hometown: Sandusky, Michigan
Year at NMU: Senior
Area of Study: Microbiology, Spanish
Lab Involvement: Working specifically with the drug Thalidomide to better understand its effects on specific protein complex formation in vitro, through the generation of recombinant proteins.
Future Plans: Masters or Ph.D.; either way, onward and upward!
Joseph Duffy
Hometown: North Riverside, Illinois
Year at NMU: Second Year Master's Student
Area of Study: Integrated Biosciences
Lab Involvement: Investigating the effects fasting has on both brain tumor and normal brain cells. The standard chemotherapy agent for glioblastoma is a drug named temozolomide. However, a subset glioblastoma cells remain inherently resistant to the effects of temozolomide, leading to the inevitable reoccurrence of disease. By fasting glioblastoma and normal brain cells prior to treatment with temozolomide, I hope to increase sensitivity of the cancer cells to temozolomide while simultaneously protecting the normal brain cells from the harmful effects of that same chemotherapy agent.
Future Plans: Medical school, with hopes of becoming a researching oncologist.
Freshmen Fellows
Veronica Line
"I definitely think the research I will be doing in the UMBTC will give me an experience that I would not get anywhere else."
Hometown: South Range, Wisconsin
Year at NMU: Freshman
Area of Study: Biology, Physiology
Lab Involvement: As a Freshman Fellow, primarily observation of the graduate and undergraduate researchers that have more experience in the lab. After the continuation of shadowing these knowledgeable researchers, the creation of my own research project.
Future Plans: After graduation from NMU with my undergraduate degree, heading off to medical school!
