Category: CMS-Biology

Biology Department

The Biology Department has had a great start to the year.  We’ve had new faculty members join the department and we are so lucky to have them! They include Dr. Justin Agan. He teaches Bio for Majors: Diversity & Life Sciences Lab. Dr. Ashley Mattison teaches Bio for Majors: Principals, General Biology, and Intro to Micro and lab. Dr. Richard Dolman teaches a Life Sciences Lab & Human Physiology lecture and lab and is also Physiology lab coordinator. Randee Marble M.S. teaches Mammalian Physiology I, Cell Biology and Lab, and she’s the Cell Bio Lab’s coordinator.  Come by and say hello to them all.

We are revising the Biology: Biomedical Sciences degree and developing new courses for the Spring 2023 semester. Look for Pathogenic Microbiology and Advanced Human Anatomy and Dissection next semester and more for the Fall 2023 semester. We are also excited for the final approval for a new Ecology and Conservation Biology degree that could be in the 2023-2024 course catalog.

Posted on October 18, 2022 by Tami Jackson

GRANTS, GRANTS, GRANTS!

A number of UCO faculty were recently awarded a $1,187,961, six-year grant from the National Science Foundation as part of its Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program. This project titled “Master Teachers Conducting STEM Practices and Action Research” will create a new partnership among the University of Central Oklahoma, Oklahoma City Public Schools, and the Central Oklahoma STEM Alliance to serve the national need of developing highly effective biology and mathematics teacher leaders in secondary education in Oklahoma.

The Noyce program supports talented STEM undergraduate majors and professionals to become effective K-12 STEM teachers and experienced, K-12 teachers to become STEM master teachers in high-need school districts. Fourteen central Oklahoma high school biology and math teachers will become Master Teaching Fellows. They will conduct STEM research and educational action research, do leadership training, and continue professional development and community building with each other while teaching in high-need schools. The program will orient these teachers to effectively support and mentor other teachers, especially those with emergency and alternative certifications.

Program organizers include UCO’s: Allyson Fenwick, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Biology; Liz Lane-Harvard, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Mathematics & Statistics; Elizabeth Allan, Ph.D., Professor and Chair of the Department of Biology, and Mike Nelson, Ph.D., Professor and Assistant Dean of the College of Education and Professional Studies. The program evaluator is Cynthia Murray, Ph.D., Professor of Mathematics and Statistics. Additional UCO faculty are senior personnel on the project and will mentor Fellows.

Dr. Ben Tayo, Associate Professor of Engineering & Physics was awarded a National Institutes of Health, R-15 grant. The grant, a three-year, $425,928 research grant will bring deeper insights on a new class of materials for DNA detection. The ability to detect and discriminate DNA bases by reading it directly using simple and cost-effective methods is an important problem whose solution can produce value for areas such as cancer and human genetic disorder research. Despite progress in sequencing techniques, there are still several challenges to be overcome. Because of the challenges, the need for cheaper and faster approaches for automated sequencing is crucial. This research will employ high-performance computing and machine learning resources to investigate the potential of several two-dimensional crystalline materials for DNA sequencing. The knowledge gained from this research will provide deeper insights that will help guide the integration of these materials as active components of electronic devices for fast, direct-read, and affordable DNA sequencing. This award will strengthen the research environment at the University of Central Oklahoma and engage students in computational research.

Dr. Emily Hendryx from the Department of Mathematics and Statistics was awarded a three-year, $410,515 grant from the National Institute of Health. Titled “Summarizing Cardiac Data: An Automated Approach for Identifying Representative Heartbeats in the Clinical Setting,” this project involves a collaboration with Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital to use applied mathematics and data science in removing noise and summarizing pediatric electrocardiogram data recorded at hospital bedsides. This project will provide a way to present a representation of a patient’s recent cardiac health history to clinicians and deliver clinical decision support toward improving patient outcomes. Co-advised by Dr. Tyler Cook from the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, this project will also offer undergraduate students an opportunity to participate in innovative interdisciplinary research.

Dr. John Rhee from the Department of Computer Science received a $87,873 grant from Sandia National Laboratories as part of his effort to build better cybersecurity services for cloud-based software systems. Once completed, the tools developed in his project titled “TelScope: Discovering Blind Spots of Telemetry Diagnosability” will be used to reveal gaps between telemetry requirements and implemented telemetry collection for cloud services.

Dr. Morshed Khandaker from the Department of Engineering and Physics received an Oklahoma Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) grant for his project “Anti Corrosion Behavior of Mg and Zn nanoparticle incorporated nanofiber membrane.” This $5,000 award will be used to evaluate the structural efficacy of magnesium- and zinc-loaded nanofiber membrane coating on steel in reinforced concrete.

Posted on October 18, 2022 by Tami Jackson

STEM Industry Careers Panel

CMS recently hosted 18 industry leaders from around the OKC Metro area for a STEM Industry Careers Panel. Panelists participated in moderator led Q&A sessions followed by industry focused break-out sessions with students. Panelists shared how they entered their careers upon completion of their degree and provided advice to students on how to prepare for career opportunities in various STEM fields.

The event took place in two lecture halls and included panelists from Tinker Air Force Base, Cytovance Biologics, American Fidelity, Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, Love’s, ASRC Federal, FSB Architects and Engineers, ARL Bio Pharma, Oklahoma City Public Schools, Paycom, ALK OKC Allergy Supplies Inc., Bethany Children’s Health Center, OU Health Center, Oklahoma State Department of Health, Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality and the FBI. Over one hundred students attended the panel discussions throughout the two lecture halls and break-out rooms.

Panelists then broke in to five targeted sessions focusing on computer science, math, engineering, nursing, biological and chemical sciences. Students participated in the break-out sessions asking questions and sharing information pertinent to their future career goals.

The event ended with a networking reception for students and professionals to continue visiting and building connections. Throughout the one-hour event conversations revolved around ways to enter an industry as well as how careers take shape as the discipline evolves.

Posted on October 18, 2022 by Tami Jackson

Numerous Faculty Receive EPSCoR and OK-INBRE Grants

As part of his collaboration with Oklahoma State University, Dr. Chad King has received a subaward from Oklahoma NSF EPSCoR, receiving an overall grade of “Outstanding” for the proposal. As a result, Dr. King’s team will receive $15,000 to “identify the future pattern of water quantity and quality in the Upper Little River Watershed (ULRW) under the impacts of changed climate conditions and intensified land disturbances.”

March was a busy time for faculty seeking funding for biomedical programs at UCO. One of the university’s most important partners, the Oklahoma IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (OK-INBRE), recently contributed vital grant monies to UCO faculty to further enhance the statewide research infrastructure and biomedical research capacity. Recently, four UCO faculty have received new Summer Mentoring and Research Training (SMaRT) grants from the OK-INBRE program. Dr. Christopher Goodchild will receive $5,985 for his project titled “Transcriptional Regulation of Chick Embryo Cardiac Morphogenesis” to assess the potential for adverse developmental outcomes in chicks from embryonic exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Dr. Mohammad Hossan will receive $5,992 for this project titled “Hemolysis and Thrombogenicity Studies of PCL Flow Diverters” to design and develop bioresorbable flow diverters that can control aneurysm specific hemodynamic parameters and degrade after insertion into the body when they complete dissolving aneurysms. Dr. Morshed Khandaker will receive $6,000 for his project titled “Measurement of Interface Failure Strength Between Titanium and Bone” to design, develop and characterize a tibial interlocking nail system for an engineered 3D-printed large bone defect model. Dr. Nikki Seagraves will receive $5,998 for her project titled “Assessing the Effect of Phenylalanine Neural Crest Cell Differentiation” to improve the current understanding of how phenylalanine causes craniofacial deformities by examining the effects of phenylalanine on chondrocyte differentiation by O9-1 mouse cranial neural crest cells.

Two faculty received Equipment grants from OK-INBRE as well. Dr. Abdellah Ait-Moussa was awarded $24,539 to purchase a desktop extrusion-based bioprinter manufactured by CELLINK for use in multi-disciplinary biomedical research and education. This bioprinter is designed to fabricate tissue structures that contain cells blended with extracellular matrix. Dr. Mohammad Hossan will receive $24,995 to acquire a Cellometer Spectrum image cytometry system to count and analyze primary cells from peripheral blood, cord blood, bone marrow, and other complex samples including regular cells in cell media, surface markers and other cell-based assays.

Drs. Sanjeewa Gamagedara and Hari Kotturi both won Summer Research Opportunity (ROA) grants from OK-INBRE. Dr. Gamagedara will receive $7,480 to identify and characterize allergens proteins from two most abundant grass species in Oklahoma. He will conduct this research at the University of Oklahoma Mass Spectrometry, Proteomics & Metabolomics (MSPM) Core Facility in Norman. Dr. Kotturi will receive $12,228 to purify UCO’s high-titer lysates using ultracentrifuges and remove Lipopolysaccharides from high-titer lysates in labs located at the University of Oklahoma Health Science Center, therefore helping produce Phage-incorporated PCL nanofibers with much better antimicrobial properties.

Congratulations to each of the faculty for their successful pursuit of external funding for important science projects here at UCO. More OK-INBRE award announcements are expected soon.

Posted on May 18, 2022 by Buddy Broncho

Two CMS Faculty Receive a Mathematics Education Grant

Two professors in our college recently received a Mathematics Association of America grant totaling $29,502 for mathematics education.

Dr. Emily Hendryx, Assistant Professor of Mathematics & Statistics, and Dr. Matthew Parks, Assistant Professor of Biology, will receive $29,502 courtesy of the Mathematics Association of America. Their project, “Multiple Aspects of a Single-use Problem: Applying Mathematics to Understand Consumer Litter Distribution along Metropolitan Waterways,” will provide students with an opportunity to get hands-on experience in applying mathematics and statistics to the real-world problem of consumer litter accumulation along local streams. In their 7-week program, students will not only develop mathematical models and perform statistical analyses based on local litter data, but they will also participate in the design and implementation of the data-collection process. Students will therefore gain first-hand experience in experiment design, fieldwork, data wrangling, basic programming skills, statistical analyses, and mathematical modeling through differential equations.

Both professors wish to thank the Mathematics Association of America for its generosity.

Posted on May 18, 2022 by Buddy Broncho

Oklahoma Academy of Sciences Technical Meeting at East Central University in Ada, OK

The College of Mathematics and Science had several undergraduate and graduate students attend and present at the Oklahoma Academy of Sciences Technical Meeting at East Central University in Ada, OK. OAS holds annual technical meetings, field meetings, and, until recently, junior academy meetings. The purpose of the Academy is to stimulate scientific research in Oklahoma.

CMS had one Outstanding Undergraduate Oral Presentation winner at the 110th Technical Meeting of the Oklahoma Academy of Science. Sidra Jawaid won in the Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science section with her abstract titled “IDENTIFYING CRITICAL HIGHER-ORDER INTERACTIONS IN COMPLEX NETWORKS”.

Dr. David Bass has been involved in OAS since 1985 and has served in many leadership roles including president in 2000, and as the Executive Director for 20 years.  When asked what the value of OAS as a forum is, Dr. Bass said, “The technical meeting is a great venue for students to attend. Students have opportunities to listen to presentations by professionals and learn how these talks are conducted. Students also have an opportunity to present their own research findings in a low-key, friendly environment. It is also noteworthy that, as students, many faculty gave their first research talk at a state academy meeting.”

A UCO Senior majoring in Biomedical Sciences, Hallum Ewbank, presented her research this fall. When looking back at her experience she said “I really enjoyed getting to share my research and receive support and feedback from other students and professors. It was very encouraging to see others excited to hear about what I was doing and I gained valuable ideas for changes to make in the future. Additionally, it was a great way to hear about what others are researching in many different fields.” Professor Christopher Goodchild responded by stating, “The greatest accomplishment as a professor is seeing my students succeed.”

Dr. Chad King will continue to send his students to OAS stating that “This venue is a fantastic place for students who are new to research, to present their research findings and work on their science communication skills. This was the case for my research student, Valeria, who started in my research lab during Summer 2021. The research experience and OAS Technical Meeting has motivated her to pursue funding through the UCO RCSA grant program to answer a research question that she has fully developed on her own!”

Central has seven faculty members involved in the Executive Council of OAS including Dr. Benjamin Tayo, Dr. Brad Watkins, Dr. Nesreen Alsbou, Dr. Gang Xu, Dr. Mehmet Aktas, Dr. Nikki Seagraves, and Dr. David Bass.

For more information about the Oklahoma Academy of Science visit its website at www.oklahomaacademyofscience.org

Editor’s Note: See the full list of winners from the 110th Technical Meeting of the Oklahoma Academy of Science Collegiate Academy awards (2021). www.oklahomaacademyofscience.org/2021.html

Posted on March 30, 2022 by Buddy Broncho
Next

Useful Links

March 2023
S M T W T F S
 1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
262728293031