SciSearch students awarded Archer STEM Research Grants

We are pleased to share that our students in Honors Scientific Research (aka SciSearch) have been awarded three Archer STEM Research Grants, which is a STEM initiative sponsored by the Archer School for Girls on the west side. 

More than $20,000 was available through the merit-based application process; all of our girls who submitted proposals received funding, for a total of $5,500. The institutional support from FSHA is the primary source of funding for our students’ projects. This year the outside funding makes it possible to purchase a major analytical instrument and expensive reagents that extend the scope of the work proposed by these eight students.
 
Combating Antibiotic Resistance

Amelia Andrews, Michelle Liu and Genevieve Spiotto  -- “Thwarting Bacterial Communication: Curcumin’s Pathway-Specific Inhibitory Effects on Bioluminescence, Biofilm Formation and Motility in Vibrio harveyi”

Ellis DeJardin and Darcy Michero – “Silencing Bacterial Communication: The Inhibitory Effect of Quercetin on Quorum Sensing in Vibrio harveyi”
 
Deriving Transportation Fuel from Microalgae

Cate Doud, Lauren Risha and Claire Villegas – “Fueling the Future:  Inducing Stress in Chlorella sorokiniana to Optimize Production of Microalgal Biofuels”
 
They will conduct the experiments in the coming months and present their findings at the FSHA Research Night and Archer STEM Symposium events in May.