Munson Lab hosts great undergraduate researchers

We've had the pleasure of hosting three outstanding undergraduate students through the great programs at Virginia Tech this summer. Here's a little bit about them and what they're working on (from left to right):

Gabryel Conley-Natividad is visiting us from the University of Idaho. Gabe has a background in computational fluid mechanics and at Idaho works to model the flow of cerebral spinal fluid in the spinal cord. He is working on using our microfluidics to analyze glioma cell migration in response to differential flow rates. He is trying his hand at cell culture for the first time! Gabe is supported by the Biomechanics REU program through BEAM.

Richard Kline joins us from Northern Virginia Community College where he majors in Biology. He has been working on metastatic models of breast cancer in the brain and examining the role of the extracellular matrix composition on therapeutic response of tumor cells. He is supported through the Bridges to Baccalaureate Program.

Beulah Dadala is an undergraduate and UC Berkeley in Biomedical Engineering. She works in the McDevitt lab at the Gladstone Institutes during the school year. Here, she's been working on analyzing glial cells in our 3D tissue engineered tumor microenvironment systems! Beulah is supported through the Biomechanics REU program through BEAM.

We've really enjoyed having these students visit with us this summer and hope to see them back in Blacksburg in the future! Check out their presentations at the Summer Undergraduate Research Symposium in Goodwin Hall, Thursday July 26th from 9-4.