Four Colorado College students recently presented posters at the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology’s highly competitive undergraduate poster competition, with one student receiving an award for her work. The poster competition was part of the organization’s national conference, held in Washington, D.C., last month.
Presenting posters at the conference were Allison O’Connell ’11, Shane Strom ’11, Arian Frost ’12, and Justin Garoutte ’12. All four students are biochemistry majors and work with Associate Professor Neena Grover of the chemistry and biochemistry department.
O’Connell, a biochemistry major from Sea Cliff, N.Y., won an award for her poster titled “Thermodynamic Examination of the Internal Stem-Loop in U6 RNA.” She investigated the stability of the small RNA that is responsible for spliceosome assembly and catalysis. Understanding this can help explain the role of RNA and help in developing better RNA-based drugs in the near future.
