2013 Summer Research Projects

The following is a list of projects worked on by TAMS students during the Summer of 2013.

Name Research Project
Hans Ajieren Active Space Analysis of Praseodymium and Promethium Monofluorides
Mentor – Dr. Angela Wilson
Department of Chemistry
University of North Texas
Jack Cheng Characterization of high-temperature polymer coatings for thermoelectric generatios
Mentor – Dr. Witold Brostow
Department of Engineering and Materials Science
University of North Texas
Ben Chi Active Space Analysis of Praseodymium and Promethium Monofluorides
Mentor – Dr. Angela Wilson
Department of Chemistry
University of North Texas
Eileen Dai Supramolecular interaction in an ion-paired multinuclear complex for improved luminescence
Mentor – Dr. Mohammad Omary
Department of Chemistry
University of North Texas
Tony Deng Investigation of the JAK-STAT signaling pathway in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma
Mentor – Dr. Jaye Johnson
Department of Head and Neck Oncology
MD Anderson Cancer Center
Pranav Devalla An optimization of vehicle routing methods to accommodate network damage in large-scale emergencies
Mentor – Dr. Armin Mikler
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
University of North Texas
Krzysztof Drewniak A Method for Reducing the Severity of Epidemics by Allocating Vaccines According  to Centrality
Mentor – Dr. Armin Mikler
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
University of North Texas
Ethan Fan Determination of a Method for Autonomous Movement via Neurological Signals
Mentor – Dr. Nicoladie Tam
Department of Biological Sciences
Univeristy of North Texas
Veena Ghorakavi Finding the function of a gene that may pertain to the relation of SAR and flowering 
Mentor – Dr. Jyoti Shah
Department of Biological Sciences
Univeristy of North Texas
Leon Gu Earth Abundant Catalysis for the Conversion of Natual Gas to Liquids
Mentor – Dr. Cundari
Department of Chemistry
University of North Texas
Rahul Gupta Modeling Poly-Lysine Interactions with Mutant and Wild Type Cardiac Myosin Subfragment-2
Mentor – Dr. Douglas Root
Department of Biological Sciences
Univeristy of North Texas
Lucy Hao Over activity in CA3 of the Hippocampus: Link to Schizophrenia
Mentor – Dr. Carol A. Tamminga
Department of Psychiatry
UT Southwestern Medical Center
Stacy Ho An investigation into Polyamines for Improving the Stability of Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Mutant Myosin Peptides
Mentor – Dr. Douglas Root
Department of Biological Sciences
University of North Texas
Valerie Huynh Restraining Seizures: Roles of Somatostatin type-3 receptors and Melanin-concentrating hormone receptor 1 on Primary Cilia  
Mentor – Dr. Jannon Fuchs
Department of Biological Sciences
University of North Texas
Peter Jiang Chemical Modification of Wood Sawdust in Polymer-Wood Composites
Mentor – Dr. Wiltold Brostow
Department of Engineering and Materials Science
University of North Texas
Sagar Khetpal Discovering a Method to Control p53-dependent Apoptosis in Cancer Cells: Stressors to p53 Activation in the Stem Cells of Ovaries of Drosophila melanogaster 
Mentor – Dr. John Abrams
Department of Cell Biology
UT Southwestern Medical Center
Vanessa Ku dcd3 Maize Mutations 
Mentor – Dr. Amanda Wright
Department of Biological Sciences
University of North Texas
Amy Kuprasertkul The Effect of ATP, dATP, and other Nucleotides on the contractility of Myofibrils 
Mentor – Dr. Douglas Root 
Department of Biological Sciences 
University of North Texas
Helen Lu A Cost-Effective Predictive Method for the Purification and Synthesis of Novel Sulfonamide Antimicrobial Drugs 
Synteny Visualization Display Problem
Mentor – Dr. William Acree 
Department of Chemistry 
University of North Texas
Rosalind Ma The Comparison of the Efficiency of CLARITY to that of Standard Sectioning Methods on P30 GFP GFAP Mice
Mentor – Dr. Qing Richard Lu 
Department of Development Biology 
UT Southwestern Medical Center
Siva Manivasagam Application of a pseudopotential-based composite method for first and second row transition metal thermochemistry
Mentor – Dr. Angela Wilson 
Department of Chemistry 
University of North Texas
Roja Manohar Epigenetic Effects of hypoxia on the Morphology and Physiology of Drosophila melanogaster 
Mentor – Dr. Warren Burggren 
Department of Biological Science
University of North Texas
William Ou DFT Modeling of the Aldehyde-Water Shift Reaction with a Cationic CpIr Catalyst 
Mentor – Dr. Tom Cundari 
Department of Chemistry 
University of North Texas
Alisha Paul Taxonomic profiling of bacterial metagenomes
Mentor – Dr. Rafeev Azad 
Department of Biological Sciences 
University of North Texas
Subodh Potla Determination of a Method for Autonomous Movement via Neurological Signals 
Mentor – Dr. Nicolade Tam 
Department of Biological Sciences
University of North Texas
David Qiu Properties of Concrete Aggregate and Admixtures 
Mentor – Dr. Witold Browtow 
Department of Materials Science and Engineering 
University of North Texas
Aishwarya Ramamurthi Protein Stripping of Peptoid-Coupled Beads for Fluoroscopic Peptoid Library Screen 
Mentor – Dr. Dwight German 
Department of Psychiatry 
UT Southwestern Medical Center
Anita Rao The role of Parent Behaviors and Parent-Child Interactions
Mentor – Dr. Daniel Taylor 
Department of Psycology 
University of North Texas
Victoria Rivera-Peterson JAK3- Not Just Another Kinase Target for Leukemia Therapy
Mentor – Dr. Robert Kirken 
Department of Biological Sciences 
University of Texas at El Paso
Mathews Roy Dynamic effect of micro particles in a liquid 
Mentor – Dr. Zhenhai Xia 
Department of Materials Science and Engineering 
University of North Texas
Kinnari Ruikar The Role of P2Y1 and P2Y12 in Hemostasis 
Mentor – Dr. Pudur Jagadeeswaran 
Department of Biological Sciences 
University of North Texas
Kalpana Satish A Cost-Effective Predictive Method for the Purification and Synthesis of Novel Sulfonamide Antimicrobial Drugs 
Mentor – Dr. William Acree 
Department of Biological Sciences
University of North Texas
Julia Shan A Cost-Effective Predictive Method for the Purification and Synthesis of Novel Sulfonamide Antimicrobial Drugs 
Mentor – Dr. William Acree 
Department of Biological Sciences 
University of North Texas
Harvey Shi A Quantitative Study of ZnSe Nanowires and its Potential Applications in Industry 
Mentor – Dr. Marco Buongiorno 
Department of Physics and Chemistry   
University of North Texas
Minji Son Verification of the Presence of Meis1 in Cardiomyocytes using tdTomato Protein Reporters
Mentor – Dr. Hesham A. Sadek 
Department of Intrenal Medicine, Cardiology 
University of Texas Southwester
Tracy Theisen Electrolytic Deposition of Thiophene-3-Acetic Acid onto ITO
Mentor – Dr. Guenter Gross 
Department of Biology 
University of North Texas
Robert Tung A Novel Statistical Representation of Education and Development 
Mentor – Dr. Alex White 
Department of Mathematics 
Texas State University
Dmitri Ukraintsev Respiration Rate of Drosophila Melanogaster Embryos
Mentor – Dr. Stanislav Shvartsman and Dr. Joe Benziger 
Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering 
Princeton University
Annabel Wang Wetting Angles of Molten Polymers on Thermoelectric Solid Metal Surfaces 
Mentor – Dr. Haley E. Hagg Lobland 
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
University of North Texas
Bobby Wang Restraining Seizures: Roles of Somatostatin type-3 receptors and Melanin-concentration hormone receptor 1 on Primary Cilia 
Mentor – Dr. Fuchs 
Department of Biological Sciences 
University of North Texas
Natalie Wingfield The Detection of Cancer through Electrical Impedance Scanning: A Model 
Mentor – Dr. Vijay Vaidyanathan 
Department of Engineering 
University of North Texas
Erin Yang Clonal Dynamics of Hepatocytes in the Context of Regeneration after Chronic CCl4 Intoxication 
Mentor – Dr. Hao Zhu 
Department of Internal Medicine Pediatrics 
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Cindy Yu Mitochondrial Dysfunction: Potential Link Between Maternal High Fat Diet and Etiology of Autism Spectrum Disorders 
Mentor – Dr. Deborah Clegg 
Department of Internal Medicine
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Eric Zhang Suppression of Hepatic XP1s Decreases the Bile Salt Pool 
Mentor – Dr. Richard M. Green 
Department of Medicine-Gastroenterology Hepatology 
Northwestern University
Haoling Zhu The Effects of Tension on the Structure of the Actin Filament Using a Modification of the Gravitational Force Spectrometer 
Mentor – Dr. Douglas Root
Department of Biological Sciences
University of North Texas