The Society of Toxicology (SOT) Annual Meeting is in Baltimore, Maryland, March 12-16, 2017. This is a special opportunity for students to participate in a large interdisciplinary science meeting at minimal cost. Undergraduate registration is complimentary and SOT will waive registration for faculty (non-SOT members) who accompany a group of undergraduates attending the meeting. A special program on Sunday, March 12, for undergraduates includes a special set of lectures and breakout sessions to introduce students to toxicology, graduate studies, and the opportunity to meet one-on-one with directors of academic toxicology programs and internship hosts. Although we especially encourage undergraduates to attend on Sunday, complimentary registration provides access at any time during the meeting.

She is an a Biological Sciences major with a minor in Statistics. She was also a presenter at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS) in 2016. Her project focused on measuring the binding interaction between small molecule ligands and the Core Encapsidation Signal of HIV-1 RNA as a potential drug target. Her future goal will to include obtaining her MD/PhD. She would like to open her own research lab, or have a teaching position at a university or be a clinical researcher. In her free time she is a member of the UMBC gospel choir and Learning Assistant for Biology 141.

Ugonna's research will focus on understanding how and in which orientation certain classes of ligands bind to the recently determined CES structure. Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 (HIV-1) has become a worldwide epidemic with a high rate of infection. HIV attacks and destroys the infection-fighting CD4 cells of the immune system. Without treatment, HIV can gradually destroy the immune system and advance to AIDS, Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. The purpose of this project is to develop therapeutics that target functional RNA elements within the highly-conserved 5′-untranslated region (UTR). The core encapsidation signal (CES) was identified as a minimal region within the 5’- UTR that is independently capable of directing the packaging of the virus’s unspliced dimeric genome.

Read more about her research here…

Undergraduate Research Awards provide up to $1,500 to undergraduate students to support their research or creative work with a UMBC faculty mentor on an original project. 

UMBC students of all years and disciplines are invited to apply, as long as they will remain enrolled at UMBC long enough to complete the proposed work.

This is an award for all majors!  Visual artists, filmmakers, photographers-- we want your projects!

Apply Now!

He is an American Studies and Political Science major as well as a McNair scholar. His career goal is to become an academic and an editorial writer. Prior to his research, he was more interested in policy than discourse analysis. Now, he would like to eventually write books on different types of discourse within America, particularly of a political nature or relating to African-American issues.

Richard's research will explore the cultural and linguistic approach that was used to analyze the effect that speeches by members of the right-wing Tea Party Caucus have had on conservative political discourse. The rhetoric of these politicians after their ascendance in the 2010 congressional elections was compared to the rhetoric used by John McCain, the Republican nominee in 2008, and Donald Drumpf, the Republican nominee in 2016 and current POTUS. This analysis could explain the mind set of the oval office.

Read more about his research here…

The Twenty-first Annual Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement Day

April 26, 2017

Become an URCAD presenter!
All disciplines welcome!
Now accepting applications!