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Senior Danjuma Quarless received first place in the 2009 Scientific Poster Presentation last summer while participating in the University of Massachusetts Medical School Summer Research Fellowship Program. He earned perfect scores for presenting his research in deflagellation-induced gene expression in Chlamydomonas.
"My experience presenting in Boston paled in comparison to the experience of performing the research at UMass Med," Quarless says. "I was treated as a true grad school student and I carried a major portion of responsibility for the project, which forced me to step up to the plate and provided an opportunity for personal and professional growth."
Quarless's study examined the genetic regulation of flagella growth in the microbe Chlamydomonas. These are similar in structure and function to human cilia, which are cells that create a lashing movement, especially found in free unicellular organisms. Defects in human cilia are linked to kidney disease, male sterility, retinal degeneration and obesity. Quarless developed an analysis that can be used to measure the extent of flagella gene expression in Chlamydomonas.
Quarless was also recently selected to present his research at the American Society of Cell Biology's annual conference, which will be held in San Diego in December. After graduating from Whitworth in May 2010, Quarless plans to attend graduate school in the field of bioinformatics, mathematical biology or biomedical sciences.
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