Martinez-Vaz, Student Present at ASBMB Annual Meeting

Dr. Betsy Martinez-Vaz, Professor of Biology and Director of Biochemistry, and Hailee Aro ’24 recently presented their research at the National Meeting of the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) in San Antonio, Texas. Dr. Martinez-Vaz's presentation, titled: "BioSolve: Exploring Biguanide Biodegradation Pathways through Collaborative Undergraduate Research Experiences," emphasized a new course-based undergraduate research experience focused on microbial proteins capable of breaking down biguanide compounds, including the pharmaceutical metformin. Aro received the ASBMB undergraduate student travel award to present a poster entitled: "A Modular Platform for the Synthesis of DNA Inputs for Cell-Free Biological Computation". Hailee did this work as part of a summer research experience in Dr. Kate Adamala's lab at the University of Minnesota.