Congratulations to Jared Jensen and Candi Grado!

Jan. 30, 2014

These two studensts successfully defended their oral presentations and examinations to complete their Degree in Professional Science Masters.

Jared Jensen
ABS-PSM Track: Industrial and Microbial Biotechnology
"The search for Nrf2 Inhibitors: An Internship at DemeteRx Pharmaceuticals."
DemeteRx is a local drug discovery business (UA Biopark) that uses plant-based compounds to make tumors more responsive to conventional chemotherapy treatments. Jared's committee members are Istvan Molnar, PhD (UA Applied Biosciences), Patricia Stock, PhD (UA Entomology), and DAvid Baltrus, PhD (UA Plant Sciences). Guillermo Morales, PhD (UA Bio5) also provided mentorship to Jared. On behalf of the ABS program, we offer a sincere thank you to Samantha Whitman, PhD, the co-founder of DemetRx for providing JAred with this excellent opportunity. Jared has already been accepted into a prestigious PhD program.

Candi Grado
ABS-PSM Track: Medical & Diagnostic Laboratory Sciences
"The Epidemiology and Impact of Traumatic Brain Injury: An Emerging Public Health Concern," conducted at MSDx.
MSDx is another local business at the UA Biopark. They focus on the development and characterization of novel biomarkers to monitor disease activity in neurological, autoimmune, and inflammatory disorder. A major focus is Multiple Sclerosis. Candi's committee members are Natalie Whitfield, PhD (UA Applied Biosciences), Marie Wesselhoft, MBA (MSDx and Ramesh Nayak, PhD (MSDx). Donna Wolk, PhD, (UA Applied Biosciences) was also instrumental in the development of Candi's research internship project. We are extremely grateful to MSDx for providing Candi (and several other ABS-PSM students) with a fantastic research internship opportunity.

Although they will not graduate until May 2014, two other Applied Biosciences students, Ian McGill and Aletheia "Lacey" Swihart, successfully defended their research internship theses.

Ian McGill
ABS-PSM Track: Medical & Diagnostic Laboratory Sciences
"The role of HTLV-1 Related Endogenous Sequence (HRES-1) in the Etiopathogenesis of Multiple Sclerosis," conducted in the Adelman lab at the University of Arizona. Ian's committee memners are Miranda Adelman, PhD (UA Applied Biosciences), Nafees Ahmad, PhD (UA Immunobiology) and Ramesh Nayak, PhD (MSDx). Ian gave a fantastic presentation.

Aletheia "Lacey" Swihart
ABS-PSM Track: Medical & Diagnostic Laboratory Sciences
Lacey did 2 internships, one focusing on the business aspects (at MSDx) of research and the second in a research laboratory. The title of her first internship paper, a white paper, is "Benchmarking Comercialization Factors in in vitro Diagnostic Companies." The second is "Correlation of HTLV-Related Endegenous Sequence, Autoimmune Disorders and Retroviral Infections," which was conducted in the Adelman lab at the University of Arizona. Lacey's committee members are Miranda Adelman, PhD (UA Applied Biosciences), Marie Wesselhoft, MBA (MSDx) and Margaret Briehl, PhD (UA Pathology). Both projects were completed and successfully defended.