BMC STUDENT BIOLOGIST WINS PRIZE IN POSTER SESSION

Biology major Ghazal Zekavat '06 recently won a prize in a poster session at an undergraduate research symposium that drew 198 presenters from colleges and universities throughout the Mid-Atlantic region. Zekavat's research poster, titled The Effect of Blood Perception on Behavioral Choice in the Leech, took second place in the afternoon biology presentation section at the 7th Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium in the Chemical and Biological Sciences.

The symposium, held at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County, "seeks to foster communication of the latest relevant novel results and concepts" in undergraduate research. Four hundred people, including students and faculty, attended this year's conference. This year, the symposium followed a presentation format made up entirely of posters, consisting of presenters in three categories: biology, chemistry and biochemistry.

Zekavat's presentation, which she co-authored with Maureen Convery '06, was part of ongoing research in the laboratory of Professor of Biology Peter Brodfuehrer on the neuronal basis of behavioral choice. Recently, Nicole Pietras '04 demonstrated that the perception of artificial blood in the environment biases the behavioral responsiveness of leeches toward swimming and crawling. As a first step toward understanding the neuronal changes underlying this effect, Zekavat tested whether application of artificial blood to the mouth of an otherwise isolated leech nervous system altered the ability of peripheral nerve stimulation to initiate swimming. She found the probability of initiating swimming depended on the concentration of artificial blood surrounding the mouth: undiluted blood decreased swimming while a 1:10 dilution led to an increase. Next, the Brodfuehrer lab will examine how the activity patterns of individual neurons correlate with changes in behavior.

Zekavat and Convery join a long list of Bryn Mawr undergraduates who have distinguished themselves at the Undergraduate Research Symposium in the Chemical and Biological Sciences. Four students working with Assistant Professor of Biology Tamara Davis have won first prize in the biology category: Anuja Ogirala '01 in 2000, Anna Arnaudo '02 in 2002, and Alyson Dymkowski '04 and Balpreet Bhogal '04 in 2003. Nicole Pietras '04, working with Brodfuehrer, won second prize in 2003.

— Allison Siegenthaler '07

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