Prairie View Takes Home Gold in Atlanta

Earlier this month during the week of November 2-6, 2005, during the 5th Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS), held in Atlanta, Georgia, Houston Community College and BGBD (Bridging the Gap to the Baccalaureate Degree) students Beatrice Ndonye and Windlyne DeLouis received top awards for their poster presentation of their summer research. Project Export, BGBD and REU (Research Experiences for Undergraduate Students), programs geared toward university and community college students interested in scientific research, is directed by Dr. E. Gloria C. Regisford, Associate Professor in the Biology Department and coordinated by Dr. Laura Carson from the Cooperative Agricultural Research Center at Prairie View A&M University. Project Export is a research program for students currently enrolled at Prairie View to engage in biomedical research. Bridging the Gap to the Baccalaureate Degree (BGBD) also directed and coordinated by Drs. Regisford and Carson respectively, is credited for exposing Houston Community College students to conducting biomedical research for the first time and mentoring the students in how to become acclimated to a university environment.
Through the Leadership Alliance Program, Prairie View senior Biology major Mercy Dickson was accepted to a 10-week summer research program at the prestigious Department of Neuroscience and Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. There, under mentors Jay M. Baraban and Irving M. Reti, Dickson's research experiment NARP, A Neuronal Pentraxin Family Member, is Present in Serum and Regulated by Endotoxin, would lead her to her first win at the annually held research conference.
Sophomores, Windlyne DeLouise, a Biology major and Beatrice Ndonye, a nursing major at Houston Community College Southeast were accepted to the 10-week BGBD program. Under the tutelage of mentor Dr. Aderemi Oki, Head of the Chemistry Department at Prairie View A&M University, Ms. DeLouise researched the Synthesis of Microporous Metal-Oxides as Template for Bone Cells which she presented and won in the Chemical Sciences Division. Beatrice Ndonye, mentored by BGBD director Dr. E. Gloria C. Regisford and Dr. Maria Schettino at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, researched the Effects of a High Soy Diet on Serum Levels of Genistein and Testosterone in Prostate Cancer Survivors which she presented and won in the division of Cell and Development Biology at this year's ABRCMS conference.
This past week has shown that the research based programs, Project Export and BGBD upholds Prairie View A&M University's motto: Prairie View Produces Productive People. Congratulations Ladies! To view the complete list of winners in all categories from this year's conference, go to the ABRCMS website at http://www.abrcms.org/2005awardwinners.htmlAyana Young is currently a junior at Prairie View A&M University. She transferred from HCC T&C to Prairie View A&M after her participation in the BGBD program in the summer of 2004. She is currently working on alternative treatment modalities for ovarian cancer.