The Center for Cell Analysis and Modeling (CCAM) at UConn Health held its an annual award ceremony May 4 for winners of the 67th annual Connecticut Science & Engineering Fair.
The fair, held at Quinnipiac University in March, is a statewide annual event that features 500 pre-selected scientific projects performed by middle and high school students independently or in research labs. The Center for Cell Analysis and Modeling established a CAM award for the best research in Cell Analysis and Modeling – integrating experimental and computational approaches to analysis of events within a cell.
Several CCAM members were judges at the CSF fair and selected two winners for the CAM award: Shangda Xu from Cheshire High School for the project on “Development of a Prescient Warning Model for Cholera Utilizing an Epdemiological Identification of Risk Factors,” and Archeta Rajagopalan from Choate Rosemary Hall, Wallingford for the project on “The Effect of Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor on Retinoic Acid Differentiated SH-SY5Y Cells: A Model for Striatal-Enriched Protein Tyrosine Phosphatase in Parkinson’s Disease.”
The winners were invited to visit CCAM, presented with certificates and monetary awards, and were given a tour of our state-of-the art building, featuring microscopy and computational facilities. The CCAM Director Boehringer Ingelheim Chair in Cell Sciences Leslie Loew and CAM graduate Program Director Dr. John Carson talked about research opportunities at CCAM, and faculty members Ann Cowan, Michael Blinov, Ion Moraru and a graduate student Sofya Borinskaya led students on a tour through the facility.