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Lake Forest, Ill. – Lake Forest College biology majors Michael Fiske '10 and Ray Choi '09 received first and third prizes, respectively, at the undergraduate symposium and competition of the annual meeting of the Chicago Chapter of the Society for Neuroscience (CSFN) on March 26 at Depaul University, Chicago, Illinois.

The CSFN is the Chicago affiliate of the National Chapter of the Society for Neuroscience and is the largest annual Midwest neuroscience meeting. It is composed of academic and industry-based scientists who are interested in the field of neuroscience. This includes researchers, teachers, students and interested public. Undergraduate scholars of neuroscience from colleges and universities in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Iowa, Ohio and Wisconsin typically present at this prestigious regional conference, alongside about 300 hundred scientists, post-doctoral fellows, and graduate students.

Three Lake Forest College students presented posters at the conference this year:

• Daryn Cass '10 – "Frontal Cortical Activity is Upregulated after Three Weeks Withdrawal from Repeated Cocaine Exposure?"
This work was done at Rosalind Franklin University in professor of pharmacology Dr. Keui-Yuan Tseng’s lab, where she will also conduct her senior thesis next year. Daryn is planning for a future M.D. and/or Ph.D. degree in biomedicine.

• Ray Choi '09 – "Evaluating Autophagic Regulation of Alpha-Synuclein in a Budding Yeast Model" with research from Alina Konnikova '11, Julian McLain '11 and Michael White '07.
This is his senior thesis work with Associate Professor of Biology Shubhik DebBurman. Ray will attend the University of Colorado School of Medicine for his M.D. degree after graduation.

• Michael Fiske '10 – "Investigating Whether Alanine-76 and Serine Phosphorylation Contribute to Alpha-Synuclein Aggregation, Membrane Association, and Toxicity in Yeasts," with research from Alina Konnikova '11, Stephanie Valtierra '08, Michael Zorniak '07, Michael White '07, and Sara Herrera '05.
This project began as a Richter research project and will progress into a senior thesis next year with Associate Professor of Biology Shubhik DebBurman. Michael plans to pursue a Ph.D. in neuroscience after graduation.

Lake Forest biology students have won one or more prizes each year for the past seven years of this undergraduate neuroscience research competition in Chicago. The eleven award winners to date have pursued either M.D., D.V.M., Ph.D., M.D./Ph.D. degrees, or are employed in biomedical research, and one will head for Teach for America next year, according to DebBurman.

“I am quite proud of our students and their accomplishments,” says Biology Department Chair Doug Light. They worked diligently to obtain tangible and meaningful results with their research projects. Their high level of achievement at CSFN is a testament to our pedagogical approach, which stresses hands-on experiences, thereby providing multiple opportunities for students to behave like scientists. In addition, their high level of acceptance to M.D. and Ph.D. programs indicates our approach works well.”

Lake Forest College is a national liberal arts institution located 30 miles north of downtown Chicago. The College has 1,400 students representing 45 states and 69 countries.

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