Admissions

Lake Forest, Ill. – Daryn Cass, a senior at Lake Forest College majoring in biology and international relations, received the Third Prize at the inaugural undergraduate poster presentation at the 22nd annual meeting of the Great Lakes Chapter of the American Society of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (GLC-ASPET), held Friday, June 19, at the University of Chicago. Undergraduates from Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, and Illinois presented at this year's meeting. Cass’ work compared the neurological effects of cocaine injections on infant and adult rats.

Along with Cass, two other Lake Forest undergraduates presented their senior thesis work – Michael Fiske '10 and Ray Choi '09. Nine other students, including two 2009 Richter scholars, also attended the conference: Kayla Ahlstrand '12, Peter Sullivan '12, Danny Sanchez '11, Stephanie Feld '11, Natalie Simak '11, Keith Solvang '11, Carlos Becerra '10, Jaime Perez '10, and Ejaz Ali '10.

Cass presented undergraduate research that she first began as a sophomore via informal summer research, followed by academic-year internships, in the cellular and molecular pharmacology research laboratory of Assistant Professor Dr. Kuei-Yuan Tseng at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science (RFUMS). Read about this program here.

Cass' work has already been presented at several national and regional conferences, including at the prestigious Winter Conference for Brain Research held in Colorado in January 2009. She became a published co-author in 2009 in a major journal Experimental Neurology, and she is a first author on a second manuscript currently in preparation. This scholarly success has led Daryn to pursue an undergraduate senior thesis in biology this upcoming year, and she plans to pursue either an MD or PhD after graduation.

The undergraduate research successes at RFUMS of several past and current Lake Forest College students like Cass led the RFUMS graduate science departments and Lake Forest College to co-partner in a formal undergraduate summer research program exclusively for Lake Forest College students starting this summer.

ASPET is the premier scientific society for scientists who conduct basic and clinical pharmacological research in academia, industry and the government. The Great Lakes Chapter was founded in 1987 and its annual meeting is held each spring to promote scientific communication among research workers interested in pharmacology in the Midwest. Its members research efforts help develop new medicines and therapeutic agents to fight existing and emerging diseases. Annual meetings are held each spring to foster the goals of ASPET to promote scientific communication among research workers interested in pharmacology and have consistently drawn a wide representation of the Midwestern pharmacology community. To learn more about the GLC-ASPET conference, click here: www.aspet.org/public/chapters/glc/meetings.html.

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.

# # #
Will Pittinos '06
847-735-6177
pittinos@lakeforest.edu