Undergrads share hands-on research

More than 70 UW–Madison students, mostly sophomores and juniors, will share findings from their mentored research projects this Thursday during a public poster session at Union South.

At UW–Madison, opportunities for students to conduct research with top-notch faculty occur at not only the graduate level but also the undergraduate level.

The students are members of the Botany/Zoology 152 class, part of a two-semester sequence in introductory biology that concentrates on topics in animal and plant physiology and ecology. As part of their laboratory experience during the class, the students write a research paper that either reviews existing literature in a scientific area or describes research the students conducted with a mentor. Although the latter requires significantly more work, about 40 percent of the students in this semester’s class opted for mentored research.

“I wanted to gain valuable experience by performing hands-on laboratory research related to my field,” says Bayley Denham, a junior in biomedical engineering.

Students choose their research topic and then work closely with their course instructors to identify possible mentors from around campus; mentors include faculty, post-doctoral researchers and graduate students.

Denham, interested in improving the biocompatibility of nickel titanium – a material called a shape memory alloy that’s used in many medical devices, including stents, bone staples and orthodontic arches – has worked with professors Wendy Crone in engineering physics and Ralph Albrecht in animal health and biomedical sciences.

Crone, who has mentored undergraduate students in research since she joined the UW–Madison faculty in 1998, says that undergraduate mentored research “helps the students apply the things they learn in class and look for answers that can’t be found in the back of a book.”

Under the guidance of Crone and Albrecht, Denham has explored the effectiveness of implanting nickel titanium with ions that change the surface chemistry of the material. By changing the surface chemistry, Denham says the material may be less likely to trigger an inflammatory reaction, which causes blood platelets to build up on the device and, as a result, form potentially fatal blood clots.

“Bayley is very interested in this research and particularly excited about the application of this material to medical devices,” says Crone, who adds that the student’s research is a critical part of a collaborative project between herself and Albrecht. “There are some really impressive students in our undergraduate population and several of the students I have worked with have really made significant research accomplishments.”

To learn more about Denham’s project or any of the other undergraduate mentored research projects, visit the poster session this Thursday, Dec. 12, from 5 to 7 p.m. at Union South, room 240.