SURE student Victoria Maffettone of Sayville, N.Y., a Biology major at Mount Saint Mary College, performs an experiment with plant-derived chemicals on cancer cells.
For about two dozen Mount Saint Mary College scholars, happiness is a stunning view of the Hudson River, a warm breeze, and the opportunity to conduct their own diverse research projects through the college’s annual Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE).
Coordinated by James Moran, associate Biology professor at the Mount, SURE is an opportunity for students to work alongside Mount professors as they explore a research topic of their choosing.
SURE students presented their research to the Mount campus over the course of two sessions. These presentations featured research projects in areas such as Education, Biology, Humanities, and more.
As it has been in previous years, the SURE program was a hotbed of Natural Sciences research. One notable project is “Isolating Bacteriophages from Soil” by Biology major Leila Puntar of Newburgh, N.Y., and faculty mentor Suparna Bhalla, associate professor of Biology. Bacteriophages are viruses that infect and replicate in bacterial cells. They can be found almost anywhere that live bacteria exist, including soil.
Other SURE projects include “Inserting the Green Fluorescent Protein gene into a Mammalian Cell” by Biology majors Grace MacHugh and Meghan Wurster, both of Newburgh, N.Y., and advisors Bhalla and Moran; “UNO: Make It Ocho” by Math major Thomas McGuire of New Windsor, N.Y. and advisors Mike Daven, professor of Mathematics and the Mount’s Hudson Link Prison Initiative Academic Director, and Christina Alvey, associate professor of Mathematics and Chair of the Division of Math and IT; and “Anxiety: Friend or Foe?” by Biology major Alice Adesanya of North East, Md., and Nursing majors Djenaba Balde of Wallkill, N.Y. and Aniyah Lewis of Highland Falls, N.Y., with advisors Sonya Abbye-Taylor, associate professor of Education and Chair of the Division of Education, and Alisha McCorvey, Assistant Vice President for Students, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and the Chief Diversity Officer.