by Shay Carr
University of West Georgia Honors College students and undergraduate researchers Tashana Haye, a senior, and Theresa Fuller, a freshman were accepted for presentation at the second annual Georgia Undergraduate Research Conference on January 24-25 in Columbus, Georgia.
GURC is a platform for outstanding undergraduate scholars and faculty mentors from all disciplines in the southeast region to share results based on outstanding research. This year’s research focused on employing functional genomics to study oxygenic photosynthesis and chlorophyll biosynthesis in a model green micro-alga chlamydomonas reinhardtii.
Dr. Mautusi Mitra, UWG assistant professor of plant molecular biology, mentored biology majors Tashana and Theresa during the research of their scholarly work related to plant molecular biology for this competition. Tashana received an award at GURC for her outstanding paper and presentation titled, “Identification and Molecular Characterization of a Novel Chlamydomonas Reinhardtii Mutant that Lacks Detectable Chlorophyll.”
GURC holds an annual conference each year for undergraduate scholars from all disciplines and from institutions throughout the Southeast. Any UWG honors student or student with at least a 3.2 GPA may submit a proposal to the committee. Students orally present or attend poster sessions to explain their research.
Dr. Mitra also lead undergraduate honors students Kathryn Lankford and Darryel Wilson to win the first prize for the best undergraduate research poster by the American Society of Plant Biologists at the 2013 conference. This very prestigious award was in competition with several research-intensive universities. This research project is a collaborative work of several undergraduate students and one graduate student.
