The Valley Life Science Building was alive with the enthusiasm of bright young researchers presenting their NSF REU Summer Research findings on Thursday, August 12, 2021. Scholars, mentors, lab members, and faculty P.I.s gathered for a symposium to celebrate a summer of learning, community, exploration, development, and discovery. 

For ten weeks, the scholars were integrated members of MCB and other bioscience labs on campus. They worked on individual research projects, gaining hands-on and in-person experience in cutting-edge research techniques and facilities. In addition, they gained valuable insight into the graduate school experience, the application process, and Ph.D. career paths.

We are proud of our scholars, their hard work, and all they accomplished this summer. Hopefully, we'll be fortunate enough to welcome them back as graduate students soon! 

To learn more about the research conducted this summer, you can read the scholar's abstracts here.

Feldman lab members (left to right) Hannah Monday (Postdoc/NSF REU Summer Mentor), Daniel Feldman (P.I.), and Fernando Bolio (NSF REU Summer Scholar).	NSF REU Summer Scholar Lizet Reyes Rodas (Ünal lab) presents her research, "Understanding the mechanisms of Ume6 degradation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae."
NSF REU Summer Scholar Pedro X. Medina (Barton Lab) explains his research, "Developing an analysis pipeline to study gut resident T cell subset specificity to commensal microbes during homeostasis."	Heald lab members (L to R) Maiko Kitaoka (Ph.D. Student/NSF REU Summer Mentor), Den Arthur Lipata (NSF REU Summer Scholar), and  Rebecca Heald (P.I.).

Titov lab members after the symposium (left to right) Mangyu Choe (Postdoc), Denis Titov (P.I.), Lance Li (NSF REU Summer Scholar), Megan Kober (Ph.D. Student/NSF REU Summer Mentor), Pearl Zhou (UC Berkeley Undergraduate Researcher), Bowen Yang (Ph.D. Student).

MORE INFORMATION:

Learn more about the NSF REU @Berkeley program: mcb.berkeley.edu/nsfreu/

Read MCB's Fall 2018 newsletter article about the program: Promoting Diversity in the Biosciences: MCB Partners with NSF REU Program

Banner Image: REU support staff, including Valerie Vargas-Zapata (REU Graduate Assistant/Coscoy lab Ph.D. Student) and Gian Garriga (REU Program PI, MCB faculty member), celebrate a summer well spent with all of the 2021 NSF REU Summer Research Scholars. All images adapted from photos courtesy of Tanya Sullivan (MCB Director of Industry, Alumni, & Postdoc Relations).