Josie Alexia
We did it again!! Congratulations to Alexia and Josie!!
Two
students in the Department of Biology and Chemistry, Ms. Alexia Callihan and
Ms. Josie Maione, received awards for the undergraduate competitions at the
2010 Kentucky Academy of Science Meeting held at Western Kentucky University in
Bowling Green. Alexia received first
place for her presentation in the Botany Section for her paper entitled “Do
Vascular Plants Know Moss?” and Josie took first place among poster entries in
the Physiology and Biochemistry Section for her poster “Rho Kinase Regulation of Alpha- and Beta- Actin
Remodeling in the Contracting A7r5 Smooth Muscle Cell”. Alexia’s research, with her mentor Dr. Allen
C. Risk, examined the correlation of vascular plant species richness patterns
with those of bryophytes in forest plots in Spaws Creek gorge in the Daniel
Boone National Forest. As she continues her work she will look at the effects
of spatial scale on these correlations and use additional approaches to analyze
her data. In April 2011, Alexia will also be presenting her research at the Association
of Southeastern Biologists Meeting in April 2011 to be held in Huntsville,
Alabama. Josie’s research, with her
mentor, Dr. Michael Fultz, examined the role of Rho Kinase and its effects on
the a possible mechanism of smooth muscle contraction. The data Josie has generated supports a model
of differential actin remodeling that may explain some of the unique and poorly
understood properties of smooth muscle.
