Undergraduate Research Day 2025

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/33815

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Optimal Control of an SIR-Inspired Malnutrition Model: Subconscious and Societal
(2025) Bonsu, Dia; Seshaiyer, Padmanabhan
This research project uses differential equations based on an epidemiology ("SIR") model to study how malnutrition is comparable to an infectious disease, considering factors such as poverty and social and economic culture around processed foods. My analysis considers an “infected” population of malnourished people as a group of people who choose processed junk foods out of convenience or preference, but are not completely aware of their choice’s severe impacts. This is a scientific investigation into how social conventions around food culture slowly work their way into everyday food choices. I am analyzing how education, different lifestyles, and conversations around food in the home impact the spread of “casual” and “normalized malnutrition” throughout the working middle class in the U.S. To scientifically model this, I consider an optimal control analysis to specifically analyze parental influence on food choices.
Studying the Color, Brightness, and Outbursts of Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks
(2025) Biswas, Debika; Kelley, Michael
Comets are large objects primarily made up of dust and gas that orbit around the Sun. Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks is known for having massive outbursts, which is when a comet becomes drastically brighter. The outbursts can be unpredictable in cause and duration. There are many theories as to why these outbursts happen, but we don’t always know the causes. Through this semester, we studied the mass of the outbursts and the lightcurve of this comet to learn information about the causes of these outbursts. We started with plotting the magnitude of the comet versus the distance of the comet from the Sun. We did this to calculate the scale of the outbursts and other information as well. We found that the data, which was in three different filters, didn't line up. We created a loop using python code that found the offset values in each filter and corrected them. With this information we can learn about the scale of these outbursts as well as do some calculations to figure out how massive these outbursts are. Our next few steps involved a multitude of calculations to find the mass of an outburst on any given day. Through aperture photometry, an astronomical imaging technique, we found the brightness of outbursts on nights of outbursts. We used these numbers to calculate the differential size distribution of the comet, the number of dust grains in the comet’s outbursts, the cross sectional area of the comet, and finally to calculate the mass of the outbursts. The mass of the outburst on July 21st 2023 was found to be 5.18*109 kg. We also compared this qualitatively to other masses to get an idea for just how big this was.
Using Precision Therapies to Protect the Developing Brain from Viral Infection and Injury
(2025) Abdelmalek, Clara; Adeyemo, Ademide; Alexander, Aubrey; Dyba, Zofia; Hobson, Caroline; Hussain, Haider; Li, Erin; Maturi, Soumya; Patel, Arnav; Patel, Nandi; Pocasangre, Ashley; Rasmussen, Hannah; Ruan, Janet; Park, Eunbin; Tran, Erin; Kousa, Youssef
Prenatal viral infections can cause severe damage to the developing brain. Among the most threatening, Zika virus can cause microcephaly, ocular abnormalities, seizures, and fetal demise. Currently, there is no prenatal standard of care or treatment for Zika infection. Preliminary data and existing literature suggest that autophagy and the lysosome are crucial modifiers of injury and, thus, potential avenues for therapy. In this work, we will determine the effect of three drugs that manipulate autophagy in unique ways on the outcomes of prenatal viral infection; Trehalose, a lysosomal flux activator; Metformin, which induces AMPK signaling; and PD146176, an activator of the cells’ degradative machinery independent of mTORC1 through selective 12/15-lipoxygenase inhibition. Chloroquine, a lysosomal inhibitor known to mitigate the adverse outcomes of prenatal viral infections, serves as our positive control. Here, we infect humanized (hSTAT2 KI/KI), immunocompetent mice at a time point analogous to the first trimester in humans and perform comprehensive prenatal and postnatal analysis. Thus far, we have found that Metformin significantly rescues postnatal survival. In addition to identifying prenatal therapies, future work may also include testing postnatal treatments to account for infected infants not identified prenatally. These findings may also be clinically translatable for other prenatally transmitted viruses, such as Oropouche and cytomegalovirus.