Jaelyn Daggs-Olson
  • chemistry
  • Class of 2017
  • Eldora, IA

Jaelyn Olson Presents at Buena Vista University's Thirteenth Annual Scholars Day

2017 May 1

Buena Vista University's (BVU) thirteenth annual Scholars Day was held Saturday, April 29. The event provided students from all disciplines an opportunity to present their best original research, academic posters, artistic creations and performances to their peers, professors and the public.

This year's Scholars Day event featured 63 presentations from 120 students, exploring topics from literature and business to science and history.

Jaelyn Olson, a senior chemistry major from Eldora , was one of the students who participated. Olson's presentation was titled "Designing and implementing activities for national Brain Awareness Week," and the project's abstract is as follows:

According to the National Math and Science Initiative, only 36% of high school students are prepared to take a college level class in the sciences. There is a large emphasis to change this statistic through introducing educational experiences that get students excited about science. Brain Awareness Week (BAW) is a national event that takes place every year in March. The purpose of BAW is to educate people of all ages about the wonders of the brain. The Honors Life Science course participated in BAW this year. One class objective was to get kids excited about science through learning different aspects of how the human brain functions. To accomplish this, a poster and an interactive activity were created based on a topic of interest. BVU students traveled to Storm Lake Middle School to present to over 200 6th graders. Brain Awareness Week served its purpose of educating the students about the complexity of the brain, but most importantly it planted a seed of curiosity to learn more about the brain.

Into ? "No Man's Land": The Pursuit to Find a Non-Radioactive Alternative to Study the Sodium Iodide Symporter (NIS)

Iodide is an important biological anion due to multiple functions in the body. These roles include the production of metabolic hormones by the thyroid gland and neurological development. An excess or deficiency in thyroid gland function can result in a disease state, which is why iodide metabolism is tightly regulated. The Sodium-Iodide Symporter (NIS) is normally expressed in thyroid cells, and moves iodide into thyroid cells against its concentration gradient. The ability of NIS to concentrate iodide has been utilized in biomedical research settings. NIS has been cloned and expressed in cancer cells, which then take up radioactive iodide and can be used to visualize tumors in vivo. Radioactive iodide is often used to study NIS and detect iodide movement into cells, however doing so can be expensive and dangerous. This study looks at the molecule R1, synthesized previously by Mahapatra et. al, as a non-radioactive alternative to detect iodide uptake. R1 was synthesized with the aim of using it to develop non-radioactive methods to study NIS activity.

Investigating the Role of p300 Histone Acetyltransferase in Temozolomide Sensitivity in Glioblastoma

Iodide is an important biological anion due to multiple functions in the body. These roles include the production of metabolic hormones by the thyroid gland and neurological development. An excess or deficiency in thyroid gland function can result in a disease state, which is why iodide metabolism is tightly regulated. The Sodium-Iodide Symporter (NIS) is normally expressed in thyroid cells, and moves iodide into thyroid cells against its concentration gradient. The ability of NIS to concentrate iodide has been utilized in biomedical research settings. NIS has been cloned and expressed in cancer cells, which then take up radioactive iodide and can be used to visualize tumors in vivo. Radioactive iodide is often used to study NIS and detect iodide movement into cells, however doing so can be expensive and dangerous. This study looks at the molecule R1, synthesized previously by Mahapatra et. al, as a non-radioactive alternative to detect iodide uptake. R1 was synthesized with the aim of using it to develop non-radioactive methods to study NIS activity.

Endosymbiosis 101: The Effects of Antibiotics on B16 Cell Mitochondria

When one gets sick with a bacterial infection, antibiotics are the common treatment. Antibiotics are used to treat bacterial infections within the human body. There are two classes of antibiotics, and they are bactericidal and bacteriostatic. Bactericidal antibiotics kill the bacterial invaders, and bacteriostatic antibiotics stop the growth of the bacterial invader. However, bacteria are not the only thing "foreign" to our bodies. Within each cell, there is an organelle called the mitochondria. The mitochondria are responsible for all energy production. The mitochondria weren't always present in our cells. The endosymbiosis theory states that mitochondria were once their own organism, but were taken up by a bigger cell, and formed a symbiotic relationship. Since mitochondria are "foreign," they could be negatively impacted by antibiotic treatments. This negative affect could be tiredness or fatigue since one's energy production is being hindered. This study looks at the effects of a bacteriostatic and bactericidal antibiotic on B16 (human skin melanoma) cell mitochondria to determine whether antibiotics negatively impact the mitochondria.

The keynote speaker for the event was Adrienne B. Haynes, a 2010 BVU graduate, who is an attorney and business woman who specializes in helping entrepreneurs develop sustainable infrastructure and business practices. Haynes is the managing partner of SEED Law, a business law firm, and owner of SEED Collective, a consultancy. She is the founder of the nonprofit, the Construction Business Institute, and is active in both the Multicultural Business Coalition and Black Female Attorneys network. Haynes is also a member of the BVU National Alumni Association Board of Directors.

"This is a special event because it gives students' a real-life platform where they can showcase their success beyond exams and grades," said Dr. Steven Mills, assistant professor of Spanish and chair of the events committee who organized the event. "With a Scholars Day presentation, students take their hard work and form it into a new medium or method for discussion. They become experts on their topic and then stand in front of peers and become teachers about what they have done and how it adds to the greater corpus of knowledge in their field."

This year marked the first time Scholars Day and the annual Student Recognition Dinner - which was held later that evening - were combined.

"For the first time, those who presented as part of Scholars Day received an invitation to the dinner and were recognized alongside all the others receiving honors and awards for academic excellence," added Mills. "They deserved to be a part of the celebration of hard work and dedication."