January 28, 2022
Shawnee State University senior Jacob Kielmar participated in the university’s Celebration of Scholarship (COS) conference last year, sharing information he had studied in the Biomedical Sciences program on campus. Presenting at the undergraduate conference, he found the experience a unique way to further his education and build his research and presentation skills.
“My topic of research was the effect that the Type II Diabetes drug, metformin, has on acute myeloid leukemia cells,” he said. “Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a very deadly form of blood cancer with the survival rate of people older than 20 years old being only 26%. What I do in the lab is treat these AML cells with different concentrations of metformin to see how sensitive the cells are to the treatment and then probe with an antibody to see if we can stop the cells from completing the cell cycle.”
Kielmar prepared his research by gathering data, completing experiments throughout two semesters, and consulting other research papers to provide background information for his presentation. Working closely with his faculty mentor, Dr. Jennifer Napper, Associate Professor in the Department of Natural Sciences, he found her insight helpful as he prepared his presentation.
“She is so helpful and truly cares about what she is doing and what we work on with her,” he said. “She is always pushing me and my other colleagues to be as thorough and critical as we can be. She truly wants the best for us and most importantly, she wants us to have fun. Being in the lab with her is a non-stress environment and I think that ultimately produces better results.”
Looking forward to this year’s conference, Kielmar hopes his experience helps encourage other students to participate as well.
“Take pride in what you are doing research with and share it with the university,” he said. “Celebration of Scholarship is a great event and I recommend even if you are not presenting, that you still come check out what great research is happening at Shawnee State.”
SSU’s COS conference brings together undergraduate and graduate programs from different colleges across campus to deliver academic presentations showcasing their personal academic research. Work presented at the conference relates to student’s research in their field, creative work in visual and performing arts, community service, and study abroad. This year’s COS conference will be held the week of Apr. 4 in a hybrid format.
To learn more about the upcoming Shawnee State University Celebration of Scholarship Conference, visit shawnee.edu/cos.