The Misericordia University Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program (SURF) is sponsored by the Vice President of Academic Affairs Office.
Research fellows receive one-on-one, faculty-guided research opportunities and participate in bi-weekly professional development seminars geared toward preparing them for graduate school, future research experiences, and employment.
The summer program culminates with two presentations of the students’ findings: a 10-minute oral presentation in the last week of the program and a poster presentation in October for the entire campus community, COVID-permitting.
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Mapping Historic Scranton
Erin McGee
Located in northeastern Pennsylvania’s Lackawanna County, Scranton acts as a representation of nineteenth century industrial America. Originally farmland, the area was first inhabited by the Munsee tribe, who were later driven out by conflict between settlers (first arriving in the 1600s), Native Americans, and the English. Eventually, the land would come into ownership by the Scranton brothers, who were able to capitalize on the land’s anthracite and iron deposits to create the city’s first substantial industry. Not only did the Scrantons lay the groundwork for the rail, iron, and coal industries, but also create labor opportunities for European immigrants who would settle into ethnic neighborhoods, increasing the population and allowing the city to grow. Although this period of prosperity came to an end with the Great Depression and WWII, the city has since capitalized on tourism and its historic downtown district.
This project uses GIS mapping systems to reflect the development of downtown Scranton from 1840-2020, chronicling changing populations, demographic distribution within that population, industrial development, and the spatial distribution of these changes. This data demonstrates that, within a short period of time, the city and its neighborhoods grew quickly in response to industrial, economic, and population changes. A subset within this study explores the growing presence of African Americans in Scranton along with their entrepreneurship.
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The Location of NF-kB and AKAP-95 in Lipopolysaccharide Treated RT4-D6P2T Schwannoma Cells
Mackenzie Wilcox and Angela Asirvatham
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The Effect of LPS on Phosphorylation of AKT Signaling in Schwann Cells
Nicholas Wilde and Angela Asirvatham
Schwann cells (SCs) are cells in the peripheral nervous system that may play a significant role in neuronal repair after an injury, however, little is known about their mechanisms on how they do so. In the lab, lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a bacterial endotoxin, is used to stimulate an injury while forskolin, a growth hormone, is used to activate the cAMP pathway. In this experiment, the cAMP pathway, which is involved in many cellular processes, and protein kinase b (AKT), a cell survival signal, where analyzed in different LPS doses (0.1, 1, and 10 µg/mL) and over different time periods (3-,6-,12-, and 24-hours). It was predicted that cells treated with LPS will increase the expression of activated phospho-AKT as dose and time increases, while cells treated with both LPS and forskolin would have a synergistic effect on the upregulation of phospho-AKT. It was discovered that, in LPS alone, from 1 µg/mL to 10 µg/mL had an increased expression in phospho-AKT across all time intervals besides 24 hours. In LPS and forskolin treatments, a synergistic effect was observed from 1 µg/mL to 10 µg/mL across all time intervals.