Tag: undergraduate research

Clara Long awarded a summer research scholarship

Jennifer StearnsLeave a comment

Clara Long recently completed a 3rd year Health Sciences independent study in the lab and has just received a prestigious Bachelor of Health Sciences Honours Program Summer 2017 Research Scholarship. She’ll complete work on bacterial fermentation of specific dietary components in the infant gut and will focus on the diversity of bacterial taxa found to be enriched in South Asian infants in our recent paper. Keep up the good work Clara!

We are hosting a IUSR scholar this summer

flettl2Leave a comment

As part of the Indigenous Undergraduate Summer Research Scholars Program at McMaster University the Stearns lab will welcome Christie for 8 weeks starting in May 2017. Below is a description of the our plan for the summer.

Name of project and a brief description

  • In partnership with the Six Nations Reserve, a dietary trial is underway to study how a return to traditional foods affects the health and microbiota of indigenous individuals. The Healthy Roots study will look at clinical indicators of cardio-metabolic health from the blood and microbes in the stool of individuals before, during and after a dietary intervention trial. The student would be participating in aspects of microbial research in a basic research lab.

What would a typical day look like for an IUS Scholar?

  • The student will be taught laboratory techniques such as DNA extraction, bacterial culture and biochemical assays as well as some data analysis techniques. A typical day will involve a portion of his or her time being spent at the lab bench and the rest at the computer.