Presenter: Xavier Garcia-Collazo, Bioengineering, Global Public Health Scholars
For my practicum, I worked in the laboratory of Dr. Catherine Kuo at the University of Maryland Department of Bioengineering under the mentorship of Dr. Stefanie Korntner. I got the opportunity to participate in the National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates (NSF REU) program and was tasked with my own project which focused on the effects of movement perturbation on craniofacial tendon development. For my project, I was in charge of staining, sectioning, and analyzing chick embryo samples in order to seek out systemic issues caused by paralysis or hypermotility. Within the REU program specifically, I was given the opportunity to participate in workshops and seminars to learn about the graduate school process and what it means to be a graduate researcher. This project is relevant to public health because it strives to inform and explore novel techniques on tendon regeneration which will be extremely invaluable to those who are suffering from tendon-related injuries or defects.