Mayville State University student researcher Kaitlin Ensign (right) won a travel award at an undergraduate poster contest recently. The award will assist her as she goes on to present the research findings from Dr. Tom Gonnella’s lab at Mayville State University in St. Louis, Mo. in October.
February 8, 2023
Kaitlin Ensign, a Mayville State University senior from Buxton, N.D., works as a student researcher in the lab of Dr. Tom Gonnella, Professor of Chemistry and INBRE Project Director. She presented the work conducted in their research lab at an undergraduate poster competition at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minn. on Saturday, Jan. 28, 2023.
The research conference was sponsored by the Red River Valley Section of the American Chemical Society. Their purpose was to give graduate and undergraduate students the opportunity to compete for travel awards that would assist them in going on to present their research findings at the regional or national American Chemical Society (ACS) meetings.
Kaitlin won an award and will present the work of her Mayville State research team at the joint Midwest-Great Lakes Regional ACS meeting in St. Louis, Mo. on Oct. 18, 2023.
“I am extremely happy for Kaitlin and I commend her for the important work she is doing as a student researcher at Mayville State,” said Mayville State University President Dr. Brian Van Horn. “Mayville State’s student researchers are gaining invaluable experiences. I applaud Dr. Gonnella and all Mayville State faculty research mentors who are integral to the amazing opportunities our student researchers enjoy. Not only does the research activity provide employment, it also allows students to do work that is meaningful and valuable in the scientific world.”
The research conducted in Dr. Gonnella’s lab focuses on using coumarins as fluorescence probes to monitor different binding locations on human serum albumin, the most abundant protein in blood plasma. It transports a wide variety of substances such as hormones, fatty acids, and drugs to target organs. Coumarins are a class of compounds that cover a wide range of drugs that are used for their anti-inflammatory, anti-coagulant, anti-retroviral, anti-arthritic, anti-asthmatic, and anti-oxidant properties.
“Our research aims to go beyond simply identifying the primary binding location for a variety of drugs,” said Dr. Tom Gonnella. “We want to be able to monitor secondary binding locations and effects of drug binding.”
The work is funded by the NIH (National Institutes of Health) through the state-wide ND-INBRE (IDeA Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence) grant.
Katlin has worked in Dr. Gonnella’s research lab for a little more than a year. Her major at Mayville State University is composite science education.