Davenport University is proud to announce that two students – Blue Goad and Amber Park – presented posters at the Van Andel Research Institute Undergraduate Research Forum on November 12.

The annual West Michigan Regional Undergraduate Science Research Conference is celebrating 12 years of scientific and educational collaboration.

The conference provides keynote speakers, research posters presented by undergraduate students and research talks.

Goad, a freshman pre-nursing student from DU’s Lansing Campus, presented for the first time with his poster titled, “Gene expression profile of macrolide resistance in Streptococcus pneumonia.”

The overall goal of his project is to give people an idea what antibiotic resistance is, why it is a problem, and what solutions has found to help solve it.

“I was a bit nervous to present although my teacher, Laura Harris, was very confident in my abilities,” Goad said. “Once getting past my nerves, being able to present my discoveries was a great honor.”

Park, previous winner of DU Day of Research last April and sophomore studying Biological Laboratory Science at DU’s Lettinga Campus is returning for her second time to present her poster titled, “Gene expression and pathway enrichment profiles of azithromycin response in P. aeruginosa.”

Park’s presentation is about how antibiotic resistant bacteria has become more critical, due to overuse and prescribing incorrect antibiotics.

Park is focusing on Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a gram-negative bacterium that shows a multi-drug resistance in hospitals, especially in ICU patients who already have a weakened immune system.

“I was pretty excited to present, I get to show people our discoveries that could be applied to improve our healthcare system,” Park said.

The WMRUGS conference provides a remarkable opportunity for undergraduate students to present their own research to a large group of professional scientists.