Undergraduate Research Opportunities

The Department of Biology at Grove City College offers students the opportunity to perform meaningful and relevant research guided by experienced and accomplished faculty. Research laboratories are outfitted with state-of-the-art equipment to support student research activities. Current research interests of our faculty include:

Dr. Lisa Antoszewski

• Epigenetic control of cell proliferation: The ability to produce more cells is essential for the development of an organism and for maintaining homeostasis. However, this process must be tightly regulated to ensure that cancer does not develop. Dr. Antoszewski is interested in understanding how cell proliferation is controlled by epigenetic (“above the genome”) modifications and uses the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, as her model system. In collaboration with Dr. Robert Duronio at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, her students are performing a forward genetic screen to identify genes that interact with a specific modification made to histone H4, one of the proteins that helps compact DNA in the nucleus of the cell. Developing a better appreciation for how this modification (lysine 20 methylation) affects cell proliferation will inform our understanding of both development and disease.

Dr. Jan Dudt

• Development of an automated plant growth chamber: Plant growth chambers capable of controlling conditions like light, water, humidity, and temperature remotely come at a significant cost. To develop a more economical model, Dr. Dudt is enlisting an interdisciplinary team of students from Computer Science, Biology, and Electrical Engineering to modify an existing unit. Once developed, students with a particular interest in botany can utilize this chamber to tackle a variety of experimental questions. The final stage of bringing the unit online with complete remote-control capabilities is an opportunity for a diverse student team of computer science and plant enthusiasts.
• Plant survey: Plant survey: Daniel Beevers ’24 surveyed and identified nearly 300 plant species on Grove City College’s campus. The book, "The Plants of Grove City College," is available in the College bookstore. However, more remains to be done. Dr. Dudt is looking for an ambitious student to take on the project of documenting the remaining campus floristic diversity.
• American chestnut genetics: Dr. Dudt has a long-standing interest in the re-establishment of the American chestnut tree to its former place in our eastern deciduous forest. He welcomes student researchers who want to work to determine the genetic identity of a 40-year-old local chestnut orchard planted from nuts from naturally occurring chestnut trees.

Dr. Tracy Farone

• The GCC Bee Project: Starting in 2019, Dr. Farone and her research students worked to build the apiary project from the ground up. Each student also completed individual projects, including publishing a book about bees, contributing to professional publications, developing an educational website and other community educational materials, and successful grant writing. During the summers of 2020 and 2021, the project grew to include more research students and projects. The team began to extract hundreds of pounds of honey from our growing hives (which we donate locally) and collect data for two experimental studies involving drone drifting and diagnostic testing methods for Varroa mites.

In the summer of 2022, ongoing research projects continued, and the team earned a Gibson grant to develop a honeybee educational community outreach program for school children. Over the summer, the team, working through the Center on Rural Ministry, was able to serve a local church by helping with VBS, providing honey to foodbanks and widows, and giving a guest sermon on honey and honeybees in the Bible. During the 2022-23 school year, students worked together to deliver their educational outreach to students at the Grove City School District and pre-school kids at the GCC Early Education Center, an anatomical and dissection study of the honeybee was completed, and Dr. Farone led a “Fiver” study for chapel on Honey and Honeybees in the Bible. Also, the team is designing a new project involving PCR testing for Dewormed Wing Virus (DWV),

Under the supervision of Dr. Farone, more experienced students develop a training program for underclassmen joining the team. This layered “watch one, do one, teach one” learning provides training for newcomers, along with research and instructional opportunities for advanced students. Currently our team is full of experienced students working on projects involving hive design, color theory, honey testing, and educational publications. All our project summaries are displayed throughout STEM in posters created by our students. Please learn more about our project at www.gccbeeproject.com.

Watch our video series on The GCC Bee Project.

Dr. Karen Luong

• Characterizing the Evolution and Adaptation of the White Mold Pathogen, Sclerotinia sclerotiorum: Dr. Luong is interested in studying what makes S. sclerotiorum a generalist. The main question to address is whether an isolate from a soybean plant would show the same level of disease and undergo the same virulence pathways if infected in other host crops. She also wants to know whether isolates can shift host preferences over time. Additionally, she plans to investigate whether observed phenotypic changes correlate with genotypic modifications.
• Exploring the Endophytic Lifestyle of the White Plant Pathogen: Dr. Luong aims to improve the understanding of how the cosmopolitan plant fungal pathogen Sclerotinia sclerotiorum establishes endophytic relationships with non-host plants, where they live inside a plant and do not cause disease. Farmers utilize crop rotations with non-host grasses like corn, wheat, and ryegrass to break the disease cycle. However, if S. sclerotiorum can endophytically colonize non-host, these plants can be a source of the pathogen. Therefore, Dr. Luong will investigate the mechanisms of colonization S. sclerotiorum utilizes with non-hosts and quantify the frequency of finding them as endophytes in the field.

Dr. Ian MacFawn

• Large-scale biomedical datasets may contain unexpected findings for the diligent researcher. Dr. MacFawn’s lab uses a special form of immunohistochemistry to stain human cancer slides, enabling identification of up to seven markers on an individual slide. Using high resolution digital scans, the presence and interactions of cells of the immune system (B cells, T cells, dendritic cells, macrophages) can be illustrated across a vast dataset comprised of millions of cells from scores of patients. Much of this work is mediated through computational image analysis programs that employ machine-learning based algorithms. These findings can be correlated with patient features such as age, stage, and molecular profile to better understand trends in the tumor microenvironment with the ultimate goal of promoting patient response to immunotherapies.
• Dr. MacFawn is currently working in the field of ovarian cancer but plans to expand and synergize his lab’s findings with other solid tumor types. A major aspiration of the lab is to produce a publicly available, high quality multispectral imaging dataset (>100 patients) of ovarian cancer which he and his students will organize and mine for biologically.

Dr. Kristina Pazehoski

• Integrity of the Intestinal Barrier: Dr. Pazehoski’s research students have been using a human colon cell culture model (Caco-2 cells) to study the integrity of the intestinal barrier tissue. Diseases like Ulcerative Colitis and Chron’s disease involve the breakdown of connections between the cells that form the inner lining of the intestine. That loss of integrity means that the intestine can’t do its normal job of selectively absorbing good things into the bloodstream (like nutrients and water), while keeping out bad things (pathogens, toxins). Dr. Pazehoski’s lab has two main goals:
  • First, they are interested in exploring different models of the intestine. They are comparing the traditionally used two-dimensional cell culture model to a newer three-dimensional model known as an “organ-on-a-chip.”  
  • Second, they plan to investigate the influence that various bacteria within the gut microbiome have on the integrity of the intestinal barrier tissue. The gut microbiome can include both good and bad bacteria, and they are interested in using their cell culture models to measure the protective or destructive effects of the bacteria.
• Metals in biology: When we think about metals that are important to human health, most of us probably think of iron, but did you know that copper also plays major roles in living organisms? Copper is crucial to numerous biological processes, and too much or too little can result in disease. Dr. Pazehoski’s research expertise is in the field of bio-inorganic chemistry, where she studies how cells control the levels of copper so that there is just the right amount for all the good effects, and none of the bad.

Dr. Devin Stauff

• Human pathogens: The Stauff lab is interested in deciphering ways that disease-causing bacteria sense and respond to their environment using systems known as two-component systems (TCS). They have used tools of genetics combined with chemistry to figure out how these sensor systems work. These studies have the potential to expand our understanding of how organisms respond to their environment and may lead to the development of drugs that interfere with the strategies that bacteria use to cause disease.
• Research papers: Dr. Stauff and his students have published several papers in peer-reviewed journals and students have presented their research both at Grove City College and at external research competitions.
  • A recent publication from the Stauff lab.

Dr. Darren Wood

• Detecting endangered species: Dr. Wood will be sampling for the eastern sand darter (Ammocrypta pellucida), a state-listed endangered species in Pennsylvania, using eDNA to detect possible unknown populations in the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Youghiogheny Watersheds.
• Hydroponics: Dr. Wood and Sophia Bowers '27 are collaborating with the Grove City College engineering department to create a 3-D printed hydroponics system. The goal of the system is to use an existing indoor fish tank (10-gallon) to generate fresh vegetables and herbs while removing nitrogenous waste products from the fish.

Dr. Brian Yowler

• Cancer biology: Dr. Yowler and his research team are evaluating the anti-cancer properties of various organic compounds by determining their toxicity on human cancer (HeLa) cells. These compounds are synthesized by Dr. Charles Kriley and his research students in the Chemistry Department. Collaborative projects such as this highlight the interdisciplinary nature of science and scientific study. Several students have recently presented this work at American Chemical Society (ACS) meetings.
• Bioinformatics: Dr. Yowler is also involved in a large collaborative project with the Genomics Education Partnership. More specifically, students are working to annotate various Drosophila (fruit fly) genes to explore the evolution of the insulin-signaling pathway. Based on the work of Grove City College students and others, several micropublications are being prepared for publication.
• Virology: Dr. Yowler is also collaborating with Dr. Farone on a project to detect the presence of Deformed Wing Virus in the honeybee colonies in our on-campus apiary. Students working on this project recently presented their results at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR).