Faculty Mentor: Dr.Yi Li
Graduate Student Mentor: Loni Philip, PhD candidate, Luke Purvis, MA candidate
Program Participants:Antonio Benavidez and Jacqueline Hairston

Project Title: The Effects of Endotoxin Exposure in Households

Project Description: This research project was on endotoxin levels and their effect on asthma in infants. Based on the Home Allergen Study, the students determined that there was no seasonal effect on endotoxin levels. However, they were unable to find a correlation between endotoxin levels and the incidence of asthma in the infants. Additionaly, they found that during the 1990's the mean endotoxin level was significantly diffferent from the mean endotoxin level for the 2000's.

Antonio Benavidez, Loni Philip, Dr. Yi Li, and Jacqueline Hairston

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Louise Ryan
Post Doctoral Mentor: Dr. Kim Pearson
Program Participants: Saritza Mendoza and Hassnain Syed

Project Title: Phthalate Exposure and its Effect on Sperm Quality

Project Description: This research project was looking into identifying whether there was an association between men's exposure to phthalates (a common chemical used to increase the flexibility of plastic) and their sperm quality. Phthlates have been associated with reproductive problems in animals, hence the motivation of asking the question: could pthalates affect sperm quality in men?The research revealed an inverse relationship between age and semen volume and a direct relationship between sperm concentration and the phthalate MEHP. Though many questions are left to be answered, there is evidence that some phthlates do adversely affect sperm quality in men. Also, morphology [in percentage of normally shaped] was inversely related with the increase of abstinence time.

Dr. Kim Pearson, Saritza Mendoza, and Hassnain Syed

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Christoph Lange
Graduate Student Mentor: Melissa Naylor , PhD candidate
Program Participants: Nina Yeboah and Dana Mars

Project Title: Genetic Determinants of Alcoholism

Project Description: This project used regression models to investigate genetic determinants of alcoholism. They applied multivariate regression models to the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism (COGA), which contains genetic and phenotype information on approximately 1600 subjects from 143 families. The goal of the project was to identify any significant genetic markers of alcoholism (or surrogate phenotypic traits).

Melissa Naylor, Nina Yeboah, and Dana Mars