Media advisory: Students from across U.S. to showcase research they conducted in Buffalo

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Welcome to Biomedical Research Day!

On Friday, Aug. 2, more than 100 student scientists from across the country will convene in downtown Buffalo to show off posters describing the results of research they completed in regional labs.

The summer poster exhibition is a highlight of six Buffalo programs that introduce students from Western New York and far beyond to biomedical research opportunities in the region. This year’s participants hail from places as far away as Puerto Rico and Hawaii.

What: Biomedical Research Day, a busy, colorful poster expo showcasing the work that more than 100 student scientists from around the U.S. conducted in Buffalo labs.

When: Friday, Aug. 2, from 11 a.m. to noon.

At noon, after the poster expo, University at Buffalo Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Charles Zukoski, PhD, will deliver a keynote speech, talking to students about his personal experience as an internationally recognized researcher in chemical engineering.

Where: Fifth floor of UB’s Clinical and Translational Research Center at 875 Ellicott St., Buffalo

Media arrangements: Contact Ellen Goldbaum in the Office of University Communications at 716-645-4605 before the event and 716-771-9255 on site.

Who: More than 150 students and faculty advisors from these Buffalo research programs:

• Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURE) at the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
• Student Research Program at the UB School of Dental Medicine
• Summer Research Experience Program in Cancer Science at Roswell Park Cancer Institute
• T35 Research Program in Infectious Diseases, Microbiology and Immunology at the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and Roswell Park Cancer Institute
• Summer Apprentice Program at the Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute
• Collaborative Learning and Integrated Mentoring in the Biosciences Undergraduate Program (CLIMB UP at UB), with several students funded by the Institute for the Strategic Enhancement of Educational Diversity (iSEED)

Why: Each summer, these programs give ambitious and highly qualified undergraduate, graduate and professional students from diverse fields the opportunity to conduct meaningful research in biomedical laboratories in Buffalo.

For students from outside of Western New York, participating in these summer programs offers a chance to see, firsthand, the exciting transformation that is taking place in Buffalo with regards to the expansion of the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus and biomedical research.  

“The level of excitement these students have is one demonstration of how research is growing rapidly in Buffalo on a national and international scale,” said SURE Director Terry D. Connell, a UB professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. “We have students from all over the country who are getting a real taste for the state-of-the-art research that’s being performed in Buffalo.”

This year’s student investigators explored topics including, but not limited to, infectious disease, neuroscience, pharmacology, protein structure, periodontal disease and cancer.

The poster expo is part of a larger array of Biomedical Research Day activities, including short talks earlier in the morning by one student from each program who has been selected to describe research results to all conference attendees.