Lehigh Valley Molecular and Cell Biology Society at Lafayette College Presentations

Nineteen Cedar Crest College students attended or presented their data at the 10th Annual Meeting of the Lehigh Valley Molecular and Cell Biology Society at Lafayette College, April 22, 2026. The evening symposium hosted a total of 51 posters and 4 micro talks from 8 regional colleges and universities. The conference concluded with a Keynote talk by a Lafayette alum, Dr. Nicholas Grams, who is a Senior Scientist II at Dispatch, which is a biotech company that focuses on designing, building, and testing oncolytic viruses for treatment of late-stage, treatment-resistant cancers.

Oral Presentations by students:
- Jocelyn Miller, Allison Alamorian, Awaiz Zahra (research advisor: Audrey Ettinger): a molecular essay to quantify differences in neurogenesis in the model system Rocio octofasciata.

Poster Presentations by students:

- Lara FitzSimons* (research advisor: Jenny Hayden) Finding antibiotic producers in soil samples taken from Cedar Creek Park
- Ashlee Kitzhoffer (research advisor: Jenny Hayden): Exploring stagnant water as a source of antibiotic-producing bacteria: isolation and genetic characterization.
- Olivia Norris* and Alexandra Paul* (research advisor: Andre Walther) Differentiating beer yeast strains with quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction using high resolution melting analysis
- Jessica Shults and Karlee Kelly (research advisor: Andre Walther) Investigating how RPA phosphorylation influences DNA adaptation and DNA repair in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Students indicated with an asterisk (*) were supported by the NASA TOWERS Program at Cedar Crest College while conducting these projects.