Michael Brister Headed to National Biochemistry and Biology Conference

Fort Washington student is returning as last year's champion

NEWARK, DE (03/01/2012)(readMedia)-- When University of Delaware student Michael Brister won the undergraduate poster competition last year at the annual American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology conference, he joined a long line of winners from UD.

In an article for ASBMB Today, a publication for the society, UD Prof. Hal White describes how students can be successful at these national conferences, and his advice comes from experience.

White, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry and the director of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Undergraduate Science Education program on campus, has accompanied students to these conferences for the past decade, and in that time UD students have won more than double the awards received by students from any other university.

Brister, a senior biochemistry major and Honors Program student from Fort Washington, Pa., will compete again in the poster competition at the ASBMB annual Experimental Biology Meetings, which will be held this year in San Diego from April 21- 25.

Eighteen other students, a record number of attendees from the University, will participate in the conference. The HHMI program coordinates and funds the students' participation in these conferences.

Brister, who was also a HHMI summer scholar, will again present his research conducted in the lab of Neal Zondlo, associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry. The research focuses on specific proteins implicated for their role in Alzheimer's disease and studies ways to prevent the proteins from taking on a disease function.

Brister said he was shocked when he won the competition last year, and while he is not looking to overwhelm himself with pressure to win again, he is preparing strategies to maximize the amount of lectures and symposiums he can attend during the short time frame of the conference.

"Going back in my second year, I have the advantage of knowing I need to do some planning before I go," Brister said.