The BYU College of Life Sciences hosted a conference to highlight student research on Friday, Oct. 25.
The event was structured in a poster session format, similar to professional conferences, and students were judged on their research and presentations. Monetary prizes were given to the top performing students at the conference.
Noah Bezzant, a student studying exercise sciences, shared the preliminary findings of his research regarding knee pain. Hoping to develop cheaper imaging techniques for research and clinical use, Bezzant said his project focused on using ultrasounds to measure cartilage thickness in the knees of senior athletes.
Although 300 athletes have been measured, only 35 have calculated data from the measurements. This has led to inconclusive findings, but Bezzant said he hopes this research can help save people time and money.
“With that motivation, it’s been a really awesome experience to hopefully make the medical field a slightly more effective and accepting place for people without the means to get better imaging,” Bezzant said.
Kaleigh King Stone and Anna Benzley of the conference are also working on a project to help improve the medical system and patient outcomes. In a qualitative study, they interviewed women with polycystic ovarian syndrome about how their illness has impacted their life. Stone and Benzley said they discovered a common trend of women seeking treatment feeling dismissed by doctors.
“A lot of women reported that they would go to their healthcare providers seeking help, but they would be met with comments like 'are you sure you’re not making up the pain,' 'you just need to push harder' and 'if you just lose the weight everything would be fine'," Benzley said.
According to Stone and Benzley, the current treatment for polycystic ovarian syndrome is birth control, which often does not solve the underlying causes of the disease and can sometimes lead to further health problems.
“It’s humbling,” Stone shared when asked about her experience working on this project. “There have been some interviews that I feel like have brought me to tears.”
Benzley shared similar feelings.
“It’s made me a lot more empathetic to everyone. They’re going through things that you cannot see. You see some things, but that is only a small percent,” Benzley said.
Acelan Obray and Thomas Bashford sought to understand why Pacific Islanders might be more hesitant to receive vaccinations than other groups. They discovered a few key social and ecological variables, including whether there is a trusted primary care provider and whether individuals have been educated on the importance of taking proactive steps towards protecting their health.
“It has made me realize how blessed I am and how blessed we all are to go to BYU and have an education that we don’t have to ask questions like ‘what is HPV?’” Bashford said.
Isaac Forbush, a cellular biology student, showed his research to better understand addiction networks in the brain. He showed hopes that a better understanding of addiction-related areas of the brain will help in the development of better treatments for addiction.
“When I first got in the lab, I was like, 'This is too much.' I’m not even a neuroscience major, I’m cell bio, so I had to learn a lot and it’s been just learning since I’ve been in the lab. I still don’t feel super comfortable with everything, but it’s been cool seeing how much I’ve learned,” Forbush said.
Hailey Hellwig’s research focused on a protein called lactoferrin, specifically understanding its interactions with other proteins. Her research aims to help lactoferrin be more effectively incorporated into infant formula so that its health benefits can be more fully realized.
“There are times when it’s really frustrating. Research is hard and there are a lot of steps back. You do something and it doesn’t work the first five times that you do it, but then the one time it does work, it’s just like ... I got it to work! It finally did something and it is this amazing feeling,” Hellwig said.
Tyler Bosler shared a meta-analysis of research on different sources of sugar in a person’s diet and the accompanying risks of type 2 diabetes. After compiling data from 29 studies, only sugar sweetened beverages showed a positive, dose-dependent correlation with type 2 diabetes, Bosler said.
“The reason why that may be is because you eat total sugar and sucrose with your meals. So you could sprinkle some sugar on some oatmeal or on your grapefruit, whereas sugar sweetened beverages and fruit in fruit juices are liquid source of fruit which contain not as much nutrients other than just straight sugar,” Bosler said.