Summer Undergraduate Vision Research Fellowship Program welcomes 7 students to Morgantown campus
Seven students from colleges and universities across the country are on West Virginia University’s Health Sciences Campus this summer to explore causes and potential treatments of ocular diseases through the Summer Undergraduate Vision Research Fellowship Program.
The 10-week-long program hosted by the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences and the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine began on May 24 and will conclude on August 2. The program is open to undergraduates entering their sophomore year or higher who are enrolled in a U.S. university or college.
“It's exciting to be around a new group of students who have chosen to spend their summer in our research labs here at WVU. This year, we're hosting students from five different states with interests in medical school, optometry school and research-focused graduate student careers,” co-fellowship coordinator Michael Robichaux, Ph.D. said. “Already I've noticed the students busy performing experiments in the laboratories, so I can confidently predict that they will help our labs make excellent research progress this summer.”
The program emphasizes components of basic vision research with regard to ocular diseases and the exploration of new diagnostic and treatment methods. Each student is assigned a lab mentor who is currently conducting research in the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences laboratory space and will complete a small-scale research project to be presented at the end of the fellowship.
This year’s undergraduate fellows are:
- Junyeop Ahn, University of Virginia
- Wilma Aung, Binghamton University
- McKayla Friel, Fairmont State University
- Logan Gusmano, Kenyon College
- Elijah Smith, West Virginia University
- Silas Wang, Carnegie Mellon University
- Ethan Weneck, West Virginia University
The program is led by Dr. Robichaux and Saravanan Kolandaivelu, Ph.D., who both serve as co-fellowship coordinators and lab mentors to students. The program is supported through the WVU Visual Sciences Center of Biomedical Research Excellence.
To learn more about research opportunities within the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, visit medicine.hsc.wvu.edu/eye/research.