Two students win awards for ballast water live-dead testing projects

Two undergraduate researchers working on ballast water analysis projects in the Ram laboratory recently won awards for presenting their work at Wayne State University's Undergraduate Research Conference, February 22, 2013.

Natalia Sachovska described her work sampling and conducting molecular live-dead tests of ballast water samples on the Ranger III, a ballasted ship that carries cargo and passengers to Isle Royale National Park. Natalia's research used a DNA cross-linking reagent, propidium monoazide, to differentiate live from dead bacteria and phytoplankton.

Eboni Reed is part of a team developing an automated live-dead ballast water test system. The method that she has been testing uses a chemical that is converted into a fluorescent signal compound by enzymes in live organisms but is not produced by dead organisms.

As described by Eboni in an e-mail after the research conference "The presentations went great and Nataliya and I were able to take home two awards for best presentations. There were six awards and about 50 competitors. I received a lot of great feedback after the conference and even stayed after to attend a session on graduate school and furthering research opportunities. The judges were impressed with the studies going on in the lab currently."