UND undergrad wins national research fellowship

Mariaha Lyons, a junior undergraduate student at UND, was recently awarded a 2010 Undergraduate Summer Research Fellowship. This is a competitive national award from The American Physiological Society, which gives Lyons hands-on research experience in the lab of an established investigator where she will learn to develop a hypothesis, design and troubleshoot experiments, collect and analyze data, and write and present results.

Each fellow receives a $4,000 stipend to cover living expenses during the 10-week fellowship. Fellows also receive travel funds to present their research at the Experimental Biology 2011 meeting in Washington, D.C., which is expected to attract nearly 14,000 scientists.

Lyons received an Advanced Undergraduate Research Award from North Dakota EPSCoR (Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research) in 2009.  The overall goal of EPSCoR is to increase the competitiveness of North Dakota for merit-based grants and contracts in support of science and technology research from federal funding agencies.

Lyons has been working in the lab of Van A. Doze at the School of Medicine and Health Sciences since November 2008 and will continue her research this summer on “Alpha-1A Adrenergic Receptor Regulation of Hippocampal Synaptic Plasticity.” Her research examines the neural responsiveness in the hippocampus, a region of the brain that is critically important for learning and memory. The hippocampus is also involved with emotional expression.

Lyons, daughter of John and Jane Lyons, graduated from West Fargo High School in 2005, and will be the first in her family to graduate from college when she completes her undergraduate degree with a double major in biology and honors and a minor in chemistry in May 2011. Lyons plans to attend medical school in the fall of 2011.

— Denis MacLeod, assistant director, Office of Alumni and Community Relations, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, 777-2733, dmacleod@medicine.nodak.edu.