MHS students have chemistry

Kamryn Bussmann, Staff Writer

Seniors Tejaswi Shrestha and Akash Aryal headed to Ames, Iowa to present some chemistry knowledge to undergraduates at Iowa State.

“I had a poster presentation about research I had done over the summer at K- State,” Shrestha said.

Shrestha had worked with Dr.Bossmann to develop a copper activated drug against MRSA gene and other positive bacteria. When the body is infected the area is swamped by toxic copper ions. Shrestha’s defending drug is going to help with the flooded toxic area.

“ we are creating a compound that will bind with copper,” Shrestha said, “and either deliver the copper ion inside the bacteria or intercalate in the bacteria’s wall.”

By showing her poster, she gave a overview of her project and answered questions to undergraduates and other people at the conference during the undergraduate poster session.

“It was interesting to hear other people’s input into my project,” Shrestha stated.

In addition she also got to see other people’s posters which helped her learn more about research that is happening in the chemistry world.

“There were a few other people from my lab and from K-State,” Shrestha said, “So I went to their presentations.”

On the other hand Aryal presented two projects at the conference. One being along the lines of laser cancer treatment.

“it tested the feasibility of using indocyanine green dye (ICG) in laser interstitial thermal therapy for cancer tumors in the liver,” Aryal said.

Along with poster presentations in the form of a gallery, they also heard oral presentations about things happening in chemistry. The speakers ranged from graduate students to professors.

“The research conference really broadened my horizons,” Aryal said. “and exposed me to a vast number of research topics and areas, many of which I had never seen before.”