Comps, honors papers, and prize-winning works of the Biology Department are featured here. All works have been self-submitted by the student authors. Descriptive information about each work is available to search or browse. Access to the full text of the works is limited to current Carleton affiliates with faculty permission. Learn more about how to submit your work and how to request access to the full text of works.
In addition to this digital archive, physical copies of past Biology comps are available for browsing in the Biology office (Hulings Hall 214).
Submissions from 2026
Emily Muenzer, Biology (BIOL) 2026, The Invasion, Repression, and Escape of Human Endogenous Retrovirus K and its Implications in Targeted Cancer Therapies
Noah Reid, Biology (BIOL) 2026, Elusive Exosomes: Relationship of Exosomal PD-L1 and KRAS-MEK on Immune Suppression
Submissions from 2025
Jordan Appelbaum, Biology (BIOL) 2025, Beyond Surface Antigens: The Rise of Bispecific TCRm-ADCs in Cancer Immunotherapy
Allison Audette, Biology (BIOL) 2025, Gene Flow and Bt-Crops: Understanding Potential Ecological Consequences
Jens Bartel, Biology (BIOL) 2025, Understanding the Lichen Symbiosis in the Age of Genomics
Sydney Bieber, Biology (BIOL) 2025, Sex Hormones and X Chromosome Inactivation Produce Aberrant T Cell Population Ratios in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Contributing to a Strong Female Bias
Katrin Birk, Biology (BIOL) 2025, Hybridisation and introgression as conservation tactics in the face of anthropogenic environmental change
Max Borden, Biology (BIOL) 2025, RuBisC-No! Designing Protein-Cage-Based Metabolons to Move Synthetic Carbon Fixation Systems in vivo
Ruairi Brown, Biology (BIOL) 2025, A Surfeit of Stressors: The Effects of Ocean Acidification, Hypoxic Waters, and Increasing Ocean Temperatures on Metacarcinus magister
Kerrigan Candra, Biology (BIOL) 2025, Temperature and ocean acidification impacts on the direct versus indirect developing periwinkle snails
Brian Caplan, Biology (BIOL) 2025, Sex Differences in Ischemic Stroke: The Role of 17𝛽-Estradiol and Mesenchymal Stem Cells on Modulating Cell Death
Gwen Casey, Biology (BIOL) 2025, Mitigating Methane Emissions From Digestate Composting
Martha Chan, Biology (BIOL) 2025, Asymmetrical Horizontal Gene Transfer Between Parasites and Hosts: Evolutionary Constraints and Functional Implications
Dorothy Chou, Biology (BIOL) 2025, Predicting Crab Survival: The Impacts of Climate Change on the Competitive Dynamic of Hemigrapsus sanguineus and Carcinus maenas
Caroline Crampton, Biology (BIOL) 2025, Peroxisomal Disruptions at the Lipid Droplet Interface: Implications for Insulin Resistance
Caroline Crampton, Biology (BIOL) 2025, Peroxisomal Disruptions at the Lipid Droplet Interface: Implications for Insulin Resistance
Lara Dominguez, Biology (BIOL) 2025, Will a Tick in Time Spread Lyme?: The Future Risk Landscape of Lyme Disease in Urban Greenspaces
Jenna Drummond, Biology (BIOL) 2025, The Role of Alternate Alleles in Instituting Reproductive Isolation in Homoploid Hybrid Speciation
Shira Dubin, Biology (BIOL) 2025, Dynamin-Related Proteins in Apicoplast and Mitochondrial Fission During Plasmodium falciparum Replication
Raquel Germani, Biology (BIOL) 2025, Exploring Multiple Paternity and Female Choice: A Strategy to Enhance Genetic Diversity and Population Viability
Ellen Johnson, Biology (BIOL) 2025, From Sensory Organelle to Evolutionary Catalyst: The Impact of Primary Cilia and Sonic Hedgehog Signaling on Phenotypic Plasticity
Elizabeth Kniser, Biology (BIOL) 2025, S. aureus Biofilm Infections: Regulation of Dispersal Through Agr Quorum-Sensing and Therapeutic Challenges
Padmini Konidena, Biology (BIOL) 2025, Exploring the Role of Ghost Introgression in Species Adaptations
Ezra Kucur, Biology (BIOL) 2025, Climate Challenges in the Intertidal Zone: Pisaster ochraceus’ Response to Sea Star Wasting Disease
Rebecca Lerdau, Biology (BIOL) 2025, Climate Change and Anuran Reproductive Response
Caroline Loescher, Biology (BIOL) 2025, The Role of Climate Change in Shaping Range Shifts and Disease Transmission Dynamics Between Plants and Insects
Josephine MacDonald, Biology (BIOL) 2025, Landscapes of Peril: How Fear of Predators and Parasites Shapes Disease Risk
Kyle Machalec, Biology (BIOL) 2025, Neurodegeneration and Lipid Droplets: From Metabolic Buffer to Cellular Burden
Elizabeth Madigan, Biology (BIOL) 2025, The Plastic Predicament: Bisphenol A’s Contribution to Sex Differences Observed in Autism Spectrum Disorder
Abby Marks, Biology (BIOL) 2025, Copper Resistance and Its Role in Antibiotic Resistance Spillover from Manure
Ben Mazor, Biology (BIOL) 2025, You Are What Eats You: Understanding the Gut Microbiome’s Relationship with Alzheimer’s Disease
Sophie McManus, Biology (BIOL) 2025, Shadowless: Mechanisms of persistence in the symbiosis between Vibrio fischeri and Euprymna scolopes
Caitlin McWilliams, Biology (BIOL) 2025, Managing Introgression Before Genetic Swamping: Evolutionary Risk and Opportunity in Invasive-Native Hybridization
Han Jing Munson, Biology (BIOL) 2025, Zooming in on the telescoping effect: Mechanisms of female opioid use disorder and the role of estradiol
Navya Murahari, Biology (BIOL) 2025, RBM39 Degradation Catalyzed Aberrant Splicing Confers Cellular “Sight” for Human Cancer Immune Response
Mariam Nechiporuk, Biology (BIOL) 2025, Power and Precision: Bispecific TCR mimic antibodies simultaneously hunt down tumor specific antigens and engage potent T cell mediated killing
Sara Negasi, Biology (BIOL) 2025, Targeting the cGAS-STING pathway to Improve Outcomes in Solid Tumors
Emma Neham, Biology (BIOL) 2025, Examining The Role of Seipin and The Lipid Droplet Assembly Factor In Lipid Droplet Biogenesis
Jonathan Nguyen, Biology (BIOL) 2025, Crabby Waters: Seasonal Dynamics and Climate Change Impacts on Callinectes Sapidus
Quan Nguyen, Biology (BIOL) 2025, Exploring the different mechanisms by which Candida albicans Enhances Staphylococcus aureus Virulence in Peritonitis and Oral Candidiasis
Zhanghan Ni, Biology (BIOL) 2025, Quorum Sensing Is Associated with Mechanisms That Cause and Regulate Social Cheating in Microbial Cooperation
Tiffan Nyamao, Biology (BIOL) 2025, Targeting XPO1-Mediated Nuclear Export in Multiple Myeloma: Effects on CAR-T Therapy and the Tumor Microenvironment
Jose Ortega, Biology (BIOL) 2025, From Point A to Point Human: The Journey of H5N1 Towards Sustained Human-to-Human Transmission
Joseph Park, Biology (BIOL) 2025, MamT, a conserved protein in magnetotactic bacteria (MTB), is critical for the effective utilization of iron for growth and maturation of magnetic crystals in magnetosomes and directs the localization of Mms6
Allen Perales, Biology (BIOL) 2025, Sculpting the Immune Response: Modifying the CAR NK Cell Construct Against the Tumor Microenvironment
Henry Petrini, Biology (BIOL) 2025, Bridging the Gap: Lysosome-Peroxisome Membrane Contacts in Storage Disorders and Neuropathy
Nithin Poreddy, Biology (BIOL) 2025, Cancer Catalysts: Extracellular Vesicle-Mediated Horizontal Gene Transfer and Genome Integration in Metastasis
Daanyal Raja, Biology (BIOL) 2025, Crude Consequences: A Comparative Analysis of Oil Spill Impacts on Aerial Versus Submerged Species in Saltmarsh Ecosystems
Moira Rankin, Biology (BIOL) 2025, Introgression in anthropogenic landscapes: Weighing adaptive and maladaptive outcomes of unintentional and intentional introgression events
Edith Reyes Contreras, Biology (BIOL) 2025, Rising Temperatures, Vanishing Forests: The Environmental Drivers of Malaria Transmission
Rhusel Rivera, Biology (BIOL) 2025, Investigating the Role of PPAR𝛾 in Peroxisome-Mediated Sebum Production and the Pathophysiology of Acne Vulgaris
Zoe Rose, Biology (BIOL) 2025, Disruption of Peroxisomal Function in Intestinal Epithelial Cells: Implications for Enterocyte Formation
Mehreen Shahid, Biology (BIOL) 2025, OV-BiTE: Using an Oncolytic Virus to Enhance the Efficacy of T-Cell-Attracting Bispecific Monoclonal Antibodies in Treating Cold Solid Tumors
Katya Sjaastad, Biology (BIOL) 2025, How Do the Fungi Speak to the Trees? The Role of HGT and Small RNA Communication in Enabling the Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Symbiosis
Ingrid Smith, Biology (BIOL) 2025, Enhancing CAR-T Cell Therapy for Solid Tumors: Overcoming Tumor Microenvironment Challenges with SynNotch Receptors and PD-1 Blockades
Amanda Ta, Biology (BIOL) 2025, Exploring the Role of Chlamydia trachomatis as a Co-Factor in HPV-Driven Cervical Cancer
Thea Traw, Biology (BIOL) 2025, “Winning” the Crop Battle: Strategic Targeting of Horizontally Transferred Genes in Herbivorous Insects via RNA Interference
Tatjana Truckses Stephens, Biology (BIOL) 2025, Role of Beta Cell Cilia in Insulin Exocytosis
Ella Wiegman, Biology (BIOL) 2025, Turning Up the Heat: Targeting the Unfolded Protein Response in Dendritic Cells to Improve T-Cell Infiltration and Antitumor Function in Ovarian Cancer
Leo Xiao, Biology (BIOL) 2025, A Horizontal Leg Up: Skewed Incidence and Advantage of Horizontal Gene Transfer between Eukaryotic Parasite and Host
Submissions from 2024
Conor Babcock O'Neill, Biology (BIOL) 2024, Human-Accelerated Regions (HARs) & Schizophrenia: Evidence for a Genetic Driver and Recent Negative Selection
Margaret Blaney, Biology (BIOL) 2024, The Autoimmune and Disease-Specific Susceptibility Tradeoffs of Protective Pathogen-Driven Selection
Paloma Bravo, Biology (BIOL) 2024, Intestinal Epithelial Cells Expressing Toll-like-Receptors Communicate with T Regulatory Cells by Shaping the Commensal Microbial Community to Promote Gut Homeostasis
Kate Burton, Biology (BIOL) 2024, A New Immune System Danger Signal: Virally Induced Celiac Disease
Amy Chen, Biology (BIOL) 2024, Targeting proteins in the midgut of mosquitoes to prevent transmission of the malaria parasite
Natalia Crimmel, Biology (BIOL) 2024, Differential Regulation: Brains, Behavior and Disease
Vanessa Czerniecki, Biology (BIOL) 2024, Disordered Flanking Regions of Viral Short Linear Motifs potentially enhance Antibody Recognition
Sophie Draper, Biology (BIOL) 2024, Early Evolution of Homo sapiens: Origins From a Weakly Structured Stem
Anna Greenlee, Biology (BIOL) 2024, Future consequences of woody encroachment in U.S. grasslands
Abby Ignasiak, Biology (BIOL) 2024, Turn Up the Heat: The Importance of Temperature-Mediated Regulation of fHbp in N. meningitidis
Trevor Jones, Biology (BIOL) 2024, The Molecular Pathology and Therapeutic Potential of Autophagy in Alzheimer's Disease
Jelimo Kaitany, Biology (BIOL) 2024, Influence of Symbiodinium Heat Tolerance is Larger than Scleractinia on Coral Holobiont Recovery after Bleaching
Nicholas Lattal, Biology (BIOL) 2024, The evolutionary implications of adaptive introgression of Neanderthal and Denisovan genes in Eurasian
Makena Layton, Biology (BIOL) 2024, The Gut Microbiome, Leaky Gut and Autoimmunity
Sebastian Lee, Biology (BIOL) 2024, The Role of Gut Microbiota in the Pathogenesis of Major Depressive Disorder and Potential Gut-Targeted Antidepressant Therapies
Alice McClain, Biology (BIOL) 2024, Gardening the reef: future-proofing approaches to coral conservation
Ewan Miller, Biology (BIOL) 2024, A Coordinated Effort: The Recruitment of Regulatory T cells Involves Gut Microbes and the Vagus Nerve
Anya Mitton-Fry, Biology (BIOL) 2024, Latitude and avian life history strategies
Nicholas Moore, Biology (BIOL) 2024, Schizophrenia and the Human Noncoding Revolution: a New Evolutionary Framework
Shreya Nair, Biology (BIOL) 2024, A Gut feeling : Understanding the relationship between Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, the Gut Microbiome and Butyrate
Wanying Na, Biology (BIOL) 2024, The Role of VgrG-Associated Effectors in T6SS Structural Assembly, Firing and Interbacterial Competition of Pseudomonas aeruginosa
Brenna Russell, Biology (BIOL) 2024, Butyrate’s Maintenance of Colonic Homeostasis via PPARγ Activation
Emilie Scott, Biology (BIOL) 2024, α-synuclein and neuroinflammation pathology in Parkinson's Disease and Baicalein as an approach to halting disease progression
Ian Scott, Biology (BIOL) 2024, One Fish, Two fish, Hot Fish, Dead Fish: Effects of Temperature and Flow on Pacific Chinook Salmon
Mira Stephens, Biology (BIOL) 2024, Inhibition of Host Protein Synthesis by Legionella pneumophila as a Strategy for Amino Acid Acquisition and Host Cell Cycle Arrest
Micah Jay Strike, Biology (BIOL) 2024, Water flow as a rescue mechanism for corals during marine heatwaves
Blake Tran, Biology (BIOL) 2024, Saving Salmonids: Preparing Southwest Trout for Heat Waves and a Changing Climate
Vasilii Vaganov, Biology (BIOL) 2024, Decoding the Intricacies of Cajal Body Formation: Unveiling the Sequential Cascade of RNA Seeding, Coilin N-Terminal Oligomerization, and Coilin C-Terminal Recruitment
Isabella Vazquez, Biology (BIOL) 2024, The impact of heatwaves on temperature-dependent sex determination mechanisms in Trachemys scripta elegans
Aniketh Vipparla, Biology (BIOL) 2024, Duel of the Fates: Type VI Secretion System versus Biofilm in Acinetobacter baumannii Virulence
Jisoo Yeom, Biology (BIOL) 2024, Deciphering the Role of Phosphorylation in Period2 Using Frequency as a Model
Submissions from 2023
Collin Adams, Biology (BIOL) 2023, The Multifaceted Role of Codon Usage Bias in Regulating Gene Expression
Kelsie Armstrong, Biology (BIOL) 2023, Acclimation and Fluctuating Temperatures Affect Ecological Performance and Development in Frogs
Sophie Baggett, Biology (BIOL) 2023, Alzheimer's Disease: Turning Towards Tau
Aaron Berkowitz, Biology (BIOL) 2023, ApoE-TREM 2 Interaction: An Important Regulator of Alzheimer’s Disease Pathogenesis
Maddie Boulis, Biology (BIOL) 2023, Human Cytomegalovirus RNA2.7 aids Viral Immune Evasion
Ross Burnside, Biology (BIOL) 2023, Common Is Not Always Optimal: The Reasons for Using Rare Codons in Genes
Emma Carlson, Biology (BIOL) 2023, Codon usage bias as a regulatory mechanism of gene expression
Isabella Charlton, Biology (BIOL) 2023, Regulation of Abiotic Stress Response in Arabidopsis Via Alternative Splicing
Eleanor Chen, Biology (BIOL) 2023, Torpor-Associated Thermoregulation and Appetite Regulation in Endothermic Mammals: A Concerted and Tailored Process
