Biology

The Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science has approved an application for the Gatton Research Internship Grant from one of its high school students, Seth Marksberry, to support summer research under the guidance of Dr. Chandra Emani of the biology department at WKU-Owensboro. The first goal is for the student to have a personal research project under the guidance of a professional scientist.  This experience should give the student an insight into what it really means to be a scientist in a particular STEM field

Seth will be working on developing a portable greenhouse substitute instrument to grow medicinally important plants such as basil, rice and tobacco that will be pharmaceutical raw material for extracting the medicinal metabolites and to develop suspension tissue cultures. Dr. Emani and Seth have a pilot prototype and over the summer, they may achieve a rare distinction of a potential patentable product. The Owensboro Center for Business and Research has also expressed great interest in the project.