Lab Rotations
All IQ Biology students participate in three, 8‐week research rotations during their first year. Students must choose three different labs in at least two different departments/disciplines to gain laboratory, experimental, and computational skills. These rotations should be an interesting opportunity to learn new techniques and introduce you to ideas outside of your primary discipline. Students conducting rotations take three credits of CHEM 6901‐898 each semester.
Students can rotate with any of the participating IQ Biology faculty. It is also possible to rotate in the labs of faculty from our participating departments by arrangement.
Following these rotations, students will partake in an 8-week collaborative team research project. This projectwill provide a strong application in complex systems and pull on the quantitative biology skills and knowledge from students'first-year experiences, exposing themto the team science aspect of interdisciplinarity.
Past Team Rotations
2024 Cohort
- Sarah Elizabeth Stockman,Jenna Stanislaw, Carolina Valderrama Hincapie
- PIs: Orit Peleg (CSCI)& Nolan Kane (EBIO)
- Developing an agent-based model for the domestication of sunflowers (Helianthus annuus)
- Logan Barrios,Zac Caterer,Pedro Albuquerque Lemos
- PIs: Richard Benninger (Anschutz) &Stephen Kissler (CSCI)
- Developing a computational model of Heterogeneous Pancreatic Islet cell interactions
- Lauren Ohler &Helen Brackney
- PIs: Maggie Stanislawski (Anschutz)&Luke Evans (EBIO)
- The Weight of Data: A Multi-Omic Approach to BMI Evolution
- Lily Slemp,Ben Braun,Michael Luzadder,Luis Paez Beltran
- PIs: Ed Choung (MCDB)&Sammy Ramsey (EBIO)
- Genome construction and variant analysis in Apis mellifera using nanopore long-read sequencing
2023 Cohort
- Katie Bardsley, Luis de Pablo,Emma Keppler
- PIs: Stephen Kissler (CSCI) &Zia Mehrabi (ENVS)
- Assessing the impact of an emerging respiratory pathogen on US agricultural workers and food production
- Grace Bowman,Fink Kumpeerakij,Vivian L
- PIs: Dan Larremore (CSCI)&Roy Parker (BCHM)
- Tau Tales: the story of a disease’s journey across a neuronal network
- Lindsey Whitmore,Laurel Robbins,Gabrielle Gionet
- PIs: Kayla Sprenger (ChBE)&Sara Sawyer (MCDB)
- Computationally Improving Binding Affinity of HIV to Host Cell Receptors
- Carolus Vitalis,Juan Hanel,Tyler Amos
- PIs: Chris Myers (ECEE)&Daniel Acuña (CSCI)
- PUMA: Promoter Unraveling through Machine-learning Algorithms
2022 Cohort
- Emma Aldrich, Georgia Barone,Nolan Bonnie,Kurt Winkler
- PIs: Ryan Layer (CSCI)&Kayla Sprenger (ChBE)
- Identifying Apolipoprotein E Variants that Alter Canonical Phenotype in Alzheimer’s Disease: A Computational Analysis
- Rachel Billings,Catherine Fontana,Vanessa Maybruck
- PIs: Cresten Mansfeldt (EE)&Lizzy Trower (GEOL)
- Modeling the microbiome dynamics of Utah’s Great Salt Lake: A regression analysis of key abiotic factors impacting growth of Dunaliella green algae in the GSL’s South Arm
- Alexzanah Griffin,Kaylee Rosenberger,Hope Townsend
- PIs: Fan Zhang (Anschutz)&Kristi Kuhn (Anschutz)
- Benchmarking computational methods integrating genetics into single-cell transcriptomics to uncover disease relevant cell phenotypes
2021 Cohort
- Chris Arehart,Rosie Garris,Ruth Quispe Pilco,John Sterrett
- PIs: Luke Evans (EBIO)&Maggie Stanislawski (Anschutz)
- Combining multiple outer -omics to generate poly-omic risk scores for inflammatory bowel disease
- Kendra Kreienbrink,Payton Martinez, Bailey Zinger
- PIs: Mark Borden (BME)&Kayla Sprenger (ChBE)
- Microbubbles as Non-Invasive Targets for Blood Brain Barrier Disruption: An In Silico Investigation
2020 Cohort
- Eli Cipriano,Hannah Edstrom,Lyanna Kessler
- PIs: Jerome Fox (ChBE)&Chris Lowry (IPHY)
- Bioreactor Design for Polystyrene Degradation by Mealworm Gut Microbiome
- Lukas Buecherl,Clair Huffine,Zach Maas
- PIs: Boz Wing (GEOL)&Alexis Templeton (GEOL)
- Metabolic Pathways on Europa
- Casey Middleton,Claire Powers,Josh Seabaugh
- PIs: Brett Melbourne (EBIO)&Eric Vance (APPM)
- NEON's Phenology Ecological Forecasting Challenge
2019 Cohort
- Tristan Caro,Liam Friar,Jack Gugel,Ellen Waddle
- PIs: Dan Doak (ENVS)&Orit Peleg (CSCI)
- Effect of Termite Nest Distribution on Herbivore Grazing Patterns
- Kate Bubar,Adam Dziulko,Alison Leonard,Sharon Wu
- PIs: Dan Larremore (CSCI)&Sara Sawyer (MCDB)
- Agent-Based Modeling of COVID-19 Quarantine Release
2018 Cohort
- Karl Widney,Andrea Halling,Kathleen Murphy
- PIs: Sabrina Spencer (BCHM)&Joel Kralj (MCDB) & Amy Palmer (BCHM)
- Cancer Immortality: Is a single cancel cell immortal?
- Kristen Schneider,Peter Innes,Timothy Thorn
- PI: Ryan Layer (CSCI)
- Cancer Genetics / Diagnosis: Improving the accuracy of diagnostic tools for acute myeloid leukemia
- Sierra Jech,Ethan Hobbs,Philip Benson
- PI: Colin Campbell (sabatical faculty, Edinburgh)
- Pollination: How to reduce the rate of pollinator decline by 50% by the year 2025