While many students head home for summer break to recuperate after the school year, University of Colorado at Boulder junior Makenzie Lewis spent her summer in a laboratory studying new approaches to control chronic pain.
Lewis was one of 20 CU-Boulder students who benefited from grants totaling nearly $200,000 that allowed them to continue working in five CU-Boulder labs during the summer. The grants from the National Institutes of Health were funded with federal stimulus dollars from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
"It is great to have a summer job where I am gaining valuable lab experience, and one where I am given a great deal of responsibility to help with real-world research," Lewis said.
Lewis works in Professor Linda Watkins' lab in the psychology and neuroscience department, where she helps with projects exploring ways to improve the clinical effectiveness of drugs used for pain control.
"The students working with me would not have been able to participate in research over the summer if it had not been for these stimulus funds," said Watkins, who was awarded two grants allowing six undergraduates to continue working in her laboratories this summer. "Our students are working on projects all the way from cell culture to molecular biology to pharmacology to anatomy."
Other projects on campus that received grants from the stimulus package to keep CU students working through the summer include:
o Two projects in the lab of Professor Douglas Seals of the integrative physiology department examining the roles of exercise and diet in treating vascular aging in older adults, including the hardening and loss of elasticity of the arteries.
o A project in the lab of Professor Robert Kuchta of the chemistry and biochemistry department investigating the mechanism and inhibition of the herpes virus.
o A project in the lab of Assistant Professor Stephanie Bryant of the chemical and biological engineering department involving new tissue engineering research to regenerate cartilage in the joint of the jaw.
o A project in the lab of Professor Roger Enoka of the integrative physiology department studying how changes in the neuromuscular system affect the steadiness of older adults.
This summer, more than 3,000 high school students and teachers and college students across the country were given similar opportunities to work in college laboratories with researchers. The grants were made possible by a provision in the federal stimulus package passed by Congress.
For a complete list of the CU-Boulder projects visit .
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