Project Research

Garrett Mayo and Hannah Dean discuss Dr. Kaufman's early life, her current research projects, and her upcoming book.

Dr. Kaufman is the Assistant Professor in Early Modern British History at the University of Alabama.

​From 2015-7,  she was the  CMRS Early Career Development Fellow at Keble College, Oxford, where she also coordinated the Medieval and Renaissance Cluster of Keble's Advanced Studies Centre.

Raised, though not born, in central Pennsylvania,  Dr. Kaufman received a B.A. in Renaissance Studies from Yale College in 2004. After two years spent working at the Arden Theatre Company in Philadelphia, she moved to England, where she received an MPhil in Early Modern History from the University of Cambridge before returning to Yale for my Ph.D.

Dr. Kaufman's wider intellectual interests include popular politics and power; social and institutional networks; religious and national identities; urban infrastructure and development; microeconomics; and generational dynamics--particularly in Britain and its empire.

During this podcast, Megan Boswell and Kendall Willard will speak with research assistants that will stand in for Dr. Holly Horan. Jean Ryu and Emmily Mobley will tell us about the research they are doing on maternal infant health with Dr. Horan. Dr. Horan is an assistant professor in the college of Anthropology. She is a clinical bicultural anthropologist. In Puerto Rico, Dr. Horan conducted a mixed-methods research project on maternal perceptions of stress and timing of delivery . She has also worked in public health as a program coordinator for a doula program in Oregon.

Elise Powis and Linden Bronz-Russo interview Dr. Brandon Kim about his research regarding the host-pathogen interaction between bacterial pathogens and the human blood-brain barrier. Dr. Kim is an assistant professor at the University of Alabama working in the biological sciences department where he operates a lab looking into how bacterial meningitis is able to subvert the blood-brain barrier and gain access to the central nervous system. 

Learn more about Dr. Kim and his work at https://bsc.ua.edu/profiles/brandon-kim/

Hosts: Taryn Crone and Dylan McClain

Guest Speaker: Dr. Nathan Correll

Dr. Correll is an associate professor in the Biological Sciences Department at UA. His major research interests are the molecular processes that underlie the pathogenesis and progression of cardiac disease, with a focus on understanding how unfolded protein response signaling and dysregulation of calcium handling control remodeling of the heart after acute injury or chronic stress.

Join us to hear about Dr. Correll's journey toward post-doc research, his current research on cardiac disease, and his tips for undergraduate students looking to get involved in research. 

If you want to learn more about Dr. Correll's research, you can visit his biography at https://bsc.ua.edu/profiles/r-nathan-correll/ or you can email him at [email protected]. 

Interview from Grant Marshall and Bailey Dossett with Dr. Amanda Koh. 

Dr. Amanda Koh’s group focuses on engineering multifunctional materials through the intentional design of interfaces. Current research focuses on materials for soft robotics, stretchable electronics, sensing, and environmental remediation.

As devices become more advanced in the fields of defense, health, and manufacturing, it is no longer enough for materials to have a single function or be useful to only a single application. Materials that are responsive and multifunctional are key to creating robust, practical, and adaptive systems. The Koh lab seeks to develop these materials through the engineering of internal and composite interfaces either through the manipulation of existing chemistry or the addition of novel components.

Much of the current work in Koh’s lab focuses on developing soft materials, which are both deformable and have electronic, magnetic, or sensing capabilities. Applications of these materials include stretchable electronics (ex. wearables and health monitoring), soft robotics (ex. human-machine interfaces and manned-unmanned teaming), and environmental contaminant sensing (ex. heavy metals and petroleum derivatives).

In this episode, Kendall Monroe and Carson Cox will be interviewing Dr. Zengaro and discussing her research in the mental health of college athletes. 

Dr. Zengaro's background: "My research interests are in sport-health communication, with a focus on the stigma of mental health in college sports. For my dissertation, I conducted a qualitative study, and I researched how athlete identity contributes to the stigma of mental health communication in college sports through a toughness narrative based on the Communication Theory of Identity. This toughness narrative creates the idealized image of an athlete and the “no pain no gain” mentality that is very common in sports, which makes it harder for athletes to communicate mental health issues for fear of appearing weak to their coaches and teammates. I am currently looking at how to publish this data to improve mental health literacy and communication for student-athletes. Prior research I have done includes looking at factors that affect disclosure of health issues and fan identity and social media use in sports."

Garrett Woodfin and Caleb Mills interview Dr. Jennings, an organic chemistry professor, about his research and what the research process looks like. In this episode, Dr. Jennings discusses how he got involved in research, the research he is currently involved in and his future plans, and the advice he would give to students who are planning on getting involved in research. Garrett and Caleb then reflect on the interview and talk about some of their own personal experiences. 

Hosts: Lauren Hawkins and Anjali Kurse

Guest: Dr. Melanie Higgins, Department of Biological Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, UA

Microbes can impact human health in a number of different ways, the most obvious is by having a direct influence like with the microbiota or pathogens. Microbes can also help to improve human health indirectly by using microbial components for more application based technologies. The Higgins lab aims to understand microbial processes that have both direct and indirect effects on human health.

Host glycan metabolism by gut microbiota: There are trillions of bacteria that live inside the human body, and are collectively referred to as the microbiota. Many exhibit a positive outcome and have important roles in human health, such as aiding in digestion, supplying vital nutrients, and promoting normal development of immune functions. The microbiota is extremely complex and imbalances in its composition can drastically influence the health of the host and lead to serious disease or infection. Thus, studying the dynamics between commensal bacteria and host is of particular interest to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms that these bacteria use to impose a positive health outcome. In turn, this can allow for the manipulation of these mechanisms and/or dynamics to select for optimal microbiota composition to maintain the health of the individual or to repair an imbalance in composition to restore the health of the individual.

The Higgins lab studies the mechanisms by which commensal bacteria interact with host glycans in the gastrointestinal tract. We identify and characterize enzymes involved in the degradation of host mucin, glycocalyx, and glycans found in breast milk using in vitro techniques such as biochemical assays and X-ray crystallography. We are also interested in determining the biological roles of host glycan metabolism in colonization and/or gut-barrier function, using in vivo techniques including cell-based assays and animal models.

Natural products and their biosynthesis: Microorganisms play an important role in our everyday lives and provide essential functions such as recycling of living material, nitrogen fixation, and symbiotic colonization with animals. The ability of microorganisms to live in a wide variety of environments has led to the evolution of countless secondary metabolites, or natural products, required for their survival. These metabolites have long been utilized for many different applications from food preservatives and flavoring agents to biofuels. More notably, natural products commonly have bioactive properties which can be exploited as pharmaceutical products like antibiotics and antitumor agents.

The Higgins lab investigates how natural products are biologically synthesized by determining the structure-function relationships of the individual biosynthetic enzymes. We also use genome mining to identify novel natural products produced by uncharacterized gene clusters to discover new molecules and biosynthetic enzymes. These projects will lay the groundwork for protein- and bio-engineering approaches for diversification of natural products to improve and/or broaden their therapeutic potential and for clinical development strategie

Co-Hosts : Mithul Nallaka and Dylan Moore

Guest Speaker: Dr. Torin Alter

Topic: We explore the realm of consciousness as Dr. Alter explains his research, how his enquiries began, how the field might be explored in the future, and how it's alright if we don't understand consciousness on an individual level. He speaks about his research experience as well as the papers he has written. Listen in to hear about his research, and check out his publications!