Pictured: In May 2019, BSC student Teja Chintala (front row, second from left) and faculty Dr. Kevin Drace and Dr. Melanie Styers attended last year’s symposium at the HudsonAlpha Institute of Biotechnology.

Four Birmingham-Southern students presented research at the 2020 virtual HudsonAlpha Characterizing Our DNA Exceptions (CODE) Virtual Student Symposium, held Nov. 17-24. Senior biology students Anjali Vira, Lena Cole Speir, Alexius Pratt, and Maddie Hosick presented research conducted with professors Dr. Centdrika Hurt and Dr. Kevin Drace.

CODE works to provide STEM students at smaller colleges and universities with bioinformatics and genomic research opportunities. Projects are a collaboration between students, faculty advisors, and HudsonAlpha, a nonprofit institute for scientists, educators, and entrepreneurs involved in genomics research.

At last year’s inaugural symposium, which was held at the HudsonAlpha Institute of Biotechnology in Huntsville in May 2019, Teja Chintala ’19 presented her senior research project, “Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva: Genome Sequencing to Identify Variants of Uncertain Significance in ACVR1,” which she conducted with research advisor Dr. Melanie Styers ’99, former associate professor of biology.

Usually, students who present at the CODE symposium have conducted their research through independent projects with faculty, Drace says. But this year, Hurt and Drace’s class, The BSC CODE Project (BI 474), allowed students to explore their topics and build their presentations through a research intensive course.

All of the students’ research can be viewed on the symposium website. The students who participated and their research topics are:

Maddie Hosick – “Two Variants, One Single-Nucleotide Polymorphism: Characterization of Variants R1179W and R1191W of the INSR Gene.”

Alexius Pratt – “Analysis of W486R Variant Impact on the Human Myosin-Binding Protein C Gene Responsible for Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy.”

Lena Cole Speir – “Computational Approach of Missense Mutation R131W in HNF1A Gene that causes MODY3.”

Anjali Vira – “Investigating the Variants of Uncertain Significance of APOE through Computational Methods.”