Superior—Students from across the Universities of Wisconsin were recognized for their poster presentations at the WiSys SPARK Symposium in July.

The award winners were:

Hannah Steinmetz, UW-River Falls (1st)

Anne Carmichael, UW-Eau Claire (2nd)

Klay Liu, UW-Madison (3rd)

The WiSys SPARK Symposium is held annually at various schools across the Universities of Wisconsin to highlight exceptional research and promote innovation throughout the state. This summer the event was hosted at UW-Superior and drew interest from 160 students and faculty, as well as leaders in industry and Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers.

The Research Poster and Innovation Showcase gave students the opportunity to present their research projects to SPARK attendees and a panel of faculty, staff, and industry judges.

First Place

UW-River Falls’ Hannah Steinmetz earned first place and $750 for her poster titled “Cucurbitacin B Causes Reduction of Stemness in Non-Epithelial Leukemia Cancer.” Steinmetz’s faculty advisor is Dr. Chen-Chen Huang, an associate professor of biology.  

Poster abstract: “Leukemia cancer cells are typically individual cells that travel through the bloodstream or inter-tissue fluid and are not known to bind to normal tissues to proliferate. Cucurbitacin B, from bottle gourds, is a strong inhibitor of proliferation and metastasis in several epithelial cancers. In those epithelial cancers, the actin cytoskeleton system was found collapsed after being treated with Cucurbitacin B. After seeing the results of treating epithelial cancers, we wanted to know what would happen when a non-epithelial cancer was treated with Cucurbitacin B. This project aims to see what happens to the proliferation, actin cytoskeleton, and stemness of non-epithelial Jurkat leukemia cancer cells once treated with Cucurbitacin B. To test if Cucurbitacin B inhibited leukemia proliferation, an MTT assay was performed. Cucurbitacin B treated cells were found to have a >70% cell proliferation inhibition. With this information, I performed immunostaining to observe mitotic cells under the fluorescence microscope. To our surprise, Cucurbitacin B treated cells had slightly more mitotic cells, inferring that the proliferation was not decreased when compared to our control. To answer the last question of what would happen to the stemness of the treated cells, I performed western blots to compare stem cell associated proteins.”

Second Place

UW-Eau Claire’s Anne Carmichael was awarded second place and $500 for her poster titled “Comparison of Filament Homogeneity in Nb3Sn and Bi-2212 Superconducting Wires.” Her faculty advisor is Matthew Jewell, the department chair of materials science and biomedical engineering.

Poster abstract: “Superconductors are materials that can carry electricity without resistance at cryogenic temperatures, which is useful for large magnet applications such as particle accelerators. Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8-x (Bi-2212) is a superconductor capable of producing very large magnetic fields (~20 Tesla), but processing the Bi-2212 into usable, filamentary round wire forms is challenging. The fluctuations in the size and shape of Bi-2212 filaments in a composite wire can affect processing capability and wire performance. We compared the filament homogeneity of Bi-2212 to that of Nb3Sn, a superconducting wire with a mature production process. Image analysis using ImageJ is used to assess the evolution of the geometric characteristics of each filament in the cross-section, and to quantify those changes. The longitudinal analysis exhibits a 7-14% filament area variation, and the filament circularity varies by 6-11% across the entire Bi-2212 sample set. The transverse variation of the filament area for four wire layers ranges between 14.5% - 18.5%, and the variation the average circularity ranges between 11.3%-16.8%. The same analysis was done on Nb3Sn wires to compare the variation in filament area and circularity in Nb3Sn verses Bi-2212 wires. Bi-2212 wire manufacturers can use our analysis to optimize wire layout and powder characteristics for fabricability and performance uniformity.”

Third Place

UW-Madison's Klay Liu won third place and $250 for his poster titled “A Novel Cranberry Extract Improves the Release of Polyphenols from Chewing Gums.” His faculty advisor is Bradley Bolling, an associate professor of food sciences.

Poster abstract: “Natural food products that inhibit dental pathogens and improve immune function are potentially advantageous for improving oral health. Cranberry polyphenols, especially proanthocyanidins (PACs), have shown promise for reducing dental caries and periodontal disease for their anti-microbial and anti-inflammatory properties. Our laboratory developed an efficient extraction method to isolate polyphenols from cranberry juice. The obtained polyphenol-lecithin precipitate (PLP), rich in flavonoids, was incorporated into chewing gums to carry flavors, pigments, and nutraceuticals. We hypothesized that cranberry PLP would provide a more sustained release of polyphenols compared to a conventional cranberry extract (CE) added to chewing gum. To compare this, we conducted a single-blind, randomized, controlled, two-arm crossover clinical trial (NCT05755152). Healthy adults (n = 10) were recruited to chew pieces of gum made with cranberry PLP and CE at a standardized rate. Expectorated gums were collected at 1, 3, 6, 10, 15 and 21 min for polyphenol analysis. The PLP gum retained PACs and mass to a greater extent than the CE gum. Over 60% of the PACs in the CE gum were released within one minute, while the PLP gum provided a sustained release of PACs over 21 minutes. This prolonged release of anti-microbial cranberry bioactives suggests that PLP may be a viable health-promoting ingredient in chewing gum and supports the need for efficacy testing in a long-term clinical trial.”

For the full recap of the WiSys SPARK Symposium, click here.