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Getting Ready for Expo

From Emily Marino's first day as a Bobcat, she knew she would be spending a lot of time in a lab, conducting experiments, and writing her Honors Tutorial College (HTC) senior thesis.

What she didn't know was that it would be so much fun, she would make great friends, and she would be presenting her work on the prevalent but potentially dangerous Staphylococcus aureus bacteria at Student Expo on April 7.

"It's been a long journey to this point for sure! This project is my HTC senior thesis, and ever since I joined the Carroll Lab my freshman year, I've tried to keep in mind that I would need to have a thesis project eventually. I set up a tutorial with Dr. Carroll my sophomore year to start nailing down an idea, and I've been interested in extracellular vesicles (EVs) produced by Staphylococcus aureus ever since," said Marino, an HTC Biological Sciences major with a minor in German. Ronan Carroll, Ph.D., is associate professor of biological sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences.

"My favorite part of doing research has been working with the other people in the Carroll Lab," Marino said. "They're an amazing group of people and make coming into work every day so fun. I think it's so important to be happy and having fun in the environment you work in. If you're not having a good time, your science is going to reflect that. Aside from that, I love being in a larger lab for the collaboration and exchange of ideas. My project wouldn't exist without Raeven Bastock and Paul Briaud combining ideas from their respective projects together, and I think some of the best science comes out of collaborations like that."

Marino added that when it comes to mentorship, giving is as important as receiving.

"The most fun part has been training some of our newer undergrads in the lab as they helped me finish up some of my experiments! I've been teaching Emily Sudnick and Riley Zielinski how to culture human cells and perform cell viability assays. They're so fun to work with, and I've loved getting a chance to mentor and teach others," she said.

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The Mystery She Wanted to Solve

Bastock, a Molecular and Cellular Biology and Biological Sciences Ph.D. candidate in the Carroll Lab, has been working on projects investigating Staphylococcus aureus b