Hannah McCluskey ’18 attended the 20th annual Upstate New York Immunology Conference to present her research and was the only undergraduate presenter. “She is a testament to the University and our amazing Biology Department,” says Kristen Porter, Ph.D., assistant professor in the department. “I cannot tell you the hours and dedication Hannah put into this work, along with former students Kayla King ’17, now a master’s student at Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, and Jeff Hamilton ’17, a medical school candidate.”
The work, entitled “The Role of Oxytocin in Wound Closure: A link between physiological care, immune regulation and wound repair in the female reproductive tract,” was supported by startup funds from the University and through collaborations with Dartmouth College and the Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences.
The studies were inspired by an initiative of the National Institutes of Health in understanding the role of adolescence and sexual trauma in HIV susceptibility, and the topic will be studied further by those in the department.
At the conference, McCluskey was approached by faculty from Dartmouth, the University of Connecticut, Albany College of Medicine, Seton Hall University, SUNY Upstate Medical University, and the University of Vermont. “As a student who has yet to take immunology, she spoke it quite fluently at an immunology conference,” Dr. Porter says.
