The Graduate Student Council hosted their annual symposium Friday, giving graduate students a chance to showcase what they’ve created.

All presentations were studies the students had done independently.

Fataneh Karandish presented work centered on a nanoparticle delivery system to treat prostate cancer.

The nanoparticle is designed to encapsulate cancer treatment within its walls until the nano particle is delivered to the cancer cells.

Once at the recognized cancer cells, the nano particle releases the drug into the cancer cell. All of this is FDA approved.

Karandish’s presentation included what the impact environment can have on the chances of becoming diagnosed with prostate cancer, and what makes cancer cells unique.

Jyoti Sains presented about the genomics and bioinformatics of wheat looking at the anticipated increased demand of wheat and decreased production of wheat within the next few decades.

Sains touched on the biotic stresses wheat experiences, including viruses, bacteria, insects, oomycetes and fungi.

She focused in on the fungi category to talk about what is known as a stem rust, a fungi that can be detrimental to wheat production and the plant itself.

The focus of her presentation was to understand how to use genotyping and phenotyping to breed healthy wheat in order to produce enough healthy wheat to feed the world.

The genetic makeup would use primary genes with the ideal genetic makeup to produce large amounts of strong offspring in an effort to create wheat that is resistant to contracting fungi such as stem rust that can continue to grow and produce strong offspring.

Tayebeh Anajafi Marzijarani presented and spoke about drug free cancer treatment using compounds our bodies already produce to target cancer cells.

The two main components in Anajafi’s proposal were folic acid and calcium. When combined, these compounds lead to calcification and kills cancer tissue.

Anajafi combined these specialized cells with targeted cancer therapy to specifically target exclusively cancer cells.

This can happen because the folic acid is attracted to cancer cells and if, for whatever reason, folic acid and calcium are naturally forming in our bodies and aren’t enough to cause adverse affects.

As of now, the treatment is being tested on rats by injecting infected rats with the treatment behind their eye, where there is access to a large blood supply. The goal will be to use this treatment on humans.

Sahar Malekmohammadi presented on salmonella in low moisture foods. Her presentation focused on reducing salmonella in foods and seeing how the moisture levels can contribute to the spread of this bacteria.

Survival of the bacteria can last for a long period of time, and finding how long it can last is part of Malekmohammadi’s study.

The next step of Malekmohammadi’s project is to learn more about inoculation and enumeration of the bacteria.