News

RIT researcher Bolaji Thomas is leading a $650,000 study to compare the genetic response in cattle in sub-Saharan Africa to the parasitic disease Trypanosomiasis, or “sleeping sickness,” that attacks their blood and brain. As parasites adapt to a warming world, the biting fly that transmits Trypanosomiasis could someday migrate to northern climates.

With the help of strong mentors, undergraduate researchers cultivate critical thinking, collaboration, and problem-solving skills. Conducting research can help students synthesize concepts they learned in their classes to create something new.

Marissa Schroeter’s summer undergraduate research explores a global health issue with a local twist. Her work prospects for new antibiotic compounds produced by two bacterial strains collected from Lake Ontario. She will present her findings at the RIT Undergraduate Research Symposium.

Ashley Tucker, a graduating senior majoring in biomedical sciences and biology, will travel to Nigeria at the end of the summer on a Fulbright Research award. Tucker will work with a malaria research group at University of Ibadan College of Medicine. Her research will help improve the rapid diagnostic testing for the deadly tropical disease.

Intersections: The RIT Podcast, Ep. 25: Not all learning does, or can, happen in a classroom. Last summer, Bolaji Thomas, professor in the College of Health Sciences and Technology, took a group of students to Nigeria to give them a firsthand look at the impact of malaria on global health. Abigail Melake, a biomedical sciences major, and Janice Fung, a biotechnology and molecular bioscience major, talk about what they learned.

Three students from the biomedical sciences program traveled with RIT Professor Bolaji Thomas to his native Nigeria to understand the impact tropical diseases such as malaria have on the population and the medical protocols used in treatment.

RIT researchers are studying the genetic switch that could make cattle resistant to the wasting disease known as “sleeping sickness.” Bolaji Thomas, professor of biomedical sciences in RIT’s College of Health Sciences and Technology, is examining different immune responses to bovine trypanosomiasis within the same species of cattle in Nigeria.