Wayne State College junior Shannon Kennicutt of Elwood received the second place Richard Holland Future Scientist Award during the Nebraska Institutional Development Award Program (IDeA) Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE) program’s annual conference held Aug. 6 at the Lied Lodge in Nebraska City.
Kennicutt is majoring in Biology at Wayne State with a minor in Public and Global Health. She is a 2022 graduate of Elwood High School, and she is the daughter of Lindsey Corey of Elwood and Brian Kennicutt of Hershey.
Kennicutt received second place in the Oral Presentation category. Kennicutt’s presentation covered the research project she worked on for 10 weeks during the summer. Kennicutt worked with the parasitic nematode Brugia malayi, which is a cause of the disease lymphatic filariasis, also known as elephantiasis.
Kennicutt said there are currently no drugs on the market that kill the adult worm, so she spent her time studying a drug known as levamisole, which will paralyze the adult worm; however, the female worm will recover while still in the presence of the drug. Kennicutt spent a lot of time looking at specific genes within the worm and how they affect recovery in Brugia as well as how they affected the model worm C. Elegans. Kennicutt’s research found four genes of interest known as lev-9, lev-10, nra-2, and daf-12.
Kennicutt competed against 32 INBRE undergraduate research students from Chadron State College, the College of St. Mary, Creighton University, Doane University, the University of Nebraska at Kearney, the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, and the University of Nebraska at Omaha. A total of 10 undergraduate students received awards in Oral Presentation and Poster Presentation categories.
The students received cash awards totaling $5,000 in recognition of their research work during the summer INBRE Scholars program.
The awards are named in honor of the late Richard Holland, an Omaha philanthropist and longtime supporter of research. The awards have been presented each year for the past 15 years.
Previous Wayne State INBRE graduates now have professions in academics and private industry in vaccine development, brain tumor research, pathogenic microbiology research, and a wide range of other scientific disciplines.
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Established in 2001, the INBRE Scholars program was created to expose students to serious biomedical research and build a statewide biomedical research infrastructure between undergraduate and graduate institutions.
INBRE Scholars enter the program after completing their sophomore year of college, upon recommendation of their college professors. It is a two-year comprehensive training program to prepare the students for graduate school.
The University of Nebraska Medical Center’s (UNMC) website states the two-year scholars program provides opportunities for mentored full-time research during the first summer in the program. This takes the form of a Research Foundations Workshop and is executed on one of the Ph.D. granting training campuses. The scholars then commit to part-time research on their home campus during the following two academic years and full-time research on their home campus during their second summer in the program.
Financial support is provided for these undergraduates throughout their tenure as INBRE Scholars. Scholars are required to present their research at the annual INBRE meeting and at the annual meeting of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences in April.
The Nebraska INBRE program strives to enhance the competitiveness of biomedical research in Nebraska. This is accomplished by developing the research infrastructure and providing research opportunities for students and faculty at Nebraska's institutions of higher education, according to the UNMC website.
