Marlene Djidjoho awarded Holland Future Scientist prize

Marlene Djidjoho, biology major and chemistry minor at College of Saint Mary received the 2018 Richard Holland Future Scientist Award in Poster Presentation at the 16th Annual Nebraska INBRE Conference Aug. 7 in Nebraska City. Djidjoho is shown at far-right.

Only ten undergraduate students from six Nebraska colleges and universities were chosen for the award from the Nebraska Coalition for Lifesaving Cures. The students received cash prizes totaling $5,000 at the annual INBRE (Institutional Development Award (IDeA) Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence Program) conference.

Djidjoho worked with Dr. Dunesh Kumari, assistant professor of chemistry at CSM. Her research is funded by the INBRE program and focuses on poorly soluble antioxidants and the role they play in prevention and treatment of various diseases. She is particularly interested in designing a way to combine various phytochemicals, such as curcumin, resveratrol, piperine and quercetin, with biodegradable matrixes to better leverage their potent anti-oxidant activity. 

Djidjoho's project was focused on using whey protein as a delivery vehicle for the phytochemicals and the title of her  poster presentation was "Whey Protein Solid Dispersion for Encapsulation and Controlled Delivery of Curcumin, Resveratrol and their Combinations"  As mentioned by Dr. Kumari, "Marlene is a hard working, focused and very dedicated student."

The awards are named in honor of the late Richard Holland, an Omaha philanthropist and longtime supporter of research. This is the 11th year the Holland Future Scientist Awards have been awarded.

Students were judged for their oral and poster presentations of the research work they conducted this summer as part of the INBRE program.

The INBRE program is overseen by Paul Sorgen, Ph.D., a professor in the department of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Dr. Sorgen is the principal investigator of the $16.2 million grant funded by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health.

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.

The students, referred to as 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 award winners are listed below:

POSTER PRESENTATIONS

1st       Gabrielle Brumfield, Chadron State College
2nd       Robyn Scott, Creighton University
3rd       Connor Lejcher, Creighton University

Honorable Mention - Marlene Djidjoho, College of Saint Mary
Honorable Mention - Makayla Nemecek, University of Nebraska at Kearney

ORAL PRESENTATIONS

1st       Tyler Rollman, Creighton University
2nd       Andrew Pham, University of Nebraska at Omaha
3rd       Mika Caplan, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Honorable Mention - Molly Myers, Creighton University
Honorable Mention - Eilidh Chowanec, Creighton University