Researcher of the Week: Joelle Cusic

Mon, 13 Jun 2016 09:30:27 -0400
research, undergraduate, ura

Meet Joelle,

She is a Biochemistry and Molecular Biology major and a URA Scholar. Joelle is a premed student, a TA for Biology 142 and was also a Woolie for the new students during Welcome Week 2015. After graduation, she plans to pursue an MD (hopefully, at University of Maryland School of Medicine) and would like to specialize in oncology. She feels that the field of oncology would allow her to be able to have the opportunity to treat patients and promote health wellness and prevention within the community while also opening the doors to do research on genetic diseases and to continue studying how mutations of genes found in DNA can cause and affect cancer.

Her research will examine the toxin Crotamine that is present in the venom of Crotalus durissus terrificus, the South American rattlesnake. Crotamine has been shown to have a preference for targeting rapidly proliferating cells, such as malignant cancer cells, and displays numerous other functions, including DNA delivery and localization to the nucleus upon penetrating the cell.

Read more about her research here…