Rajeswari Murugan and Jackie Jornadal, biology majors at the Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences, presented their ongoing prostate-cancer research at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students in San Jose, California, Nov. 7–10.
The national conference included presentations by more than 1,700 students and professionals in the biomedical and behavioral sciences fields, with presentation categories covering 12 sub-disciplines. Murugan and Jornadal each presented as part of the Cancer Biology group.
Murugan’s research investigated the cytotoxicity of aqueous and ethanol extracts of pumpkin seeds on LNCaP prostate-cancer-cell lines, while Jornadal’s presentation examined the cytotoxicity of Urtica dioica on LNCaP prostate-cancer-cell lines. Murugan’s poster received an award as a standout in the Cancer Biology category. She became the first NSU student to earn an award at the annual conference.
The students have worked under the guidance of faculty advisers Mark Jaffe, D.P.M., associate professor at the Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences, and Appu Rathinavelu, Ph.D., executive director of NSU’s Rumbaugh-Goodwin Institute for Cancer Research.
Along with biology major Yanira Quinonez, Murugan and Jornadal presented related research on prostate-cancer cells at the 2012 Undergraduate Student Symposium, hosted by the college this past April.