Summer Students

Chad Touchberry (’06-‘09)

Chad graduated with honors from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 2000 with a BS in Physical Education.  He then obtained a Masters in Kinesiology from Midwestern State University (Wichita Falls, TX) in 2004.  Chad began work on his PhD in Exercise Physiology at the University of Kansas, Lawrence the fall of 2004.  While working in the Lab of Dr. Phil Gallahger, Chad was able to collaborate with the Geiger lab. Chad is currently a Post-doc in Dr. Mike Wacker’s lab at the University of Missouri Kansas City Department of Muscle Biology.

Sara Yunghans (2010)

Sara came to the Geiger lab as a summer student in 2010. She helped establish the technique of assessing glucose uptake in L6 muscle cells.  Sara is currently a senior at Truman State University majoring in Exercise Science and will be graduating in the Spring of 2012.

Kathleen Wright (2010 & 2011)

Kathleen was a high school Junior when she began working in the Geiger lab.  Her research project focused on HSP70 plasmid gene transfection in skeletal muscle in vivo.  She was tasked with amplifying DNA to usable concentrations that would be both effective and efficient for in vivo transfection.  Kathleen is a 2010 K-INBRE Summer Scholar Award Recipient and is currently enrolled at the University of Kansas majoring in Chemical Engineering.

Jonathan Pankow (2011)

In 2010, Jon received his BS in Biochemistry from Baylor University (Waco, TX) and began medical school at KUMC.  During the summer of 2011, Jon began a research project focusing on HSP70 expression in heat treated L6-myotubes.  His research was able to show a graded response of HSP expression to increasing amounts of heat treatment.  Currently, Jon is in his second year of medical school.

Ashley Ward (2011)

Ashley graduated (with honors) in the spring of 2011 from Truman State University  where she received her Bachelor of Science in Exercise Science with minors in Spanish and Biology.  During the summer of 2011, Ashley’s projects included heat treatment interventions in rats fed a high fat diet and a dose response study of the novel HSP inducing compound KU32 in mice fed a high fat diet.  Ashley will be traveling to Madrid, Spain the fall of 2011 on a Fulbright Scholarship and will be an English Teaching Assistant for a year.