Student George Green Takes Part In Symposium

Limestone College student George Green recently took part in the South Carolina Independent Colleges & Universities (SCICU) Research Symposium held at the Milliken & Company Customer Center in Spartanburg.

Several member institutions of the SCICU had students present on the topics which they researched for the Undergraduate Student/Faculty Research Grant.

Green’s research topic was entitled “Effects of Multidrug Resistance Gene Deficiency on Intestinal Cell Healing in a Model of Inflammatory Bowel Disease.”

The purpose of his project was to aid in the research of inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), which affects over 1.4 million Americans and costs $4 billion annually. IBD is a form of autoimmune disease, in which the body’s own immune system attacks different parts of the digestive system.

Specifically, Green looked at how quickly mutant intestinal cells were able to heal small wounds. His original hypothesis was that the mutant cells would heal slower, which could lead to inflammatory bowel disease. His results, however, actually showed that the mutant cells healed faster. Green plans to conduct additional experiments to better understand those findings.

Limestone Assistant Professor of Biology Dr. Scott Tanner accompanied Green to the symposium.

Students, with the guidance of faculty members, submitted research proposals to the grant competition in early 2015. Thirty-two research projects from 12 SCICU member colleges and universities were awarded grant funding in the competition.

Green is junior from Enfield, United Kingdom, and is a member of the Limestone men’s tennis team.

Other schools with representatives at the symposium included Anderson University, Benedict College, Charleston Southern University, Coker College, Columbia College, Converse College, Erskine College, Furman University, Presbyterian College, Southern Wesleyan University, and Wofford College.

SCICU donors provided more than $98,000 in funding for the student research projects.

(Accompanying photo is Green presenting at the symposium.)