CCNY’s 2024 ABRCMS winners from left: Yusha Aziz, Tessa Cherian, Divyani Sitaldin, Litsi Auquilla and Will Butler.
Five undergraduates from The City College of New York were winners at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minoritized Scientists (ABRCMS) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The conference attracted more than 4,000 participants – including graduate students, researchers and scientists – in one of ABRCMS’s largest gatherings in its 24-year history.
The students were supported by various programs including PURT (the CCNY-MSK partnership), headed by Karen Hubbard; U-RISE (Undergraduate Research Training Initiative for Student Enhancement), led by Jonathan Levitt; CCAPP (City Academy for Professional Preparation), headed by Millicent Roth and CCNY’s Division of Science headed by Dean Susan Perkins.
Following are details about the triumphant CCNY students, their majors and project titles:
- Litsi Auquilla, sophomore; biomedical science, “Mapping Between Cancer Incidence and Environmental Conditions”;
- Yusha Aziz, junior; biomedical science, “In Vitro Study of Dis-Assembling using Mass Photometry”;
- Will Butler, senior; biology, “ADM-4 or SUP-17: Do These ⍺-secretases Cleave APL-1 in Caenorhabditis elegans?”;
- Tessa Cherian, junior; biomedical science major, “Lung Cancer Survivor Narratives: Stories That Matter”; and
- Divyani Sitaldin, junior; biochemistry, “Pulse Diagnosis with Laser Doppler Vibrometry: A Non-Contact Approach for Cardiovascular Health Assessment.”
Last year, CCNY returned from the ABRCMS conference in Pheonix, Arizona with four winners.
For over 20 years, the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minoritized Scientists (ABRCMS)—recipient of the 2019 AIMBE Excellence in STEM Education Award—has been the go-to conference for underrepresented community college, undergraduate and postbaccalaureate students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. As ABRCMS has continued to grow and evolve, it has also become a space for graduate students, postdocs, faculty, program administrators and more.
About The City College of New York
Since 1847, The City College of New York has provided a high-quality and affordable education to generations of New Yorkers in a wide variety of disciplines. CCNY embraces its position at the forefront of social change. It is ranked #1 by the Harvard-based Opportunity Insights out of 369 selective public colleges in the United States on the overall mobility index. This measure reflects both access and outcomes, representing the likelihood that a student at CCNY can move up two or more income quintiles. Education research organization Degree Choices ranks CCNY #1 nationally among universities for economic return on investment. In addition, the Center for World University Rankings places CCNY in the top 1.8% of universities worldwide in terms of academic excellence. Labor analytics firm Lightcast puts at $3.2 billion CCNY’s annual economic impact on the regional economy (5 boroughs and 5 adjacent counties) and quantifies the “for dollar” return on investment to students, taxpayers and society. At City College, more than 15,000 students pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in eight schools and divisions, driven by significant funded research, creativity and scholarship. In 2023, CCNY launched its most expansive fundraising campaign, ever. The campaign, titled “Doing Remarkable Things Together” seeks to bring the College’s Foundation to more than $1 billion in total assets in support of the College mission. CCNY is as diverse, dynamic and visionary as New York City itself. View CCNY Media Kit.
Jay Mwamba
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jmwamba@ccny.cuny.edu