Honors College Student Recognized at Undergraduate Research Conference

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Jonathan Schmidt with faculty mentor Julie Stenken.

Jonathan Schmidt, a senior biophysical chemistry major at the University of Arkansas, received one of five best speaker awards at the University of Memphis Department of Chemistry’s 31st Annual Undergraduate Research Conference, on Feb. 26. Schmidt is an Honors College student in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences.

Schmidt was one of 51 students from seven states who made oral presentations about their research at the conference. His presentation, Surface Plasmon Resonance Affinity Analysis of Cytokines, summarizes his honors thesis research, which explores the use of surface plasmon resonance to help predict the rate of binding events between heparin and cytokines.

“Cytokines orchestrate immune system responses, but they’re present in such low amounts that they’re hard to detect,” said Schmidt’s faculty mentor Julie Stenken, who holds the Twenty-First Century Chair in Proteomics. “Jonathan’s work is helping us create and model improved methods to detect these important signaling proteins.”

Schmidt had never presented his research at a conference before and admitted that he was a “little nervous” prior to his presentation. “I’ve worked on it a long time, so it was a matter of communicating what I know,” he said. “I learned a lot from the other undergraduates.”

Schmidt’s work has been supported by a National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant to Julie Stenken and a Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence grant, which is funded by the NIH, to Frank Millett, Distinguished Professor of chemistry and biochemistry.