Department holds annual event

By:Lindsay Martin
September 29th

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.- The UA Department of Biological

Sciences hosted its annual BioFest on Friday, September 28.

The event was held in the Ferguson Ballroom from 1-4p.m.

According to the event coordinator, BioFest is a mixture of past

separate events.

“This is our career fair, ‘welcome back to students’ and it's also our
research colloquium. This event is a combination of several events that
we used to hold individually” Kim Lackey said.

“Many students come in as pre-med, pre-dental, and pre-health, but don’t know much about it. We have
our undergraduates and graduate students post their presentation so students can see what type of research
is going on” Kim Lackey said.

Senior Lauren Cook started her second semester of research.

“[Research] has definitely been the number one thing of my undergraduate experience, i've always had to
put it first. It's kind of been hard to make sacrifices but it's fun” Lauren cook said.

This semester Cook is a member of the cabo lab. She studies a variety of neurodegenerative disorders
with her specialty being Parkinson's disease.

“A lot of people like to say ‘oh you're working with a microscopic worm it's not important’ but humans
and nematodes have a lot of conserved genes” Lauren cook said.

Cook hopes that her research will help ease the symptoms of Parkinson's disease.

“My research will be transferred to different institutions and will be used for drug development to help
people affected with Parkinson's disease” Lauren Cook said.

For more information visit bsc.ua.edu.