The Ohio State University Arts & Sciences Honors Committee has reviewed and chosen to fund a proposal to support undergraduate student research at Ohio State Marion.
The research led by Ohio State Marion Associate Professor of Molecular Genetics, Ruben Petreaca and Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Renee Bouley centers on identification of mutations that drive cancer.
The committee awarded $15,000 in scholarships for students. The project funds will help engage ten Ohio State Marion undergraduate students in research during the upcoming academic year, five students during autumn semester 2025 and five students during spring semester 2026.
According to Petreaca, the goal is to enrich student academic extracurricular activities through independent research, which has been demonstrated to improve learning, career preparation, and increase chances of matriculation into professional or graduate schools.
More specifically he shared, “Students will work on mapping cancer mutations in a DNA damage repair complex (TIP60), which our groups have shown is essential for maintaining genome stability.”
The goal, Petreaca shared, is to publish the findings in a scientific peer reviewed journal with undergraduate students as co-authors.