CSS Students Going To Mayo Clinic To Present Research

DULUTH, Minn. — A group of students from the College of St. Scholastica will be heading to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester to present research they’ve been gathering.

4 students and some faculty and staff were chosen as part of the Innovation Scholars Program through the clinic. Students all have different strengths with some coming from a marketing and computer science background. They all have learned to work together in order to research their topic. Which is on a biomarker that can be used in pancreatic cancer.

This experience will help further the student’s careers.

“This is an incredible opportunity. I’m just giddy to be able to be a part of it,” said Sarah Vlasich, a biochemistry and psychology senior at CSS. “It’s crazy how much fun it is to be presented with research and be able to just dive into each of the pieces of it. It’s been really really interesting.”

Greta Kos, a biology senior says, “We’re super grateful for the Innovators and the project that they were able to give to us. It’s such a cool idea and we think it’s something that can really help people with pancreatic cancer.”

One of the professors involved is a glycobiologist, meaning she studies sugars. She has been supporting the students through all 4 months the project has been going on.

“They’ve practiced multiple hours and what I’m expecting is that they are going to deliver a wonderful presentation with a lot of hard work and that presentation resembles how hard they’ve worked. And I’m already just very proud of them and all of the work that they’ve accomplished,” said Dr. Melanie Talaga, biochemistry professor.

The multidisciplinary students will be presenting their research Friday to other groups of students as well as the Innovators who came up with the project for them. They hope the Mayo Clinic will take in their research and be able to further the study. This is the first year CSS has been able to participate.