![\"Jacob](\"http:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Justinger-and-microscope-closer-by-Dan.jpg\")
<\/a>Jacob Justinger continues working in the Biochemistry and Cancer Biology Department this summer on Health Science Campus.<\/p><\/div>Understanding these aggressive tumors is critical to developing therapeutic drugs, and research conducted by Jacob Justinger, a senior majoring in biology, is working toward that understanding.<\/P><\/p>\n
The Sylvania native recently was recognized for his research efforts at the Sigma Xi 2013 Student Research Showcase, a nationally organized competition for graduate, undergraduate and high school students.<\/p>\n
Justinger\u2019s presentation, \u201cRole for the GTPase Human Guanylate-Binding Protein-1 (hGBP-1) in Glioblastoma Prognosis,\u201d was awarded second place for the undergraduate competition in the category of cellular and molecular biology. Justinger\u2019s ranking placed him among students from some of the country\u2019s most prestigious institutions, including Brown University and Cornell University.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was very exciting to place on the national level. It was great to see the hard work and many hours Dr. [Deborah] Vestal and I put into the project pay off,\u201d Justinger said. \u201cThis experience showed me that UT offers excellent research opportunities to its undergraduate students, an experience I feel has been immensely valuable to my education.\u201d<\/p>\n
His research examined how the levels of the protein hGBP-1 in glioblastoma tumors were correlated with patient prognosis. Higher levels of the protein are linked with a decrease in patient survival time, leading to the hypothesis that the protein may cause the tumors to become drug resistant, although this has not been shown yet. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe ability of pre-med and other pre-professional students to perform undergraduate research is an important part of what makes a university competitive for these types of students,\u201d said Dr. Deborah Vestal, associate professor of biological sciences and Justinger\u2019s adviser. \u201cIt is really satisfying when your investment in a student bears such tangible fruit as it has with Jacob.\u201d <\/p>\n
Sigma Xi was founded in 1886 to honor excellence in scientific investigation and encourage a sense of cooperation among all fields of science and engineering. There are nearly 60,000 Sigma Xi members in more than 100 countries around the world, and more than 200 of its members have won a Nobel Prize.<\/p>\n
Justinger, who is in the UT Baccalaureate\/MD Program, will begin medical school at the University this fall. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jacob Justinger, a senior majoring in biology, placed second at the Sigma Xi 2013 Student Research Showcase in the category of cellular and molecular biology for his research on glioblastoma.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":565,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,39,1,3,7],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25264"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/565"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25264"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25264\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62041,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25264\/revisions\/62041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}