Bryon Martinez: Studying the Impact of Stress
When choosing a topic for his senior project, biotechnology major Bryon Martinez knew that he wanted to study something that ultimately would help mankind.
Seeing the increasing pressures of our more hectic and demanding world, Bryon chose to study how the stress of our everyday lives affects the immune system and how physicians can use a cancer patient’s own immune system to attack malignant tumor cells, a process called tumor immunotherapy. His very preliminary research could be helping to lay the groundwork for the development of cancer treatments that have a positive impact on the immune system, rather than today’s commonly used tools – like chemotherapy or radiation therapy – that are harmful to it.
“I had multiple reasons that I was interested in this topic,” Bryon explains. “As cancer affects most people in some way either through personally having it or knowing someone who has it, I was interested in studying something in the cancer research field.” During his hours in the laboratory on this project, Bryon learned to be patient and persistent in his research and was able to draw clear conclusions from the data he collected. “This project has made me realize that even if I am not seen, I can have some impact on the world,” Bryon reflects.
Project Title: Effects of a Stress Mediator on T Cell Function
Date: Scholarship and Creative Arts Day 2008 – Tuesday, April 22
Faculty Mentors: Dr. Jodi Yorty
Bryon is one of several student scholars from Elizabethtown’s Biology Department who will present during Scholarship and Creative Arts Day 2008. An overview schedule is available on the Scholarship and Creative Arts Day webpage. A more detailed schedule of this and other events featuring the creativity and scholarship of Elizabethtown students will be available in mid-April.
