Amanda Greco ’24 will present two diverse projects at SRyou Student Exposition
The SRyou Student Exposition is just two weeks away, with a date of Wednesday, April 10, from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Each year, Salve Regina’s campus comes alive with the energy of creative and academic exploration as students from diverse disciplines gather to share their passions, research findings and artistic endeavors. From groundbreaking research in environmental sustainability to captivating performances in the arts, the SRyou Student Exposition celebrates the unique contributions and achievements of Salve Regina’s students.
In the interview below, Amanda Greco ’24, a biochemistry major with a music minor, discusses the key details of her two SRyou Student Exposition projects that allow her to share her passions for both music and medicine.
The SRYou Student Exposition is also still looking for volunteers to help during the day of the event. If anyone is interested, they can contact Natalie Cote, the SRyou Student Exposition planning committee chairwoman, at natalie.cote@salve.edu. Volunteers can be staff, faculty or students.
Q&A with Amanda Greco ’24
Q: Tell SALVEtoday about your two SRyou Student Exposition projects.
A: I actually have two projects. For the first, I’m presenting my thesis on a particular protein in tuberculosis called KmtR, how it binds certain metals and how tuberculosis exists in the cells. Second, I am coordinating and performing in the Salve music students’ showcase.
Q: Let’s talk about the first project. What inspired you to research tuberculosis initially for your thesis?
A: It has a lot to do with me wanting to go to medical school. I was always searching to do research that had some sort of medical application — because it would help me understand the medicine — and I really liked the way that my professor, Dr. Khadine Higgins, associate professor in the Department of Chemistry, taught. She was my general chemistry professor, and I really liked her teaching style, so I wanted to be on her project.
Q: What are the key stages or milestones of the development of the project?
A: We are doing what’s called ‘site directed mutagenesis.’ The protein itself that we’re working on has a sequence of amino acids. Think of amino acids as pieces to make a big puzzle — if one of those puzzle pieces is not correct, then it distorts the whole protein. So we’ve been mutating, or putting in the wrong puzzle piece at a certain location, and then we’ve been testing to see how that changes the way nickel and cobalt and zinc are binding to it …. One of the big breakthroughs that I’ve had is I actually determined that my particular puzzle piece that I replaced is really, really important for the binding of cobalt and zinc.
Q: What kind of research methods did you employ?
A: Besides the site directed mutagenesis — what I described before as changing out the puzzle piece — we are doing isothermal titration calorimetry, which measures some key changes in our protein. We also have been experimenting with this very new thing that me and one of my peer students have just started working on. It’s called anisotropy fluorescence.
Greco receiving an award from Salve.
Q: What does it mean to you to be one of the first students at Salve researching this?
A: It’s so exciting and so rewarding. I’ve been reflecting on it a lot over the past semester since we’ve been working on it, and it just shows how much I’ve grown as a research student. I remember my first chemistry class and my professor gave me a notebook and told me to do some calculations, and I cried. And now I’m actually starting to write my own experiment and experimental design. It just seems surreal that I’ve come this far.
Q: Are you working with other students for this project? What are your roles?
A: Yes. I am one of three graduating seniors on this project. It’s myself, Avery Arbuckle ’24 and Jacob Raimo ’24. We’re all responsible for mutating different pieces of the puzzle. For example, Jake has a corner piece, I have a middle piece and Avery has a different corner piece. So, we all basically do the same techniques, but just with different locations.
Q: In what ways do you believe that your project is making a meaningful difference in the field?
A: A third of the world’s population is estimated to be latently diagnosed with Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which is the disease causing bacteria at the cellular level. So targeting other pathways in that bacteria is super critical to avoid dramatic increase over the next few years with antibiotic resistance, and so we need to target something other than antibiotics to do so. Any effort to understand how the bacteria works really does help.
Q: What interests you about being able to present at SRyou Student Exposition?
A: Presenting is such a good way to teach others what you are passionate about, and it makes me better within my field. For example, explaining my tuberculosis research to people who study music, is hard — it challenges me to bring my research down to someone else’s level who may not be a biology major or chemistry major. Presenting my research to others and having them understand it is really rewarding.
Q: How has working on this long-term project contributed to your personal and academic growth, especially as you’re preparing to present this project in April?
A: To explain research that you’ve been working on for the past two-and-a-half years to someone who’s not in science, it’s really hard. And in terms of my career, I want to work in pediatric medicine — so being in that field and working with children, there needs to be that mutual understanding between doctor and patient. I feel like SRyou Student Exposition is really preparing me to be able to explain things with mutual understanding in the way that a doctor, teacher or presenter would. I want everyone to take something away from my research.
Q: Tell SALVEtoday about your second SRyou Student Exposition project.
A: So I’m hosting the Salve music students’ showcase, and we have about seven vocal numbers and five instrumental numbers. I will be performing specifically in Pitches with Attitude and Mixtapes, our two a cappella groups.
Greco with Pitches with Attitude.
Q: What interests you about the music program?
A: I grew up on the stage. I started dancing as soon as I was potty trained — so hosting this project at SRyou Student Exposition is really special to me. I really want to be able to show the Salve community what students in the music program have to offer.
Q: If you could offer one piece of advice to a student who’s on the fence about participating in SRyou Student Exposition, what advice would you give them?
A: Just sign up. It may seem scary, but it puts you in that sort of required uncomfortable position that helps you grow. It’s so worth it in the end. If you have something that’s very meaningful to you then just sign up, because people will want to hear it.
The SRYou Student Exposition is still looking for volunteers to help during the day of the event. If anyone is interested, they can contact Natalie Cote, the SRyou Student Exposition planning committee chairwoman, at natalie.cote@salve.edu. Volunteers can be staff, faculty or students.
