WEST LIBERTY, W.Va., Sept. 9, 2016 — Recent graduate Rebecca Barnes had a chance to meet Senator Shelly Moore Capito over the summer as she was selected to represent WLU at Take Your IDeA Science to Capitol Hill.

Barnes was one of a group of students from around the nation that shared their college research experiences with senators, congressmen and their staff as they visited Washington, DC. Barnes took part in research performed in the lab of Dr. Joseph Horzempa, assistant professor of biology.

She took a first place award at the national Chi Beta Phi Conference last fall for her research presentation, “The Role of the Erythrocyte Cytoskeleton Protein Spectrin during Red Blood Cell Invasion by Francisella tularensis.”

“I’m very proud of Rebecca. She exemplifies what a West Liberty University student can accomplish with hard work and dedication,” Dr. Horzempa said. Currently about 25 science major students continue the work in his lab as he advances his study of pathogenesis.

Established by Congressional mandate in 1993, the IDeA program’s goal is to broaden the geographic distribution of NIH funding. It supports faculty development and institutional research infrastructure enhancement in states that have historically received low levels of support from NIH.

Barnes and the other students also listened to presentations from the National Association of IDeA Principal Investigators (NAIPI) and Van Scoyoc Associates (VSA) and EPSCoR/IDeA Foundation and enjoyed a working lunch.

Barnes is a former Elbin Scholar and was named an Outstanding Biology Student last spring by WLU. Barnes also won the Student Research Competition last year. A resident of Wheeling, she was accepted into the Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine at Marshall University, where she is now pursuing a degree in medicine.

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