By Taylor Neugebauer
CHADRON, Neb. – Three Chadron State College students, Sonya Behrends of Alliance, Nebraska, and Danara Abshire and Piper Ryschon, both of Scottsbluff, Nebraska, will conduct research this summer with the Nebraska IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE) program.
INBRE aims to strengthen biomedical research in Nebraska by providing hands-on lab and research opportunities for undergraduate students, support pathways into health research careers and enhance science and technology awareness across the state’s workforce.
CSC Professor of Biology Dr. Ann Buchmann mentors the INBRE students. She said the students will spend the summer working in labs at the University of Nebraska Lincoln or the University of Nebraska Medical Center during the summer and present their findings in August at an INBRE conference in Nebraska City, Nebraska. CSC’s Dean of the School of Business, Mathematics and Science Dr. Shaunda French-Collins will be the keynote speaker for the conference.
Abshire will study immune cells (T cells) to prevent prostate cancer.
Ryschon, a senior in her second year of the INBRE program, has been working with Buchmann researching triple-negative breast cancer inhibitors. She will expand her research this summer by participating in a 10-week program from May to late July in Dr. Oleh Khalimonchuck’s lab at UNL. The lab researches the role of protein quality control in mitochondria, organelles found in the cells of most animals and plants. Lab staff study how proteins inside mitochondria are made, moved and maintained, and how cells respond when mitochondria are under stress.
Ryschon looks forward to the graduate level experience.
“I will get to see what the dynamic is like, what daily tasks look like and ultimately, determine if this is an environment I see myself working in every day in the future,” she said. “I hope to learn new technical skills in the lab as Dr. Khalimonchuck works with model organisms.”
She is majoring in biology with a molecular focus and physical science with a chemistry focus. She plans to graduate in the spring of 2027 and then apply to the University of Arcadia in Glenside, Pennsylvania, to pursue a Master of Science in Forensic Science.
Ryschon encourages those considering pursuing a doctorate to join the INBRE program as a valuable way to determine whether a graduate-level lab research is a good fit.
Behrends, a sophomore, is double majoring in Molecular Biology and Chemistry. She is in her first year with the INBRE program and plans to spend the summer at UNL, working in Dr. Tim Gatzenmeier’s lab, researching synthesis of a drug that could be used for cancer treatment or as an antiviral.
“This drug would use the chemical properties caused by fluorine to disrupt the lifecycles of the virus or cancer cell since fluorine is foreign to biological systems like cancer cells. It has the potential to shape chemical properties in unique ways,” she said. “The fluorogenic compound we develop would disrupt the replication process in place to keep them functioning.”
Behrends will participate in the program from May 2026 through May 2028 and plans to graduate from CSC with a bachelor’s degree. She intends to further her education by pursuing a master’s degree in a biochemistry-related field.
She chose the INBRE program to explore her interest in depth and help prepare her for graduate school.
“I am genuinely excited to gain experience working in a lab and communicating my results,” she said. “The practical application of the knowledge I learn in classes is invaluable.”