Lydia Fredrick ’23, Cydney Pittenger ’22 awarded TriBeta research grants

In both of the last two years, Ripon College students have been awarded the TriBeta Biological Honors Society Research grant.

Each year, TriBeta awards grants to students to support their undergraduate research. After performing research with the grant, students present their results at a Regional District Convention or a National Biennial Convention.

This year, Lydia Fredrick ’23 of New Berlin, Wisconsin, won a grant. She is a senior majoring in chemistry-biology with minors in psychology and business management. She is using the grant to research how ovarian hormones can affect anxiety in female rats.

“This grant helped fund materials to allow me to perform surgeries on female rats in order to study their anxiety without the confounding variable of their estrous hormones for my senior seminar research,” Fredrick says. She hopes to present her research at one of the TriBeta district presentations.

During the 2021-2022, Cydney Pitteger ’22 of Broomfield, Colorado, was awarded a grant. She is a senior majoring in biology. She used her grant to research how progesterone withdrawal in female rats affects serotonin receptors in specific areas of their brain. The purpose of the research was to investigate relationships between hormones and receptors and disorders such as postpartum depression and premenstrual dysphoric disorder.

“I used the grant to help get some of the supplies I needed to perform my research, specifically for antibodies to target serotonin receptors in rat brains using immunohistochemistry,” Pittenger says.

While Pittenger’s research yielded inconclusive results, she says, “I really learned a lot from my experience researching with Dr. Robin (Forbes-Lorman) and look forward to using those skills in my future career endeavors.”

(Photo: Cydney Pittenger ’22, left, and Lydia Fredrick ’23)

Amanda Barlow ’23
Appleton, Wisconsin

Posted March 22, 2023 in Research, Student.