Contact: Bob Ratliff
A Mississippi State senior from Bay St. Louis holds top honors in a biomedical engineering research competition.
Melissa K. Knight recently won first place in the student research competition of the 19th Southern Biomedical Engineering Conference held at Virginia Tech University. A biological engineering major, she is the daughter of Linda Knight and a 1996 Our Lady Academy graduate.
Her entry was based on collaborative research being conducted by scientists at the MSU-based Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, University of Alabama at Birmingham and the Medical University of Hanover, Germany.
In her ongoing investigation, Knight is attempting to determine if cell culture methods used in one laboratory can accurately be duplicated in others doing the same type of research, according to MSU biomedical engineer Joel Bumgardner, her faculty adviser.
"Melissa's project is important in developing procedures for biomedical labs in this country and overseas to share research information," he said.
After graduation in December, she will continue her education at Duke University in Durham, N.C.