Campbell College junior Kara Evans, a pharmaceutical sciences major from Mount Holly, North Carolina, has been named one among 11 recipients of the 2025 North Carolina Impartial Faculties & Universities (NCICU) Undergraduate Analysis Award.
Evans’ analysis undertaking, guided by co-advisors Drs. Steve Holly and Krisztian Toth, professors of Pharmaceutical & Scientific Sciences, explores the function of GHSR1a signaling within the G protein and β-arrestin pathways. Her work focuses on how these pathways affect the discharge of pro- and anti inflammatory cytokines from leukocytes, utilizing management (WT) and β-arrestin2-deficient (KO) mice to higher perceive immune response mechanisms. The impression of this analysis pertains to novel methods of modulating irritation by means of activation of particular signaling pathways downstream of the hormone ghrelin.
This summer time, Evans participated within the Nationwide Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals (NIIMBL) eXperience program at NC State College, a prestigious alternative that gives hands-on analysis coaching in biomanufacturing. She can also be planning to proceed her analysis work in Chile this fall by means of the Pharmaceutical Biotechnology of Pure Merchandise Research Overseas course.
The NCICU Undergraduate Analysis Award acknowledges juniors and seniors from NCICU’s 36 member establishments for distinctive analysis in STEM and psychology fields. Funded partly by the North Carolina GlaxoSmithKline Basis and different company donors, the award gives stipends to assist scholar tasks.
As an award recipient, Evans will current her findings on the State of North Carolina Undergraduate Analysis and Creativity Symposium on November 15, 2025.
