Simona Brezeanu won big at the 21st Canadian Undergraduate Conference on Healthcare. (JOEL GUERIN/University of Windsor)
By Sara Elliott
Third-year biomedical sciences student Simona Brezeanu’s undergraduate health-care research turned heads at a national student research conference this winter.
In January, Queen’s University in Kingston hosted the 21st Canadian Undergraduate Conference on Healthcare (CUCOH). The student-run conference brought together more than 150 students from more than 10 Canadian institutions to present their research.
Brezeanu won both the Judges’ Award, selected by an expert panel, and the Delegates’ Choice Award, voted on by conference attendees. She said it was exciting as a presenter, but also as a researcher in an interdisciplinary lab.
“I hope people can see how interesting and useful mixed-domain research really is,” said Brezeanu.
“We are exploring questions in both fields that have not really been approached from the other angle.”
Though the Outstanding Scholars student majors in biomedical sciences, she conducts physics-based research using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) technology, which can detect bacteria in cerebrospinal fluid for use as a rapid meningitis diagnostic.
Outstanding Scholar and biomedical science undergraduate Simona Brezeanu conducts physics-based research in Dr. Steven Rehse’s lab. (JOEL GUERIN/University of Windsor)
“Our lab is working on a technology to quickly diagnose the bacterial species causing infection in patients with meningitis,” she said.
“We use a laser to analyze the elemental composition of simulated samples of cerebrospinal fluid containing bacteria.”
Dr. Steven Rehse, head of the Department of Physics and Brezeanu’s research supervisor, said this kind of win is indicative of the quality of research experience available to University of Windsor undergraduates.
“The quality of the students conducting undergraduate research at UWindsor is absolutely exceptional,” said Rehse.
“If you know Simona, this level of performance isn’t really a surprise. But considering she is only a third-year student, I find it extremely gratifying that our students compete and continually win at the national level.”