January 27, 2020
By Gretchen Phillips
Ivy Antunes '20 presented a poster of her current work on her St. Mary’s Project, “Development of an Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay for Avian Corticosterone Binding Globulin" at the Annual Meeting for the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, held January 3- 7, in Austin, Texas.
Under the mentorship of Professor and Chair of Chemistry and Biochemistry Pamela Mertz and Assistant Professor of Physiology Jessica Malisch, Antunes is making progress generating an avian corticosterone binding globulin (CBG) enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using a novel CBG antibody against zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata), and developing a standard for use in the ELISA for quantifying CBG. Routine quantification of CBG, she explained in her abstract, “may lead to a better understanding of the role of CBG in corticosterone (CORT) physiology for comparative studies. CORT is a frequently quantified hormone in the field of avian endocrinology.