2020 UGA Student Employee of the Year Awards

Parker Jamieson, Lui Suzuki-Williams, and Matthew Corn

Infectious Diseases – College of Veterinary Medicine

During their tenures, Parker Jamieson, Lui Suzuki-Williams, and Matthew Corn became an invaluable part of our influenza research group. Their eagerness to learn experiments, scientific concepts, and communication skills to assist their graduate research mentors and the lab in general was extremely evident and unique. In doing so, each student developed an exceptional understanding of their individual projects and provided irreplaceable assistance towards the goal of developing a universal influenza vaccine.

Each student became proficient in numerous techniques that were specific to their individual projects. Mr. Jamieson has become proficient in numerous techniques including molecular cloning, hemagglutination inhibition (HAI) assays, and western blots. Given his proficiency in these introductory techniques, Mr. Jamieson was able to learn more advanced techniques such as passaging eukaryotic cell lines and working with live influenza viruses. Mr. Jamieson has not only shown the ability to quickly learn these techniques, but he is also able to teach less experienced undergraduate students these same techniques. The data that Mr. Jamieson has collected has been included in grant proposals and will be included in multiple manuscripts due to be published in 2020.

Similar to Mr. Jamieson, Mr. Suzuki-Williams worked on a multi-faceted project designed to increase in technical difficultly as it progressed from basic DNA preparation and cloning, to cell-culturing, to protein production and purification, and finally ending with using that protein in an ELISA binding assay with vaccinated animal serum. Mr. Suzuki-Williams’ work has been phenomenal, and he experiences no issues picking up the protocol concepts. His competency is due to his inquisition and attention-to detail. Furthermore, his research integrity is also very prominent. Lui strives to take every opportunity available to him and yet takes nothing for granted. Mr. Suzuki-Williams completed the first arm of his project which earned him co-authorship on our recent peer-review research article.

Mr. Corn’s project mainly focused on molecular cloning. He has managed his time working on three separate cloning projects: creation of antibody producing plasmids for monoclonal antibody development, creation of protein producing plasmids for vaccinations of both mice and ferrets, and creation of viral RNA producing plasmids for creating viruses using reverse genetics. During his time in the lab, Mr. Corn quickly established himself as a detailed oriented researcher whose attention to detail enabled him to become one of the most efficient cloners in the laboratory. Mr. Corn’s troubleshooting and ingenious problem solving allowed him to produce results with even the most difficult molecular cloning projects.

The work of Mr. Jamieson, Mr. Suzuki-Williams, and Mr. Corn greatly impacted our lab and the university by contributing towards UGA being awarded the Collaborative Influenza Vaccine Innovation Centers (CIVICs) grant in late 2019, the largest grant ever awarded to the University of Georgia.

Nominated by: Mr. Zachary Reneer, Graduate Assistant Researcher Doctoral, Infectious Diseases, under the direction of Dr. Ted M. Ross