(November 6, 2019) This weekend, undergraduate senior Madison Bardot won a Virginia Academy of Science Undergraduate Research Grant, one of two Virginia Tech Chemistry students to win. The grant is awarded annually to the best student posters at the Fall Undergraduate Meeting; this year the meeting was held at Christopher Newport University. 

Madison, a chemistry senior working in Prof. Michael Schulz' lab, has been working on a project synthesizing nucleobase-containing-polymers that mimic DNA for the capture of chemotherapy. Currently during chemotherapy treatment, the drug is administered into the tumor site but can leak out and kill healthy cells and cause side effects. The group hopes that the polymer can capture the excess chemotherapy and diminish these side effects. This is also not the first award for Madison; at last spring's awards banquet, she was nominated for and awarded the Timothy E. and Victoria K. Undergraduate Science Scholarship.

See More: Scott McGuigan wins Virginia Academy of Science award