Before the whistle blew on the Big East men's basketball championship game, Georgetown students were named champions in a different arena.

Senior Junyi "Jim" Wang (H'26) and sophomore Grace Chu (C'28) won first place in the health sciences and biomedical category for their research on genes associated with autism at the Big East Undergraduate Research Poster Symposiumon March 14 in New York City.

Junyi Wang (H'26) and Grace Chu (C'28) won first place in the health sciences and biomedical category for their research.

Their recognition marks the second year in a row Hoyas have earned top billing in the annual academic competition, which invites undergraduates from the 11 Big East colleges and universities to present their original research.

"Junyi and Grace's achievement exemplifies the strength of undergraduate research at Georgetown and highlights the form of inquiry we strive to support - collaborative research pointed towards real-world impact," said Lauren Tuckley, director of the Center for Research & Fellowships.

The two students were recognized during the St. John's vs. UConn championship gameat Madison Square Garden.

"It felt incredibly rewarding," said Wang, "not just because of the recognition, but also because it made me feel like all the time our lab has put into this project really means something."

Fruit Fly Genes and Autism

Wang and Chu worked with their faculty mentor, Tingting Wang, an associate professor in the pharmacology and physiology department at Georgetown's School of Medicine.

Her lab researcheshow homeostatic regulation - or, as she calls it, the HVAC system of the nervous system - helps stabilize the nervous system and how dysfunctional regulation can cause diseases like epilepsy, Alzheimer's and autism.

The student team researched what happens to the nervous system when a particular gene linked to autism, CHD2, is disrupted or mutated.

"When this gene is disrupted, the patients carrying mutations may have autistic behaviors, increased seizure susceptibility and other clinical presentations," Associate Professor Wang said. "So we use flies to study how this gene affects the brain function and how mutations in this gene actually contribute to increased autism risk."

As a sophomore, Chu used an electrophysiological technique to stimulate the neurons in fruit flies and record the signals they send to muscles. She found that flies with a disrupted gene crawled slower and were less coordinated - a behavior that parallels symptoms observed in humans with the same mutation, Associate Professor Wang said.

(From left to right) Georgetown students Grace Chu (C'28), Nina Park (C'28), John Henry Lotz-McMillen (C'26), Julie Marco (H'29), Jim Wang (H'26), and Mara Lewis (C'27), who all competed at the symposium, arrived at Penn Station in New York City on March 13.

Then, in a first-of-its-kind study, Wang and Chu identified and studied the function of other genes that CHD2 controls that are also critical for nervous system function. The finding could have promising benefits for future research.

"Ultimately down the line, those genes that we identify can be used as potential targets [to study] future therapies for individuals with autism," said Chu.

Chu and Wang received a medal at the Big East Undergraduate Research Poster Symposium, which celebrated five years this year.

Chu and Wang, who both plan to attend medical school, found that being entrusted with these experiments pushed them both to become more independent researchers - which is exactly Associate Professor Wang's goal.

"Sometimes the undergrad students feel like 'I'm a beginner. I'm just a junior student in the lab,'" she said. "But I think getting a big prize means a lot to them … and this research opportunity in the lab makes them think that they can do it."

Jim Wang, who immigrated to the U.S. from China in 2018, has been a fellow in the Simons Foundation's Undergraduate Research Fellowship in Neurosciencefor the past two years. Recently, he was selected to serve as a mentor, where he'll be training and guiding undergraduate students in neuroscience.

Chu plans to apply for the fellowship too. Until then, she'll work to identify more genes and their potential connections to autism in the lab.