![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/urgo\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2021\/06\/Kelly-Lu.jpg\")
<\/a>While in a class with professor Dr. Vivian Feng, Kelly learned about biochemistry. And she found her calling.<\/p>\n
\u201cBiology tells you facts. Chemistry tells you how that happens. I was more interested in why things happen, so I changed my major from biology to biochemistry.\u201d<\/p>\n
Currently, Kelly is on a research project with Dr. Feng on identifying common DNA modifications on gill cells of trout fish upon exposure to nanoparticles from lithium-ion batteries.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have been working with Vivian since the summer of my freshman year. Our lab is part of the Center for Sustainable Technology funded by the NSF, where I get to study nanomaterials and living organisms like animals and plants.\u201d<\/p>\n
Because of this project, Kelly is able to collaborate with the graduate laboratory at the University of Minnesota. She says the most valuable part of working with that lab is she gets a chance to experience graduate-level lab work while still at Augsburg. And with her plans to go on to graduate school after earning her bachelor\u2019s degree at Augsburg, this is a major benefit to Kelly.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis project has dragged my interest to public health. What we\u2019re doing at Augsburg is more related to what they\u2019re doing at the U of M graduate labs, we\u2019re using their methods.\u201d<\/p>\n
COVID-19 disrupted Kelly\u2019s work initially, but the quick pivot from Augsburg\u2019s Chemistry and Biology departments to remote teaching kept her work on track.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast summer, we didn\u2019t get anything done in the lab, it was all virtual. At the end of July, we started on this project. It\u2019s a little discontinuous because of limited access to the lab. But I\u2019m now able to work in both labs, Augsburg and the U of M.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kelly Lu landed at Augsburg for two reasons: the location and her mom. Kelly wanted to stay within her comfort zone of the Twin Cities and was focused on smaller campuses for the small class sizes, which is how she first encountered Augsburg. Kelly had an opportunity to tour Augsburg\u2019s campus during an URGO field …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":435,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[17,16,13],"class_list":["post-48307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-chemistry","tag-public-health","tag-urgo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/urgo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/urgo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/urgo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/urgo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/435"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/urgo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48307"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/urgo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48318,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/urgo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48307\/revisions\/48318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/urgo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/urgo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/urgo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}