Anna Holland was a high school student learner in the Barnes lab for the 2024-25 academic year. She was a senior at Shawnee Mission East interested in biomedical research. She worked alongside Postdoc Alex Garbouchian analyzing genomic instability in cancer cells.

In March of 2025, she participated in the Greater Kansas City Science and Engineering Fair in the Chemistry Division. Competing against 115 other seniors, Anna took one of the four grand prizes, earning her an invitation to the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair in Columbus Ohio. This fair had 1,657 finalists from 62 countries, regions, and territories with a total of ~1330 projects.

In May Anna traveled to Columbus to compete in the Molecular Biology subcategory, of the Cellular and Molecular Biology category. Her category had 50 finalists, and she was evaluated by 9 judges. She won a 10,000$ scholarship from the Missouri University of Science and Technology, which she will attend this fall as a Biomedical Engineering major.

Anna was a joy to have in the lab and a great participant and learner. She is acknowledged in the lab’s upcoming manuscript, which is currently on BioRxiv.

Alex and Ryan attending the 24th Midwest DNA Repair Meeting in Ann Arbor Michigan May 17-18. Alex presented a poster and Ryan a talk on the new BioRxiv! Ryan and Dr. Bret Freudenthal also agreed to host the meeting in Kansas City next year!

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.10.653274v1