A presentation that deflates claims that bitter kola can prevent Type 1 diabetes is one of about 300 projects at the Huskies Showcase April 11 in Atwood Memorial Center.
From 9 a.m.-5 p.m., students are sharing what they’ve learned from a thesis, creative work, internship, research project, service learning experience or volunteer experience.
The showcase combines three former events: Student Research Colloquium, Honors Research Colloquium and Community Engagement Celebration. More than 50 community organizations will showcase their engagement with campus, including the Boys and Girls Club of Central Minnesota and the Minnesota Department of Corrections.
The free Huskies Showcase is open to the public. Parking is $1.50 an hour in the 4th Avenue Parking Ramp.
Organizers are seeking student and employee volunteers to staff the Huskies Showcase.
Related Links
The presentation by Shana Rogan ’16 will discuss a research project that concluded an extract from kola seeds (Garcinia kola extract or GKE) does not reduce hyperglycemia, the excess of glucose in the bloodstream associated with Type 1 diabetes (T1D).
The fruit, seeds, nuts and bark of the flowering plant have been used for centuries in folk medicine in west and central Africa.
The cost of managing Type 1 diabetes with insulin has resulted in the promotion of bitter kola as a lower-cost alternative. For example, the Nigerian-based Ask Naij website claims, without a citation, that a bitter kola extract “lowered blood sugar from 115 mg/dL to 65 mg/dL.”
Rogan, a 24-year-old from New Hope, is pursuing a master’s degree in biology. She teamed on the project with Eryn Ebinger ’15, a biology master’s candidate. First adviser on the project was Marina Cetkovic-Cvrlje, biology professor. View Ebinger’s starred paper about the project in the Repository.
Rogan and Ebinger gave mice drinking water dosed with bitter kola extract. The mice were also dosed with streptozotocin, which killed insulin-producing cells in the mice’s pancreas, which effectively gave the mice insulin-dependent, Type 1 diabetes.
The abstract of Ebiger’s starred paper says: “In conclusion, this study, as the first examination of the anti-diabetogenic potential of aqueous GKE, did not confirm its potential in reducing hyperglycemia and preventing T1D.”
Other Huskies Showcase projects include:
“Persistence, Agency and Adaption of the Assiniboine & Sioux Tribes, Wolf Point, MT”
Presenter: BearPaw Shields, mass communications major, Zimmerman
“Art on a Screen: The Union of the Digital and the Drawing”
Presenter: Matthew Fuchs, computer science major, University Honors Program, St. Cloud
“SCSU Students and Bitcoin”
Presenter: Bethany Petersen, global studies major, Sartell
