Utah State University has students all over the state they could spotlight but a USU-Uintah Basin student is currently getting the attention. Utah State University’s Utah State Today is featuring Vernal native Ryker Hacking for his research as part of the USU-Uintah Basin summer internship program aimed at ending the negative side effects of diabetes. On February 9th, Hacking presented his research, which found a way to synthesize a molecule called MBT, at the 12th annual Utah Conference of Undergraduate Research. USU-Uintah Basin associate professor Mike Christiansen oversaw Hacking’s research which could inhibit AR, the enzyme that causes kidney, eye, nervous system, and red blood cell damage. “If MBT proves to be a successful and nontoxic means of inhibiting AR in clinical trials,” explains Christiansen, “it could serve as an eventual medicine to prevent the negative reactions of diabetes. Once we optimize Ryker’s new method, we can scale up production and begin testing MBT’s viability.” In the Utah State Today report, Hacking praises the USU-Uintah Basin summer internship programs that help students grow professionally. Research will continue refining the process of making MBT with the hope that someday it will be able to help treat Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.
