Over the weekend of November 11-13, two Hampden-Sydney biology majors, Osric Forrest ’12 and Yonathan Ararso ’13, presented findings from the cancer research they have been conducting with Biology Professor Dr. Kristian Hargadon at two research conferences.  Dr. Hargadon’s laboratory has recently demonstrated that melanoma tumor cells are capable of suppressing the activity of dendritic cells, a major regulator of host anti-tumor immune responses.  At the 2011 Sigma Xi Annual Meeting and International Research Conference held in Raleigh, NC, Yonathan Ararso presented a poster of his work that aims to understand the mechanism by which melanoma cells suppress dendritic cell function.  Several states away in St. Louis, MO, Osric Forrest presented a portion of his current Honors Project research on the influence of melanoma-altered dendritic cells on T cell activation at the 2011 Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students.  The overarching goal of both of these projects is ultimately to identify strategies for interfering with anti-tumor immune suppression and enhancing anti-tumor immune responses.  Both posters were very well received, and the conferences offered valuable research and networking experience for both Yonathan and Osric!