Another summer of Science: SciFest 2026

Brandeis Stories

Another summer of Science: SciFest 2026

By David Levin
Photography by Dan Holmes
August 11, 2026

Each summer, the Brandeis School of Science, Engineering and Technology becomes a dynamic hub for student research. Undergraduates spend more than two months embedded in faculty members' labs, where they collaborate with professors, graduate students, and their peers - working on projects that range from mapping how the brain processes memory to tracing the genetic roots of drug resistance. Their efforts culminate in SciFest, a highly anticipated event that has been a summer highlight since 2011.

At this year's event, students presented their research through poster sessions in the Shapiro Science Center, where they spoke with visitors, defended their findings and got a taste of what it's like to work as a scientist. Below is a sampling of the research presented.

Precision, one injection at a time

Joshua Obas, a rising junior, spent his summer chasing accuracy down to fractions of a millimeter. In neuroscientist Christine Grienberger's lab, he's been refining a technique for injecting tiny amounts of dye into the subiculum, an area of the brain involved in memory. His challenge: the sebiculum is just a tiny sliver of tissue, and sits crowded next to other regions with similar jobs. Hit the wrong spot, and an experiment is ruined.

"There's only so much that someone can tell you about how to do an experiment," said Obas. "I've realized that you have to learn most of it on your own by doing it yourself." Being able to figure things out by trial and error, he said, is a big part of what made his summer experience so valuable, even when his results didn't come out the way he had expected. He plans to continue building upon that lesson in the future, and eventually, wants to incorporate his summer research into a senior thesis.

A gene that won't let go

Chana Kornreich, a rising senior, who spent her summer in biologist Liz Hedstrom's lab, is working to understand why some bacteria have a gene they no longer seem to use. The species she's been studying all originally created an antibiotic compound, but over generations, evolved to stop making it. The current generation of the microbes, however, still have a working gene that protects them from the antibiotic - despite the fact that this protection isn't needed.

"I've been able to grow much more through my summer research than I would be able to do through classes alone," said Kornreich, who is majoring in chemical biology and biology. "The experience let me see what it's like to become an independent researcher, which is really rewarding." Ultimately, Kornreich is hoping the work carries her into a PhD and a career doing pharmaceutical research.

When the data won't cooperate

Rising senior Yana Stoilova came into the summer expecting to map how neurons in the brain fire in response to taste. Working in neuroscientist Don Katz's lab, she dripped flavored liquids onto anesthetized rats' mouths, then used tiny electrodes to record their brain activity. Her results, she says, were inconclusive - possibly because the effects of the anesthesia masked the brain signals she was looking for. It was her first time working with rats, and her first real taste of how messy research can be.

"Obviously, research isn't always perfect," said Stoilova, a neuroscience major. "It doesn't always go well, and it doesn't always provide the clearest results, so I've learned that you have to come to your own conclusions." That, she said, beats learning in a classroom every time. "In class, a professor tells you something and you're like, 'Yeah, okay, I believe you, that sounds about right.' Whereas in the lab, you're really seeing how things work for yourself."