Monica Cooper ′14says she is “really excited about pursuing a masters and/or Ph.D. after I graduate.”
Monica Cooper ′14 prepares a 96 well micro plate in Dr. Sarah Emery’s lab at the University of Louisville. Photo credit: Phung Nguyen.
A big reason for her enthusiasm is taking place right now–her summer internship working on the Kellogg Biological Station Long-term Ecological Research experiment, or KBS LTER, part of Michigan State University’s Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program, funded by the National Science Foundation.
The KBS is located in Hickory Corners, Mich., not far from Kalamazoo. Monica, a biology major who completed her K study abroad in Quito, Ecuador, is working with KBS LTER scientists at the University of Louisville in Kentucky where she studies “a pesky little protein,” goes “botanizing” in local parks, and explores the Red River Gorge.
“I hope to be a community level ecologist, and never really pictured myself in a lab, indoors, for a whole summer,” wrote Monica in a recent blog post about her summer internship. “Through this REU, I have learned an incredible amount about soil ecology, botany, and what research really is.”
“Monica wrote a terrific blog about her research experience,” wrote MSU Agriculture & Ecology Education & Outreach Specialist Julie Doll, Ph.D., in an email. “We are pleased to work with her and hope to work with other Kalamazoo College students in the future.”
During the second summer of research on her Senior Independent Project (SIP), chemistry major Virginia Greenberger (pictured at left) is spending more time in method development than data collection. Here’s the thing about that: “We’ve never done this work before,” says Greenberger. (The other member of “we” is her SIP supervisor, Professor of Chemistry Regina Stevens-Truss; they are trying to develop a method to determine how certain protein pieces—called peptide sequences—kill bacteria.) That “never-having-done-this-work-before” means her SIP research is on the far edge of new discovery, which makes it very cool. But it can also be very frustrating—just one example: the peptide sequences are “sticky” and prone to clump, which makes methods to effectively study them more difficult to develop.
Some back story, which goes back further than last summer. About a decade and a half ago, Stevens-Truss noticed that bacteria she’d altered to produce a certain peptide were being killed by that peptide. Very interesting discovery, on hold for a dozen or so years. Then last summer Stevens-Truss and Greenberger began to study in earnest the protein components responsible for killing the bacteria. These peptide sequences are spiral in shape and carry a positive charge. Shape and charge are matters of chemistry and potential chemical alteration. Summer number one focused on which peptide sequences were the most effective killers of which kinds of bacteria–gram positive (Staph aureus, for example) and gram negative (E-coli, for example). The research team devised a method that uses light to determine the degree to which various peptide sequences inhibit various bacteria. Roughly speaking, “cloudy” or opaque solutions (that block light) mean the bacteria are not much affected by the peptide sequence, but a clear solution indicates significant antibacterial activity. The research could eventually prove very important. Ours is an age of antibiotic resistance. Certain bacteria cause serious infectious diseases, but their reproduction rate (combined with human misuse of antibiotics) selects for resistant strains.
Summer two’s work seeks to repeat (and confirm) the results of last summer and determine how the effective bacterial assassins do their work. How does one determine that? Greenberger is currently working on a method that infuses liposomes with dyes. Liposomes are bag-like structures whose membranes mimic the membranes of cells. A killing mechanism by which the spiral-shaped peptide sequences drill through bacterial cell membranes would be suggested if the liposome look-alikes suddenly release their dyes. That’s the method on which Greenberger was currently at work at the time of this interview. The working title of her SIP is “Studying Antibiotic Action of Peptide Sequences containing a Cationic Amphipathic Helix Structure.” But that could change, depending on that ever-changing ratio of “cool” to “frustrating.”
Roy Yewah ’13 is among 33 young adults who recently learned they were selected from 700 applicants to spend the next two years of their life living and working in Detroit. Roy is among the “Year Two” class of Challenge Detroit, an organization dedicated to recruiting young talent to the Motor City to work for businesses and nonprofits. Read about the program in this MLive report. And listen to Roy talk about his commitment to Detroit in a Challenge Detroit video clip. Leigh Ann Ulrey ’11 and Sam Brennan ’11 are part of “Year One” Challenge Detroit. Read about them in this January 2013 issue of BeLight. Which young K alumni will we read about from “Year Three” of Challenge Detroit?!
Carolyn DeChants ’09
Carolyn DeChants ’09 is very busy in Philadelphia. Not only is she creating a digital archive for the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Center at the University of Pennsylvania, she’s pursuing a master’s degree in social policy at Penn’s School of Social Policy & Practice. She hopes to have the online archive set up and in a sustainable form by August, when she will also finish her degree—and join the work world. Carolyn, who says she’s passionate about using research to help illuminate and ameliorate the experiences of any marginalized populations, is currently looking for a position conducting policy research or program evaluation in the Philadelphia area.
Harvey Dickson ’80 is a copy editor of The New York Times Magazine and an occasional contributor to “The 6th Floor” blog where the Magazine’s staff members share ideas, arguments, curiosities and links. Read Harvey’s July 18, 2013 post “Where Have You Gone, Willie Horton?” about the Detroit Tigers slugger and 1968 World Series hero who—still wearing his Tiger uniform after a game against the Yankees—went into the streets of Detroit to help quell some of the violence taking place there during the riots of summer 1967.
Gerald Rosen ’73
Gerald Rosen ’73 is chief district judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. Will he be appointed as the mediator to rule on disagreements between Detroit and its creditors during the city’s Chapter 9 bankruptcy case? U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes signaled in a court filing that he plans to do just that. Read about Jerry Rosen and his possible appointment in this recent Detroit Free Press article.
Edward Olney was Professor of Mathematics at Kalamazoo College for ten years beginning in 1853. He established the first mathematics curriculum at K and had a reputation for being a stern disciplinarian and a stickler for correct details. Despite his nickname “Old Toughy,” Olney was said to take great pains to see that the poorer students obtained help in making up their deficiencies. Read more about Olney in the July 24, 2013 entry of “On This Day in Math,” a popular blog about, well, math.
Lori-Ann Williams, Geneci Marroquin and Josh Abbott in the lab.
It’s summertime at K; the weather is hot, and so is the chemistry on the second floor of the Dow Science Center. In the first of a series of articles, we focus on chemistry research underway on campus during summer 2013.
Three students are advancing ongoing research projects in the inorganic chemistry laboratory of Professor of Chemistry Tom Smith. Each project is focused on elements included in a group known as transitional metals. Josh Abbott ’13, Lori-Ann Williams ’14, and Geneci Marroquin ’14 apply various techniques to characterize reactions that occur in nature (as well as some chemistry that nature doesn’t do) involving the elements vanadium (Abbott), manganese (Williams), and cobalt and nickel (Marroquin).
The researchers are working to create small molecule models that are motivated by the chemical reactions that occur in nature and involve more complex substances such as enzymes. All three are performing the intricate chemical experiments required to make crystal samples of molecules that result from the aforementioned reactions—enough samples, and of sufficient quality, for the technique known as x-ray crystallography, which will render a three-dimensional portrait of the molecule. (The notion of portraiture is particularly apt for the chemistry of transitional metals, known for their colors and alterations of color as a result of molecular changes.) The x-ray crystallography work will mean an August trip to Purdue University (the workplace of a long-time collaborator with Smith in these scientific projects) for Smith and the student researchers.
The work of Williams and Marroquin will form the basis of their respective Senior Individualized Projects. Williams’ work, says Smith, is more biologically oriented, and seeks to reconcile data on manganese compounds from Williams and the Smith lab with data published on manganese work from a laboratory in India. Marroquin’s is more “catalytically oriented, doing something nature doesn’t do,” she says. If Marroquin’s contribution to the ongoing project is successful, subsequent work may one day lead to more efficient energy generation. “We’re trying to save the world in this lab,” smiles Marroquin.
Abbott graduated in June but wanted to more research work in inorganic chemistry, the most liberal arts-ish of all chemistry disciplines. “It relates to all other branches of chemistry and science and is very useful for better understanding of peer-reviewed literature in biochemistry,” he said. His vanadium research originates from the way sea algae synthesize special organic molecules for self protection.
It’s been a good summer in Smith’s lab. All five of his researchers are “highly motivated and getting a lot done,” Smith said. (Leland O’Connor ’14 and Mojtaba Ahkavandafi ’15 were not in the lab the day we dropped in, and they are working on projects very different from those of the other students.)
David Barclay, History, will deliver a public lecture at the Free University of Berlin. The title of his talk is “Old Glory und Berliner Baer: Die USA und West-Berlin 1948-1994 [Old Glory and the Bear of Berlin: The USA and West Berlin 1948-1994].” The event commemorates the collaboration of the German Studies Association (GSA) with the Free University and also the 50th anniversary of the famous “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech by President John F. Kennedy. Barclay is the executive director of GSA. He will be introduced by Elke Loeschhorn, director of international programs at the Free University, and by Professor Harald Wenzel from the John F. Kennedy Institute of American Studies at the Free University. Barclay’s talk will be moderated by Professor Andreas Etges of the America Institute at the University of Munich. Commentary on the talk will be provided by Walter Momper, mayor of Berlin when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989; Professor Dorothee Brantz of the Technical University of Berlin and director of its Center for Metropolitan Studies; and Dr. Klaus Dettmer of the Landesarchiv Berlin (Berlin State Archives).
The 2013 Michigan Academy of Science Arts and Letters annual conference featured some 450 participants presenting in 33 academic sections on a wide range of topics. Seven of those presenters were Kalamazoo College students: Alex Armstrong ’13, Ryan Berry ’13, Ian Flanagan ’13, Alexander Numbers ’13, Jonathan Romero ’13, Hayden Uihlein ’14, and Jennifer Wendel ’14. These students were sponsored by Charlene Boyer Lewis, associate professor of history, and Chris Latiolais, associate professor of philosophy.
Ellen Chenoweth ’08, a doctoral student and MESAS Fellow at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, has entered a video contest (National Science Foundation IGERT Video and Poster Competition).
Her entry explains her scientific work with humpback whales and salmon in Alaska and includes wonderful footage of both. It also features some humorous footage and metaphors to make the science accessible to lay audiences.
Humpback whales compete with the Alaska fishing industry for hatchery salmon. Chenoweth seeks to understand the energy expended by humpbacks to secure their other food sources. This information may eventually assist salmon hatchery release procedures in order to make food sources other than salmon more efficient for the whales, thus reducing whale-human competition for salmon fishing, which is vital to the economy of coastal Alaska.
Says Chenoweth: “Anyone can vote in the public choice category and you can vote for as many different videos as you want.”
If her submission wins the contest, she’ll use the prize to attend Marine Mammal Conference in December.
In April, sophomore Adam Eisenstein joined Assistant Professor of Japanese Noriko Sugimori to present “Not Lost in Translation: Preserving Japanese Culture in Anime” at the inaugural Michigan Japanese Heritage and Culture Conference at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Adam developed his conference paper extending his analysis of English translations of Osaka dialect in Japanese anime/manga, “Azumanga Daioh.” His work originated in a K class titled “Japanese Language in Society.” Senior Kathleen Reno contributed to the presentation but was unable to attend the conference.
Six students presented research work at the annual ASBMB meeting. From left: Josh Abbott, Erran Briggs, Amanda Bolles, Mara Livezey, Michael Hicks, and Nic Sweda. Hicks is a biology major; the other five are majoring in chemistry.
Six Kalamazoo College students joined two of their chemistry professors and mentors (Regina Stevens-Truss and Laura Lowe Furge) at the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology National Meeting in Boston, Mass. The students–Nicholas Sweda ’13, Mara Livezey ’13, Michael Hicks ’13, Josh Abbott ’13, Amanda Bolles ’14, and Erran Briggs ’14–presented results of their summer and academic year research experiences (Senior Individualized Projects in the cases of Nick and Josh). Nearly 300 posters from colleges across the country were part of the 17th Annual Undergraduate Student Research Poster Competition and Professional Development Workshop. Professor Furge was a judge in the competition.
The lab of Professor Paul Hollenberg at the University of Michigan was the site of Abbott’s SIP research on the role of CYP2B6 metabolism of the chemotherapeutic drug cyclophosphamide. The other five posters were based on research done at Kalamazoo College. Sweda presented ongoing studies from Professor Stevens-Truss’s lab on suramin selective inhibition of nitric oxide synthases. This work is the basis of a manuscript in preparation with Sweda and Alyssa McNamara ’11 as co-authors. Livezey, Hicks, Bolles, and Briggs each presented individual posters with results of three projects from Professor Furge’s lab on the interactions of inhibitors with human cytochrome P450 enzymes. The work presented by Bolles and Briggs is currently being prepared in a manuscript for publication with both students as co-authors along with Livezey. The posters presented by Hicks and Livezey are the basis of current NIH-funded studies in the Furge lab. In addition to the poster sessions, students attended talks, award lectures, and exhibits. Students also met with graduate school recruiters.
During the meeting, Professor Stevens-Truss directed her third annual teaching workshop for middle school and high school science teachers in the Boston area. The workshop attracted more than 70 teacher-participants from the Boston area, a record number for these ASBMB associated events. Professor Stevens-Truss’s efforts in structuring the workshops have provided a new platform for scientists to collaborate and mentor the nation’s secondary school science teachers. Scientists from across the country helped make the workshop a meaningful experience for school teachers. It was funded by a National Science Foundation grant to Stevens-Truss. Next year’s meeting will be in San Diego, Calif., and K expects to be there.
Kalamazoo College will host the fourth annual Sustainability SIP Symposium on Monday, April 29, 6-9 p.m., in 103 Dewing Hall on the K campus (1200 Academy St.), co-sponsored by the College’s Guilds and Environmental Studies Program. Free and open to the public, the event will feature student presentations of sustainability-related Senior Individualized Projects (SIPs) ranging in topic from English to Economics. Audience members will have time for questions following each presentation, and an opportunity to meet student researchers at the interactive poster session and reception beginning at 8 p.m. in Dewing Hall Commons. Refreshments will be provided by the People’s Food Co-Op.
Student presentations include:
Mysha Clarke: Energy Recovery in Landfills: A Jamaican Case Study
Monika Egerer: Ecosystem Services on the Mariana Islands: Implications of bird loss for a wild chili pepper species
Rebecca Rogstad: Zane, the Curious Little Zooxanthellate
Shoshana Schultz: Inverting the Atlas: Mapping Geographically Based Food Security in Kalamazoo
“The annual symposium recognizes the scholarship and research that many K seniors devote to their SIPs (a graduation requirement) and showcases the breadth and depth of sustainability-related work taking place at the College,” said Joan Hawxhurst, Director, Center for Career and Professional Development.
This year’s Symposium is the first since the reorganization and expansion of the Guilds to include seven career path clusters: Arts & Media, Business, Education, Health, Law, Nonprofit & Public Service, and Science & Technology. Sustainability infuses the conversations and collaborations in all seven Guilds, and the Sustainability SIP Symposium showcases how this value cuts across disciplines and departments and informs the work of all professionals.
