May 2004 Volume 19, Number 2 THE NONSENSE SUPPRESSOR · Dr. Thomas Eickbush, Professor of Biology and Department Chair, ... Number 2 The Nonsense Suppressor May, 2004 2 The Department

May 2004Volume 19, Number 2

THE NONSENSE SUPPRESSORNewsletter of the Department of Biology

College of Arts & ScienceUniversity of Rochester

Rochester, NY 14627-0211

Doris Kist, Production EditorCheeptip Benyajati, Reviewing Editor and PhotographerTEL: 585/275-3850FAX: 585/275-2070EMAIL: [email protected] SITE:www.rochester.edu/College/BIO/newsletter/____________________________

IN THIS ISSUE

COVER:

Four years of work by graduatesculminate in Biology DiplomaCeremony.

RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES FORUNDERGRADS

General Research Experiences, p. 2-3

Distinction in Research, p. 3

Evan Kingsley, p. 4Anat Kohn, p. 5Matt Maurer, p. 6Mark O’Hara, p. 7Max Popp, p. 8Rebecca Porter, p. 9Anne Stey, p. 10

UNDERGRADUATE SOCIETY RETURNS, p.11

More senior research/professionalexperiences, p. 11-14

de Kiewiet Summer Fellowship, p. 14

PROFESSOR RETIRES AFTER 36 YEARSAT UR, p. 15

Stan Hattman on his research career

DEPARTMENTS, p. 18

Congratulations, p. 18; Arrivals andDepartures, p. 19; Off Campus, p. 19;Recent Publications, p. 20-21

Ninety-four Graduates toReceive Diplomas atAfternoon Ceremony

Fifty-three women and forty-one men are eligible to receive theirdegrees at the Diploma Ceremony of the Department of Biology being heldon Sunday, May 16, 2004 at 2:30 p.m. in the River Road Auditorium. Theninety-four men and women of the Class of 2004 have satisfactorilycompleted the requirements for one of the four Biology Departmenttracks—B.A. in Biology (BIO), B.S. in Biological Sciences: Cell andDevelopmental Biology (BCD); B.S. in Biological Sciences: EvolutionaryBiology and Ecology (BEB), B.S. in Biological Sciences: Molecular Genetics(BMG).

Dr. Thomas Eickbush, Professor of Biology and Department Chair,will be the Master of Ceremonies, welcoming students and guests and alsohanding students their diplomas.

This year’s student speaker, chosen by the faculty for excellence inacademics and research and for service to the College, is Maximilian Poppwho will be introduced by Dr. Robert Angerer, Professor of Biology.

Dr. Cheeptip Benyajati will present the Catherine Block MemorialPrize, a College award given each year to a junior woman for excellence inscience. Sharon Paige (BCD), class of 2005, is the recipient. Dr. Elaine Sia,Assistant Professor of Biology, will present awards to seniors. The DonaldR. Charles Memorial Prize, given annually by the Biology Department tostudents who show great potential and have exhibited excellence in sciencewill be received by Victoria Bottazzo (BCD), Julie Hull (BIO), Jehu Mathew(BMG), Matthew Maurer (BMG), Mark O’Hara (BMG), Maximilian Popp(BMG).

A slide show, organized by Jessica Marcinkevage aided bymembers of the class will be presented just before the awarding ofdiplomas. Announcement of honors—Phi Beta Kappa and LatinHonors—along with the reading of blurbs written by the graduates will bedone by Dr. Anthony Olek (BIO), Dr. Cheeptip Benyajati (BCD), Dr. JohnJaenike (BEB), Dr. David Hinkle (BMG).

A reception will be held immediately following the ceremony in thetent on the front lawn.

Congratulations and Best Wishes to the Class of2004 from the Biology Department Faculty and Staff

Volume 19, Number 2 The Nonsense Suppressor May, 2004

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The Department of Biology Graduating Class of 2004

Bachelor of Arts

Nadia Boyd AlberKoya C. AllenJenna Lyn ArndtStephan BarrientosMarco A. BernobichBirju D. BhattSeema Shashikant BhopaleKristin M. BroderickMiguel A. BrownTaylor J. BuckleySarah D. CrimminsBen A. CrossTaryn M. CuttingLisa Michelle DenmarkChristine W. DuMolly E. FuchsMatthew Jason FurmanMiranda Anne GauvinAlice Fitzgerald GoodwinKara Rachel GreenwaldAtul S. GulatiLindsey Starr HagstromJoshua HirschhornJulie C. HullGabrielle A. KapsakMohammed Faraz KhanSairah KhanJillian M. Kirstein

Jennifer E. KnipeTrisha LeRoyCarmen E. LewisJeannine Elizabeth MannaJessica Ann MacinkevageAndrew H. MarkyStephanie L. MontralloSwathi NadindlaJaeyoung ParkNoah D. PavliskoRiley J. PayneAndrew S. PederzolliKaitlin G. PoethNathan RimmkeCrystalaida Angelita CarlosRufoDanielle Clark RuppertRebecca RyszkiewiczAlayna M. SakSimmi Anil ShirwaikarDurga SinghShaila SinghMichael Richard SinkoffDeepak SobtiAbraham Mead SpenceKathleen M. SvalaJane TamSatyen S. UndaviaGrace Anna VangeisonScott M. VanValkenburg

Kelly L. WentworthJonathan P. WilmotRegine WongYan Ming Alvin Wong

Bachelor of Science

Biological Sciences:Cell and DevelopmentalBiology

Victoria M. BottazzoJacob M. BudnyNicole Renee CrnkovichShailey Sharad DesaiAdam GoldstoneAlbert Yung-Hsiang HuangEvan KingsleyPeter J. MosesSnehal Rajendrakumar PatelSamit ShahBenjamin B. SolterMarjorie Sophia Waterman

Biological Sciences:Evolutionary Biology andEcology

Jessica Cassavaugh

Matthew CumminsAlexandra Louise LarsonDaniel McLaughlinAndrea MurphyRebecca Ann SchlissermannAnthony SiniscalAdam C. SmithCarolyn A. Waugh

Biological Sciences:Molecular Genetics

Sara FerriDariya S. GlazerDavid IsemingerAnat KohnJehu MathewMatthew Joseph MaurerMark H. O’HaraMaximilian Wei-Lin PoppPeter Damian SidorSamuel P. StromJessica M. SzymaniakCheryl B. ThomasCornelia Emilia Zorca

Undergraduates Take Advantage of a Wide Range ofResearch Opportunities

The Biology Department of the University of Rochester, together with the research departments of theSchool of Medicine and Dentistry located just a five-minute walk away, offers to its majors a diversity of oppor-tunities for engaging in hand-on modern biomedical research. Those opportunities are limited only by students’talents and by their persistence in searching for faculty doing research projects that match their interests. Everyyear Biology majors engage in laboratory research as volunteers, as student employees, for credit in IND 395, andin the summers as research fellows either at the UR or at other institutions as well in paying jobs for biotechnol-ogy companies.

Independent ResearchTwenty-eight members of

the Biology Department graduat-ing class of 2004 have done one ormore semesters of IndependentResearch for credit. Those stu-dents, their faculty sponsors, spon-sor’s department and number ofsemesters of research each yearare:

Fall 01/Spring 02

Julie Hull, John Huelsenbeck, Biol-ogy (1); Mohammed Faraz Khan,J.H. David Wu, Chemical Engi-neering (1).

Fall 02/Spring 03

Samit Shah, Thomas Eickbush, Bi-ology (1); Kara Greenwald, AllenOrr, Biology (1); Rebecca Schlis-sermann, John Jaenike, Biology (1);

Jehu Mathew, Mark Noble, Bio-medical Genetics (1); MaximilianPopp, Robert Angerer, Biology (1);Satyen Undavia, David Goldfarb,Biology (2).

Fall 03/Spring 04

Nicole Crnkovich, BenjaminMiller, Dermatology (1); EvanKingsley, David Pearce, Ctr. forAging and Developmental Biology(1); Marjorie Waterman, Robert D.


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Frisina, Surgery-Otolaryngology(1); Jessica Cassavaugh, JohnJaenike, Biology (1); Matt Cum-mins, John Jaenike, Biology (1);Anthony Siniscal, John Jaenike,Biology (1); Koya Allen, Wei-PingZheng, Microbiology and Immu-nology, Ctr. for Vaccine Biology(1); Jenna Arndt, David Calkins,Ophthalmology (1); Stephan Barri-entos, Jiyong Zhao, BiomedicalGenetics (1); Birju Bhatt, Carl Pink-ert, Pathology and Ctr. for Agingand Developmental Biology (1);Ben Cross, John Jaenike, Biology(1); Joshua Hirschhorn, John Wer-ren, Biology (1); Nathan Rimmke,John Jaenike, Biology (1); DeepakSobti, Rulang Jiang, Ctr. for OralBiology (1); Deepak Sobti, CarlPinkert, Pathology and Ctr. forAging and Developmental Biology(1); Satyen Undavia, David Gold-farb, Biology (1); Jonathan Wilmot,John Jaenike, Biology (1); AnatKohn, Elaine Sia, Biology (2); JehuMathew, Mark Noble, BiomedicalGenetics (1); Matthew Maurer,Elaine Sia, Biology (1); MarkO’Hara, Martin Gorovsky, Biology

(2); Maximilian Popp, Robert An-gerer, Biology (2); Cornelia Zorca,Martin Gorovsky, Biology (2);Kelly Wentworth, Luojing Chen,Ctr. for Human Genetics and Pedi-atric Diseases (2).

de Kiewiet Summer Research

The Undergraduate Pro-gram in Biology and Medicine(UPBM) has been awarding deKiewiet Summer Research Fellow-ships since 1983 to UR studentsmajoring in one of the UPBMtracks. (See article on Summer 2004Fellows.) Although the number ofapplicants is small compared tomost summer programs, the com-petition is intense. Students ap-plying must already have a mentorand must submit a detailed re-search proposal. The summer fel-lows work fulltime in a lab for 10weeks. Class of 2004 graduateswho have been de Kiewiet fellowsare: Evan Kingsley, BCD; Mat-thew Maurer, BMG; Mark O’Hara,BMG; Kelly Wentworth, BIO;Cornelia Zorca, BMG. Evan King-

sley did his research in DavidPearce’s lab in the Center for Ag-ing and Developmental Biology onthe project “Retinal pathology ofthe Cln3-/- mouse, a model for Bat-ten Disease.” Matt Maurer did re-search under the direction ofElaine Sia in the Department ofBiology. His project was “Proteinfactors involved in mismatch re-pair of the mitochondrial genomein Saccharomyces cerevisiae.” MarkO’Hara and Cornelia Zorcaworked on two different projectsin Marty Gorovsky’s lab in theDepartment of Biology. Mark did“Analysis of TWI4: a homologue ofTWI1” and Cornelia’s project was“Attempts to generate a germlineHHP1 knockout in Tetrahymenathermophila.” Kelly Wentworth’sresearch was “Identification of theinteracting proteins of the proteinkinase PKK by a yeast two-hybridsystem” which she did under thedirection of Luojing Chen in theCenter for Human Genetics andPediatric Disease.

Four UPBM Graduates Earn Distinction inResearch

The Undergraduate Program in Biology andMedicine (UPBM) provides majors in the B.S. or B.A.tracks the opportunity to graduate with distinction inresearch. Students must achieve a minimum GPA of2.7 and must defend their written thesis at a meetingof their advisory committee. Most students seeking adegree with distinction have worked on a researchproject for a year or more and have achieved signifi-cant results. They then immerse themselves in thetime-consuming process of writing the thesis. Thosewho successfully complete their research and thenpush on to write the required paper are rewarded withthe phrase “Distinction in Research” added to theirtranscripts.

The four members of the class of 2004 whohave earned the honor of “Distinction in Research”are:

Zarina Sultana Ali, BNS, whose project “Neuronalmechanisms of actively steering optic flow: global ver-

sus local motion” was carried out under the sponsor-ship of Charles J. Duffy and William K. Page of theDepartment of Neurology.

Natasha Girgis, BMB, whose project “Enhanced in-fection of human monocyte-derived dendritic cellsusing a modified adenovirus targeted to DC-SIGN”was mentored by Stephen Dewhurst of the Depart-ment of Microbiology and Immunology.

Ian Harwood, BBC, whose project “Purification andcharacterization of human cyclin-dependent kinase 1”was directed by Ravi Basavappa of the Department ofBiochemistry and Biophysics.

Daniel Lioy, BNS, whose project “Characterization ofthe C17.2 stem cell as a model for studying arylhydro-carbon receptor-mediated neuronal development” wasundertaken with the guidance of Lisa Opanashuk ofthe Department of Environmental Medicine.


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Seniors Share Experiences Which Have Shapedtheir Plans for the Future

Evan Kingsley (BCD)

It started with Stanley Hattman’s class fresh-man year. Once the ball started rolling, I couldn’t get itto stop. Subsequent classes taught by David Goldfarb,Jack Werren, and Bob Angerer confirmed that biologywas my field of primary interest. During sophomoreyear, I decided that I would concentrate in cell anddevelopmental biology. The intricacy of the mecha-nism that turns a single cell into a complex organism isfilled with many unknowns, and I was drawn to thesubject by my desire to know more about such a fun-damental process in the life of all multicellular organ-isms.

That same year, I began working as a dish-washer and media maker in the lab of David Pearce.The Pearce lab researches an autosomal recessive, ju-venile onset neurological disorder called Batten dis-ease, or Juvenile Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinosis(JNCL). The defective gene in JNCL is Cln3, and thelab uses both yeast and mouse models to study thedisease. Although I wasn’t doing research yet, I be-came interested in a few of the lab’s projects. Fortu-nately, my position in the Pearce lab would later resultin some fantastic opportunities for independent re-search.

After my first semester of washing dishes, Ispent the summer at the Woods Hole OceanographicInstitution as a guest student in the lab of CabellDavis. Dr. Davis researches local spatial distributionsof plankton using a device called the Video PlanktonRecorder (VPR). The VPR consists of high-magnification cameras and other sensors mounted ona hydrodynamic frame. It is towed behind a researchvessel, where it records video that can be analyzedusing computers on deck. I helped optimize the focusdetection program that recognizes the plankton in thevideo images and worked toward creating a user in-terface for graphing the data collected.

My first semester of independent researchtook place during my junior year. Since the first out-ward symptom of JNCL is blindness, I began lookingat the retina of the Cln3-knockout mouse for any signsof degeneration. Over two semesters of independentresearch and a summer, thanks to the de Kiewiet pro-gram, we discovered that, although there is no majormorphological change in the retina, there is a subtleloss of cells in a key retinal layer. The results havefound their way into a paper that was recently sub-mitted to Investigative Ophthalmology and VisualScience.

My interest in the fundamental processes ofbiology has led me, through classes taught by AllenOrr and Tom Eickbush, to the subject of evolutionarybiology, specifically molecular evolution. I will bebridging my interests in developmental and evolu-tionary biology next year with a job in the lab of DavidLambert, a new professor here at the University.

I have learned much from the University ofRochester over the past four years, academically, per-sonally, and socially. I thank Dave Pearce for enablingmy first foray into scientific research, for much en-couragement, and for being an excellent mentor.Cheeptip Benyajati has helped me immensely on myeducational journey and deserves more thanks than Ican give her. Also, Allen Orr has been wonderful inaiding the planning of my future, and I owe him manythanks.

________________________________________________________Nicole Crnkovich (BCD)

Last summer I participated in asummer research program at theUniversity of Chicago with Dr.Jean Greenberg. In Dr. Greenberg'slab I studied host-pathogen inter-actions using the model system of

Arabidopsis thaliana and Pseudo-monas syringae. Last fall I workedwith Dr. Benjamin Miller at theUniversity of Rochester MedicalCenter on a project optimizingnovel bacterial detection tech-niques. Next year I will be pursu-

ing a Ph.D. in Biology at JohnsHopkins University. My course-work, research experience, and!theprofessors!I have had during mycollege career were large motiva-t o r s i n t h i s d e c i s i o n .


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Anat Kohn (BMG)

Since my earliest memories I have been ex-tremely fascinated by the biological sciences. This in-terest is likely a result of growing up in a home whereboth parents had graduate degrees in the biologicalsciences and spending much of my childhood playingin labs instead of playgrounds. Since I started highschool my father has given me a place to further myscientific experiences at his lab at the Rutgers Univer-sity Center for Biomaterials. My initial lab experienceswere similar to that of a glorified test tube washer.While I was given more interesting tasks I could notfully understand the science behind them, and onlyknew how to carry them out. As I got older and myknowledge base increased I was given more chal-lenging assignments and gained more insight intohow my activities in the lab were relating to the re-search that needed to be completed.

The summers surrounding my freshman yearat college were spent in the laboratory of Dr. WiseYoung at the W.M. Keck Center for CollaborativeNeuroscience, also at Rutgers University. At the KeckCenter I conducted research at the forefront of spinalcord injury research working on ways to promote neu-ron regeneration. My experiences at the Keck Centerreally shaped my future at UR, and my quickly ap-proaching future as a UR graduate. At the Keck Centerthere was a large focus on interacting with the peoplethat our research was aimed at helping. People withspinal cord injury were constantly in and out of the labtrying to learn more about what strides had beenmade. This has motivated me to continue my study ofgenetics not only by pursuing a Ph.D. but also by be-

ing accepted into MD/Ph.D. programs to receive bothdegrees. Obtaining both degrees would allow me todirectly study a medical problem and work towards asolution, but also work directly with the people af-flicted with it.

In order to work towards this goal, I internedat MIT working in the laboratory of Professor RobertLanger for the past two summers. My projects thereincluded research on micro-sphere technologies fordrug delivery methods. Uses for this technology in-clude better asthma inhalers as well as methods forreleasing medicine directly into the sites of brain tu-mors. In addition, I participated in initial gene-therapystudies. If someone developed a gene-therapy methodthat worked safely and efficiently it would revolu-tionize the medical field. Instead of taking a lifetime ofmedications, people with genetic disorders (such asGalactosemia and Phenylketonuria) could have theirgenes altered and they could live a healthy normal life.

To broaden my research experiences I joinedthe laboratory of Dr. Elaine Sia here in the BiologyDepartment for the past academic year. The lab stud-ies the mitochondria of the yeast Saccharomyces cere-visiae in hopes that what they learn from this singlecelled organism will shed light on human disease andaging related disorders. These types of disorders arethought to be associated with mutations in the mito-chondrial genome. My studies were conducted in col-laboration with graduate student Leah Jablonski. Wefocused on studying the mitochondrial genome main-tenance gene MGM101. MGM101 is a necessary pro-tein for maintenance of the mitochondrial genome;however, its exact role is unclear. Studies have shownthat MGM101 may be involved in DNA repair mecha-nisms within the mitochondria. Throughout the year Ihave developed various mutant forms of yeast. Thesemutants allowed us to study how changes to theMgm101 protein affect protein interactions and respi-ration. By studying these changes we learned moreabout how the normal protein functions. This line ofresearch will continue.

In the up-coming year I will be in the “realworld” conducting research at a place undecided atthe time this article was written. In addition, I will beapplying to MD/Ph.D. programs hopefully to ma-triculate the following year. I would like to thank allmy professors for their commitment to excellence inundergraduate teaching. Additional thanks are due tomy advisors Drs. Hinkle and Sia for their support andguidance all these years.

________________________________________________________Adam Goldstone (BCD)

During the summer of 2001, Ivolunteered in the Emergency De-partment at a hospital near myhome in Maryland. I had the op-portunity to follow doctors andnurses on their rounds. I measuredvital signs in patients and learned

how they were triaged. This expe-rience was both interesting andexciting as it helped solidify mydesire to become a physician.

Last summer I worked with Dr.Michael Kuehn at the NationalCancer Institute in Frederick, MD.We were interested in the down-

stream effects of nodal, an impor-tant gene in mouse development. Ispent most of the time genotypingmice and setting up matings so wecould then do experiments to ob-serve where nodaal was expressedin the later stages of development.


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Matthew Maurer (BMG)

As an athlete in high school I believed that Iwanted to become an orthopedic surgeon. I enteredthe University of Rochester as a “pre-med” student,majoring in biology primarily because it seemed to bethe most logical field of study in light of my futureplans. As my first semester progressed I found myselffrequently seeking out Dr. Anthony Olek, my first bi-ology professor, to inquire about topics covered in hiscourse. This experience led me to begin reconsideringif becoming a surgeon was still what I desired.

At first my questions were simple. They wereformulated to elicit a simple answer to something di-rectly related to the class. However, I seldom receiveda simple answer, nor did I have my questions everdirectly answered. Instead, Dr. Olek would respond tomy questions by asking questions, thereby leading meto the solution. Looking back on this experience, I re-alize that Dr. Olek helped me acquire a skill com-monly referred to as critical thinking. Unknowingly atthe time, I began applying this approach not only tobiology but also to chemistry and was soon discussingmuch more intriguing questions with my professors ofboth of these courses. By the end of my first semesterat college, I was truly thinking and learning and sim-ply fell in love with doing both.

Although by the end of my freshman year Ihad not dismissed the idea of a medical degree, I wasbecoming more and more attracted to basic science. Isought out a summer job in the department of Cell &Developmental Biology in Dr. James McCasland’slaboratory at SUNY Upstate Medical University atSyracuse. I was originally hired as a lab aide and myprimary duty was to genotype their animals but I alsofrequently made solutions for the lab and was occa-

sionally lucky enough to wash dishes too. I was askedto return to Dr. McCasland’s lab for the followingsummer and began to design an immunohistochemis-try protocol for them. Its purpose was to visualize thedendrites in the somatosensory cortex using light mi-croscopy and note differences between their wild typeand mutant mice.

In my junior year, I received a de KiewietSummer Research Fellowship to work in Dr. ElaineSia’s laboratory at the University of Rochester. Duringthis time I performed some biochemistry related tech-niques as well as molecular and genetic research, twoareas in which I am very interested. I began by tryingto purify the yeast mitochondrial mismatch repairprotein, Msh1p, by affinity-column chromatography. Ialso began the work that I continued through two se-mesters of independent research. I contributed to Dr.Sia’s research interests by investigating genes and theproteins they encode for possible roles in mitochon-drial genome maintenance using S. cerevisiae as ourmodel system. Multiple approaches were imple-mented for this task, giving me a great deal of experi-ence in various experimental techniques and also thechance to conceptually integrate the various pieces ofdata into a logical conclusion. My work involved ma-nipulating the genome by mutating a specific gene.Using the mutant I constructed, I examined changes inmitochondrial phenotypes that are either directly orindirectly related to the stability of the genome. In thelatter case, I would follow up with experiments tosupport a cause-effect relationship between genomestability and a mutant mitochondrial phenotype. I alsofused epitope-encoding sequences to the genes of in-terest for biochemical work aimed at surveying physi-cal protein interactions with Msh1p, our main proteinof interest.

Before I applied for the de Kiewiet Fellowship,I had already decided what my next step after collegewould be. My professors—Dr. David Hinkle, wholater became my advisor, and Dr. Sia, who later be-came my mentor—both spent countless hours (with noexaggeration) answering my questions about biologyto satisfy my endless curiosity. It was during this timethat I decided I want to study biology in my career. Ilooked heavily to both Dr. Hinkle and Dr. Sia for ad-vice as I transitioned from a future medical student toa future graduate student and they provided me withinvaluable help during that time. I am now preparingto join Johns Hopkins University as a Ph.D. student inthe Biochemistry, Cellular and Molecular Biology pro-gram.

Besides my parents who did anything to makeevery opportunity possible for me, I also want tothank every single one of my professors in Biology aswell as Chemistry. Special thanks to Dr. CheeptipBenyajati, Dr. Tony Olek, Dr. David Hinkle, and Dr.Elaine Sia.


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Mark O’Hara (BMG)

When I was a freshman, my biology coursesworked to open my eyes in a few different ways.Taking Gene Structure and Function and getting myfirst exam back, I realized that I would need to study abit more than just the night before an exam in college.I also knew after this class that I wanted to continue tostudy molecular genetics as my major, something Ipreviously thought might be too difficult to do. Whileworking through Molecular Cell Biology in my secondsemester, I was awakened to the wonders of experi-mental techniques which led me to explore these is-sues further as a teaching assistant the following yearand to look into the possibility of doing research as anundergraduate.

This interest only accumulated while I tookclasses such as Eukaryotic Genomes, Biochemistry,and Molecular Biology over my sophomore and junioryears, feeling too overwhelmed with classes, teachingassistantships, and extra-curricular activities to be ableto start researching in a lab. Finally, I took my firstplunge as a de Kiewiet Fellow in Dr. MartinGorovsky’s lab over the summer after my junior year.

Before I applied for the de Kiewiet Fellowship,Dr. Gorovsky explained to me a bit about the use of

Tetrahymena thermophila, a ciliated protozoa, as an ex-perimental model system. Among other things, he de-scribed the two nuclei—the germline micronucleusand the vegetative macronucleus—and the sexualprocess of conjugation in which the cells pair and ex-change gametic nuclei. In this process, the micronu-clear chromosomes are fragmented at specific sites todifferentiate into the macronucleus. Although the ge-netics associated with such a system was enough tomake me possibly rethink working with Tetrahymena, Iquickly changed my mind as he described one of theprojects carried out by one of his postdocs, Dr. Ka-zufumi Mochizuki (Kaz). Kaz had been working withTWI1 a member of the Argonaute family of geneswhich have been implicated in RNA interference(RNAi). Kaz found that TWI1 is essential for DNAelimination in the development of the macronucleusfrom the micronucleus during conjugation. He devisedan extraordinary RNAi-like mechanism—the scanRNA model—to explain how DNA elimination mightoccur in this system.

I excitedly started working with a genehomologue of TWI1, TWI7 and continued working onthis through two independent studies during my sen-ior year. At first I found that it was expressed duringconjugation. I next worked on trying to create aknockout construct of my gene. This is where I learnedabout “real” research—nothing ever works the firsttime around. For me, nothing really worked untilwhat seemed the one hundredth time. Finally gettingthe knockout construct, I was able to obtain a germlineknockout mutant in Tetrahymena and, through a seriesof different matings, I found that the gene is likely es-sential for conjugative or vegetative growth.

While my project was cut short by the end ofthe semester, I saw both sides of research—the frus-trating side requiring patience and the exciting sidewhere I actually saw results. I am very grateful to allmy professors for helping excite me about biology andespecially to Dr. Gorovsky, Kaz, and everyone in thelab for all of their support and patience. I look forwardto carrying this research experience into further re-search projects during medical school in the comingyears.

________________________________________________________

Samuel P. Strom (BMG)

For the past three summers I haveworked at Quest DiagnosticsNichols Institute in San Juan Cap-istrano, California as a ResearchAssociate. Working with the In-fectious Diseases and MolecularGenetics research teams, I havehad the opportunity to work withsome of the most cutting edgetechniques and equipment such asautomated DNA sequencing and

real-time quantitative polymerasechain reaction.

During my second summer I de-veloped a sequencing assay for agene called CYP1B1, mutations ofwhich are known to lead to Pri-mary Congenital Glaucoma (PCG).This disorder leads to blindness,and while it is treatable by sur-gery, diagnosis is very difficult.The aim of my project was to de-velop a system to determine whichspecific mutations lead to this dis-

order so that a quick, easy, andinexpensive test can be developedto screen newborns. If successful,these tests could prevent up to10% of all blindness in the UnitedStates.

This research project and others atQuest provided me with insightinto the joys and labors of labora-tory research and I plan to con-tinue this exploration via graduateschool in genetics.


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Maximilian Popp (BMG)

As an entering freshman, I knew that scienceinterested me a great deal. With two parents whoworked at Kodak as chemists, this wasn’t surprising,but I still wasn’t sure what subject to major in. It wasafter I took Dr. Hattman’s wonderful introductory ge-netics course that I realized how fascinating and dy-namic the cell is. So I promptly decided to major inmolecular genetics and become involved in research.

My first introduction to lab research wasduring the summer of 2001. I worked in Dr. Jeffrey J.Hayes’ (Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics)lab through the GEBS Summer Scholars program. Iinvestigated the accessibility of enzymes to DNAcomplexed with histone proteins. To determine thedegree to which T4 ligase is able to gain access toDNA in chromatin, I synthesized nucleosomal sub-strates containing a ligatable nick oriented either di-rectly away from or directly toward the histone sur-face, or at intermediate positions between these twoextremes. I found that the accessibility of ligase to nu-cleosomal DNA is extremely limited for all orienta-tions; nicks in all positions were nearly completelyrefractory. T4 ligase activity may be inhibited in the154 bp substrate because the histone tail domainssterically block access to the nick site.

In my junior year, I took Dr. Angerer’s fantas-tic developmental biology class and immediately be-came interested in development. That year, I decidedto start doing a Bio 395 course in his lab. I worked onthe sea urchin goosecoid protein (SpGsc), a ho-meodomain containing transcriptional repressor thathas been shown to link the specification of cells alongthe animal-vegetal and oral-aboral axes. The overallgoal was to elucidate the regulatory elements thatcomprise the SpGsc promoter in order to understandhow expression of SpGsc is spatially and temporallycontrolled. To do this, I conducted a series of electro-phoretic mobility shift assays (EMSA) using differentcandidate regions of the SpGsc promoter to probe seaurchin nuclear protein extracts. I also made a series of5’ deleted SpGsc promoter constructs that were used todrive the expression of a luciferase reporter gene. Byinjecting these constructs into embryos at the singlecell stage and including the RNA of a candidate SpGscregulatory protein, it’s possible to monitor the lu-ciferase activity during development. This allows aquantitative determination of the amount by whichthe candidate SpGsc regulatory protein is able tomodulate SpGsc expression. Although these projectsdid not yield immediate results, they have taught me

the value of patience and the enormous role of trou-bleshooting in science.

During the summers after my sophomore andjunior years, I worked in Dr. Bob Weinberg’s lab at theWhitehead Institute. My project involved investigatingthe cohort of genes affected by the prolactin (Prl) sig-naling pathway in mammary tissue, a pathway thathas important implications in mammary gland tu-morigenesis. I performed chip-on-chip experiments,looking at the genes controlled by Stat5, a downstreamtranscription factor in the Prl pathway. To comple-ment these experiments and eliminate any false posi-tive results from ChIP experiments, in vivo mousestudies were performed. A recombinant prolactin re-ceptor with an FK506 binding domain replacing theprolactin-binding domain was generated in a prolactinreceptor mouse knockout background. After preg-nancy, mice were injected with the dimerizing agent(FK506) to induce Prl response, and I harvestedmammary glands at various time points. cRNA formicroarray analysis was made from both stimulatedand unstimulated glands to quantitatively reveal boththe identity of the RNA products generated in re-sponse to prolactin signaling and the time when theyare induced.

The University of Rochester makes conductingundergraduate level research extremely easy and re-warding. The department offers incredible opportuni-ties to do independent research and this, in addition tothe many excellent professors (especially Dr. Hattman,Dr. Benyajati, and Drs. Bob and Lynne Angerer) hasinfluenced my decision to go to graduate school. Aftercompleting a Take-Five project in Milan, Italy, I will beworking towards a Ph.D. at MIT.(Editor’s note: Max was a 2003 Goldwater Scholar.)

________________________________________________________

Grace Vangeison (BIO)

For the past year and a half I haveworked as a Research Assistant inthe Center for Aging and Devel-opmental Biology at the Medical

Center. I have worked under Dr.David Rempe and Dr. HowardFederoff in trying to further elicitthe molecular mechanisms ofstroke. The experience has beenrewarding and invaluable. Most

importantly, my time in the labo-ratory has been integral to my de-cision to remain at the Universityof Rochester to pursue my Ph.D. inNeuroscience for the coming years.


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Rebecca Porter (BBC)

My education at UR has helped me toestablish a greater appreciation for science and abroader range of career interests. After years ofproofreading my mother's medical transcriptiondocuments and volunteering in a nursing home, Icame to UR confident that I would eventually practicemedicine. While this dream is still in place, I nowknow it will not be the extent of my career. Myprofessors and fellow students have helped to instill inme a passion for the sciences, the ability to thinkcritically, and the desire to conduct research in thebasic sciences.

The summer after my sophomore year Isought out a position in Dr. Ming Qi's lab in thedepartments of Pathology and Laboratory Medicineand the Center for Cardiovascular Research. I wasattracted to his lab group which studied the molecularmechanisms of the Long QT Syndrome because oftheir emphasis on cardiology, the field I planned topursue in my medical career. I wasn't expecting thelab to be so molecularly oriented and was not hopingfor the basic science research experience that Iencountered. I spent the first few weeks of the summerorienting myself to the literature and techniques of theresearch group. Soon, with the help of Dr. Qi, I beganto formulate my own project investigating thepossibility of alternative splicing of the identified LongQT genes playing a secondary role in the variablephenotypic expression of the dominant Long QTmutations. Unfortunately, due to lack of funding, Iwas unable to begin the project. Instead, I was askedto work as a lab technician as our former technician

had to leave. This position exposed me to all thetechniques performed in the lab, which was anincredible learning experience.

Surprisingly, the time I spent in Dr. Qi's labpiqued my interest in research, instead of simplyreinforcing my desire to enter into the medical field asI had expected it to. I decided to apply for the deKiewiet Summer Research Fellowship for thefollowing summer to further my research experiences.I opted to leave Dr. Qi's lab due to a desire to work ina less clinically-oriented setting and joined Dr. Yi-TauYu's lab in the department of Biochemistry andBiophysics. Dr. Yu's group investigates the role ofpost-transcriptional modifications on small nuclearRNAs (snRNAs) involved in pre-mRNA splicing. Myfirst few weeks in the lab were spent working with agraduate student screening the S. cerevisiae genome forproteins that affect the efficiency of splicing in hopesof identifying novel splicing factors. By comparing thelevel of mRNA accumulation in in vitro splicingreactions with different proteins added, we were ableto identify several pools of proteins which lookedpromising for affecting splicing activity. I then movedonto my own project involving U1 snRNA. Thepurpose of the project was to investigate the role thetwo conserved pseudouridines in the 5' end of U1 playin selecting and base pairing with the correct 5' splicesite in the pre-mRNA, making use of the Xenopusoocyte system.

In Dr. Yu's lab I have had the oppotunity towork very independently which has helped me notonly to learn the necessary techniques, but to reallythink about the science behind the experiments. I'vealso had opportunities to be part of weekly lab meet-ings, to attend seminars and to meet many of the fac-ulty in the department. These experiences have helpedto solidify my passion for science and research andhave led me to realize that my interests are not onlygeared toward clinical medicine. Although I am pas-sionate about medicine, I could also envision myselfbeing fulfilled with a career in research. To give myselfsome more time to decide between medical school andgraduate school, I applied for and received a fellow-ship to do an additional year of research at the Na-tional Institutes of Health starting in June. I hope togain valuable insight from my time there. Putting to-gether all my experiences in medicine, research, tu-toring and being a teaching assistant, I envision myselfeventually practicing medicine, supplementing thatwith research relevant to my clinical work, and hope-fully doing some teaching.

________________________________________________________

Danielle Ruppert (BIO)Starting the summer before my senior year I

began training in the department of Neuropathologyand Postmortem Medicine to become a diener. Origi-nally a German term meaning servant or attendant,the medical world uses it to refer to an autopsy assis-

tant. As such, my duties included removing organs,taking pertinent tissue samples for additional analysis,and preparing the bodies to be sent to funeral homes.This unique experience has further confirmed my in-terest in the human body and my desire to pursue acareer in medicine.


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Anne Stey (BNS)

I enjoy biomedical research because it giveshope. The discoveries made in the laboratory are ulti-mately responsible for giving physicians new andbetter ways to heal and improve the human condition.Although I want to be a clinical physician I plan tocontinue in research. My area of interest is glutamateexcitotoxicity.

One of the ironies of science is that glutamate,the main excitatory neurotransmitter in the brain, islethal to neurons in high concentrations. This type ofcell death is called glutamate excitotoxicity and hasbeen implicated in many neurodegenerative disordersfrom stroke to Lou Gherig’s disease. Cell death is theresult of a huge increase in intracellular calcium medi-ated by the opening of the glutamate/NMDA-activated calcium channel. Once inside the cytosol,calcium is taken into the mitochondria and initiatespathways that lead to cell death. This build up of cal-cium in the mitochondria is what causes excitotoxiccell death.

My mentor, Dr. Shey-Shing Sheu, is interestedin the role of a recently identified calcium channel (theryanodine receptor) in perpetuating this excitotoxic

mitochondrial calcium build up. Over the three years Iworked in the lab I had complicated results whenworking with whole neurons so I switched to workingin isolated brain mitochondria. My goal was to seehow chemicals that acted on the ryanodine receptoraffected calcium content in the mitochondria. I accom-plished this by seeing how adding these drugschanged the emitted level of fluorescence of a calciumindicator dye.

The first chemical I used was dantrolene,which closes the receptor or acts as an antagonist.Adding dantrolene resulted in an increase in mito-chondrial calcium. Similarly, addition of a differentantagonist, azumolene and ryanodine, also showed acalcium increase. The same results with the differentchemicals suggested that the drugs’ effects were be-cause of their same action on the ryanodine receptor.

The second set of chemicals I used are knownto open the channel, or act as agonists. Adding theagonist caffeine elicited a decrease in mitochondrialcalcium. In conjunction with the data presented above,this suggested that the ryanodine receptor functions asa release channel for calcium in the mitochondria.

The last chemical tested is known to compro-mise the structural integrity of the receptor/channel.In effect, it makes the complex “leaky” so calcium canpass through it more easily. In addition, chemicals thatbind to the complex do so with more difficulty and asa result are less able to illicit physiological changes.This chemical is FK506 and when added to mitochon-dria calcium content decreased. Furthermore, whenused in combination with ryanodine, the ryanodineinduced increase in calcium was prevented. This sug-gested that both FK506 and ryanodine acting at theryanodine receptor.

My results suggested that the ryanodine re-ceptor could play an important role in ridding themitochondria of calcium. This could be therapeuticallymeaningful if agonists are given for glutamate exci-toxicity. These drugs could prevent the mitochondriafrom becoming overwhelmed with calcium and initi-ating cell death.

________________________________________________________Gabrielle Kapsak (BIO)

In the summer of 2001 Iwas honored to attend the Na-tional Youth Leadership Forumon Medicine: Mission to China,their first international confer-ence. Over the course of amonth, we traveled throughChina and looked at their healthcare system, health deliverysystem and Medical schools. Wealso were able to see how Tra-ditional Chinese Medicine wasintegrated into the westernmedical treatments.

During 2002-2003 Ishadowed Dr. Fernandez atStrong Hospital. Dr Fernandezis bilingual in Spanish and Eng-lish and I was able to see howthe challenges of providing careto non-native English speakersis being addressed as well aslearn about obstetrics and gyne-cology.

Last summer I wasagain able to combine my loveof travel, learning and service,this time through Teaching andProjects Abroad. I spent thesummer in Katmandu, Nepal,

helping with the first afterschool program for underprivi-leged children and first shad-owing at a clinic for the poor inthe city and then working inNepal Orthopedic Hospital, theonly orthopedic hospital in thecountry, changing bandages,stitches, casts and helping insurgery.

All of my experienceshave led me to pursue a careerin medicine, with an interna-tional service component.


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Society of Undergraduate Biology Students Emerges fromHibernationby Jessica Marcinkevage andVicki Bottazzo

At the beginning of the 2004-05 school yearthe word was out: the Society of Undergraduate Biol-ogy Students was back in town. A council that hadbeen in hibernation for six years, SUBS was revived byan enthusiastic committee of UR students at the be-ginning of the fall semester. The purpose of the group:to rescue biology majors from their many coffee-ladenhours in Carlson and promote student involvementand faculty interaction. As a result of rigorous

coursework, many biology majors were complainingof being better acquainted with their textbooks thantheir fellow bio majors. Here’s where SUBS stepped in.

Throughout the year SUBS worked to coordi-nate events on campus, the first being a kickoff picnic(a.k.a. FREE FOOD), where students and facultyplayed volleyball and discussed everything from Dro-sophila to the Red Sox. During the semester, eventscontinued with two movie nights featuring guest pro-fessors to discuss issues presented in the film. And ofcourse what biology experience would be completewithout a TGIF celebration? The Friday afternoon ac-tivity of “Subs with SUBS” brought undergraduates,graduates, professors, and even some future SUBSmembers (okay, maybe 15 years from now…) out forsome good old Wegman’s subs. This year’s finale willinvolve a senior picnic, allowing a final chance to bondover our love for the study of life.

Speaking as outgoing SUBS exec members, weare glad to have been involved in the rejuvenation ofthe group and are sad to be leaving it when it is off tosuch a rolling start. However, we know it is in thegood hands of the future exec board members. Weknow when we’re back for a Meliora weekend, SUBSwill be alive and kickin’ (and still offering FREEFOOD!). Thanks for a great year! J

More Senior Research/Professional Experiences

Vicki Bottazzo (BCD)

Most students at the University ofRochester use the time during thesummer months as an opportunityto gain experience in fields theyare interested in and hope to pur-sue after their education is com-plete here. Following that lead,and using to my advantage thenumerous opportunities that un-dergraduates have to work at theMedical Center because of its af-filiation with the University, I haveworked in a laboratory at Strongsince the summer after my fresh-man year. I work in the SpecimenReceiving lab, or SMS, as a ClinicalTechnician. Knowing that I wantedto work in medicine as a career ledme to apply for this job and it hasnot disappointed me. Although itdoes not include patient care or

contact it has allowed me to inter-act a great deal with doctors,nurses and other health care pro-fessionals. I feel that being a partof the team that works in the hos-pital has taught me many lessonsabout how to be a successfulmember of that team once I com-plete my graduate program as aPhysician Assistant.

In addition to hospital experience,an extensive part of my time spentat UR in the biology departmenthas been as a teaching assistant. Ihave worked as a teaching assis-tant for three different biologyclasses, tutored for those biologyclasses and conducted studygroups through LAS as well. Be-fore I began TAing I didn't have alot of confidence in my abilities tospeak in public or convey infor-

mation to others, especially mypeers. I have become much moreconfident since working as a TA,in both my public speaking abili-ties and my knowledge of biology.I have also built a good network ofpeers that I worked with each se-mester. I was able to be extensivelyinvolved in helping others learnbiology and I think that strength-ened my own experiences here as abiology major.

Jessica Marcinkevage (BIO)

It was difficult for me to chooseexactly in what aspect of biology Iwished to concentrate my studies;for this reason, the BA biology de-gree was perfect for me. As a stu-dent at the University I've beenable to take advantage of the manyopportunities available to those


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interested in science and research.During the summer of 2003 I wasaccepted into the Graduate Educa-tion for the Biological SciencesSummer Internship program at theUniversity of Rochester MedicalCenter where I conducted researchin the Department of Environ-mental Health Sciences. My re-search focused on the role of arse-nic as a chemotherapeutic agentused for treating specific cancers.Because of my interest in the topicand the proximity of the lab I wasable to continue my researchthroughout my senior year.

Also, during the Fall 2003 semesterI worked as a Teacher's Assistantfor Professor Terry Platt's Bio-chemistry 250 class. I consider it anhonor to have been able to work insuch a position, having learned agreat deal overall through the ex-perience. I have recently accepteda position in the Master of PublicHealth program at Emory Univer-sity's Rollins School of PublicHealth where I will study Interna-tional Health, focusing on publicnutrition. I have had a wonderfulfour years at the University ofRochester and know that it wouldnot have been any better anywhereelse. To my fellow seniors and bi-ology enthusiasts, and to the biol-ogy faculty, thank you for givingme the opportunity to learn andgrow—with, of course, some goodtimes along the way! I wish you allthe best.

Koya Allen (BIO)

As most undergraduates do, Istarted off working in several dif-ferent laboratories doing the typi-cal grunt work—glassware, auto-claving, etc. Luckily I had the op-portunity to take things a stepfurther by doing an IndependentResearch project in an Immunol-ogy Laboratory. Under the direc-tion of Dr. Weiping Zheng I wasable to do research on the Foxp3gene. This project is still underwaybut the goal is to make a workingfusion protein which would beinvolved in the regulation of Tcells. This was a very good experi-

ence. I learned a great deal of newlaboratory techniques and proce-dures and was able to get a bettergrasp of what it means to be a re-search scientist. The knowledge Iobtained from this experience goesfar beyond anything a textbook ora lecture course can offer.

Miguel Brown (BIO)

Since my senior year in highschool I have worked at Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics, a division ofJohnson & Johnson through thehigh school co-op program. I havebeen kept on as a college intern.While the work that I have beendoing there is not biologically re-lated, it has opened doors of op-portunity to work within the com-pany. Upon graduation I hope toobtain a lab position in one ofJohnson & Johnson’s companies.

Shailey Desai (BCD)

At first I wasn’t sure what to ex-pect from my year of research atthe University of Colorado HealthSciences Center in Denver but Ihave enjoyed every momentworking as a research assistant inDr. Lori Sussel’s lab. Having theopportunity to build on the foun-dation of scientific knowledge Igained at UR has been one ex-tremely insightful experience.

Currently I am studying intestinaldevelopment in the mouse. Morespecifically, I am looking for theintestinal cell types that are af-fected by the Nkx2.2 gene knownto be important for proper pancre-atic development. Since I havesuccessfully found an intestinalphenotype for Nkx2.2 null mice,we are now trying to determinehow this gene plays a role in theintestinal cell differentiation path-way and maybe even diabetes.

Initially I performed immunofluo-rescence with wildtype and Nkx2.2mutant mouse intestinal tissue todetermine which cell types are af-fected by the gene. Those resultsshowed that while stem cells, gutepithelial cells, enterocytes, andgoblet cells are not affected by

Nkx2.2, enteroendocrine cells are.Serotonin, gastrin, secretin, GIP,CCK, and substance P gastrointes-tinal peptide levels are down-regulated in the Nkx2.2 mutantscompared to wildtype. However,PYY and NPY peptide levels re-main the same. In addition, as pre-viously found in the pancreas, glu-cagon/ghrelin double stainingshows that Nkx2.2 mutants pro-duce less glucagon and moreghrelin secreting cells than normal.Now I am verifying these resultsby in-situ hybridization, real-timePCR and a gain-of-function celltransfection experiment.

This year in Colorado has shownme that my years in Rochesterhave given me a unique way ofthinking which will be part of mefor the rest of my life.

Christine Du (BIO)

During the summers of 2002 and2003 I was a research fellow in theStrong Children’s Research CenterSummer Program. I was mentoredby Dr. Olle Jane Z. Sadler and didclinical research studies with mu-sic therapist Rosemary Oliva, MT-BC. I used a Biograph programand ProComp+ for biofeedbacksessions and participated in orga-nized music groups for pediatricpatients. My projects included:

The purpose of the project “TheUse of Music Therapy/Relaxationto Induce Drowsiness/Sleep” wasto develop, standardize, and testthe efficacy of music therapy in-tervention as procedural supportfor pediatric patients receivinglumbar punctures. I drafted sur-veys, recruited patients, collectedand analyzed data and explainedthe study at a poster presentation.

For the project “Stress Reduc-tion/Relaxation in Bone MarrowTransplantation” I aided in re-cruiting patients and interventions.

“Music Therapy as ProceduralSupport During Botulinum AToxin Injections for Pediatric Pa-tients” was undertaken to develop,standardize, and test the efficacy


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of music therapy intervention. Imodified the original protocol,recruited patients, collected andanalyzed data. These were ongo-ing projects which I continuedworking on during my senior year.The abstract of the Botox studywas recently published in PediatricResearch Supplement AbstractIssue, Volume 55(4), Part 2 of 2,Abstract # 492, Page 87A as "MusicTherapy as Procedural SupportDuring Botulinum Toxin Injec-tions."

During the time I spent workingon these studies I met people andhad experiences that will forevermake an imprint on my life. I amgrateful that I was able to learnand grow by working with Dr.Sahler and her!colleagues and Ithoroughly enjoyed my time withall of them.

Lindsey Hagstrom (BIO)

I have participated in research thepast three summers at the Univer-sity of Minnesota investigatingNatural Killer cells and their func-tion in adult peripheral blood andumbilical cord blood samples. Ad-ditionally, I did research the sum-mer after my freshman year at theParker Hughes Institute inRoseville, MN, where I examinedthe efficacy of several differentdrugs manufactured by the Insti-tute in killing one strain of braintumor (glioblastoma) cells andbreast cancer cells. I have also vol-unteered in the Oncology Unit ofStrong the past two years. I was aTA for Bio 111, Bio 110 and Bio 205as well. Finally, I took a trip toChimaltenango, Guatemala, thispast January for a week to act as amedical translator and work sideby side with surgeons and nursesassisting in hernia and Ob/Gynsurgeries.

Albert Huang (BCD)

Every summer since freshmanyear I have conducted research inone laboratory or another. My firstsummer, I assisted in a SystemicLupus Erythematosus Lab at theUniversity of Florida generating

whole blood cultures, runningvarious assays and helping thepostdocs with their research aswell. This was a great opportunityfor me to observe how researchand patient care melded together. Iwas able to observe and interactwith many SLE sufferers duringtheir time in the clinical trial.

The following summer I conductedindependent research at the Uni-versity of Pennsylvania's Centerfor Experimental Therapeutics. Ilearned how to use many pieces ofmachinery integral to cellular re-search while finding out more as-pects of research medicine. I alsomet many individuals from allover the world in that lab andlearned much about their variousbackgrounds.

The summer before my senior yearI was fortunate to acquire a re-search associate position at Har-vard Medical School's CutaneousBiology Research Center where Iconducted apoptosis gene regula-tion research in Drosophila. Alongwith basic lab techniques I learneda great amount about genetics andgene manipulation. I was also ableto receive guidance both in myresearch and in my higher educa-tion plans from the people in thelab as well as neighboring labs.

In my summers of research I havelearned a lot about life as well asscience and medicine. Withoutthese experiences as well as myexperiences here at the Universityof Rochester, I am sure that Iwould not be the person that I amnow, nor would I have decided onthe same path for my future.

Julie Hull (BIO)

After transferring to the UR duringmy sophomore year, I was eager toget involved with research. I dis-cussed this desire with my biosta-tistics professor, Dr. Huelsenbeck,and was thrilled when he asked ifI’d like to assist his graduate stu-dent in order to gain some experi-ence. After one semester of work-ing with his student, I beganworking on an independent study.

My goal was to engineer phage T7to have non-optimal codons in itscoat protein and then assess itsfitness in comparison to that of awild type phage. This project con-tinued through the summer, andwhile it was a bit frustrating attimes, it was that summer that Ireally began to work independ-ently and efficiently in the lab.

Unfortunately, the Huelsenbecklaboratory moved to Californiaand I began searching for anotherlab. I landed in Dr. Yu’s lab in theDepartment of Biochemistry andBiophysics. I was hired to help oneof his graduate students whichgave me a chance to get situated inmy new surroundings. Over thesummer, however, I participatedin the UR’s REU/GEBS programand was given my own project. Ibegan studying the effect of pseu-douridylation at position 35 oftRNATYR on the processing of themolecule. I presented a poster il-lustrating my topic and results atthe end of the summer and wasable to continue work on this pro-ject through the fall semester.

As an undergraduate, I have alsoserved as a TA for two courses,Molecular Cell Biology and Princi-ples of Genetics. I thoroughly en-joyed both my research andteaching experiences at the UofR.These experiences have given methe ability and the confidence tomove on to the next step. Nextyear, I will begin working towardsa Ph.D. at the University of Vir-ginia.

Rebecca Schlissermann (BEB)

Not knowing exactly what careerin biology I liked, I pursued a di-verse range of activities within andoutside of Rochester. In summer2001, I took a six week AquaticEntomology course at Stone Labo-ratory, a field station of Ohio StateU. The next summer, 2002, Iworked as a research assistantwith Dr. Tom Getty of MichiganState U. I spent my days hangingout in a stream labeling Calopteryxmaculata, the black winged damsel-fly. Dr. Getty’s previous graduate


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student had found a correlationbetween body fat and color of thedamselflies so we followed up thatstudy by trying to see if colormade an impact on mating suc-cess. Back in Rochester I pursuedan independent study in Dr.Jaenike's lab.

This past summer I had an intern-ship with the Erie County ForensicLaboratory. I spent a lot of time inthe biology department, but alsoworked in the chemistry lab, fire-arms division, and fingerprint lab.Forensic science appealed to me asa practical use for biology. I'mlooking forward to starting mymaster’s degree in forensic sciencenext fall at Virginia Common-wealth University.

Marjorie Waterman (BCD)

Since my degree requirementswere completed in December 2003,I have decided to take the Springsemester to work in the NeonatalIntensive Care Unit (NICU) atStrong Memorial Hospital. Iwanted to learn more about pa-tients, medications and hospitalpractice before I attend medicalschool in the fall. I have also beenconducting research on age-relatedhearing loss (presbycusis) in thelab of Robert D. Frisina, Ph.D. Ofparticular interest to our researchgroup is gene regulation in micehaving presbycusis. In February, Ipresented a poster at the annualmeeting of the Association for Re-search in Otolaryngology (ARO) inDaytona. My findings were sig-nificant in that a particular path-way in the degradation of theauditory pathway was further de-

fined. In the summer of 2002, Iobtained my EMT-B license andhave been working with MERTsince. I have also volunteered inthe pediatric in-patient unit atStrong, as well as at BertrandChaffee Hospital in Springville,NY. As a sophomore I worked as astudy group leader for MolecularCell Biology and as a junior was anOrganic Chemistry I workshopleader. I have been employed inthe office of Ruth A. Lawrence,MD since freshman year main-taining a database on human lac-tation and the factors that influ-ence a mother's decision to breast-feed. Since December, I have alsobeen working closely with Dr.Lawrence editing the sixth editionof her textbook, Breastfeeding: Aguide for the Medical Profession.

de Kiewiet Research Fellowships Awarded to Eight UPBMMajors for Summer 2004

Eight undergraduates majoring in four of the B.S. tracks of the Undergraduate Program in Biology andMedicine (UPBM) have been awarded de Kiewiet Research Fellowships for the summer of 2004. The de KiewietFellowships were established in 1983 in memory of former UR president C.W. de Kiewiet. Every year since thenthey have provided the opportunity for UPBM undergraduates to spend the summer doing research full time.This year each Fellow will receive a stipend of $3,000 for ten weeks of research in the laboratory of a Universityresearcher as well as a housing stipend.

Listed below are the recipients of the 2004 de Kiewiet Summer Research Fellowships, their projects andtheir mentors.

Max Banko, BMG major, class of 2005, has knownhe wanted a career in science since elementary school.While a high school student his career plans were con-firmed when he did a fulltime summer research in-ternship at Pacific Northwest National Laboratories.As a UR junior Max has already achieved a stellaracademic record as well as gaining extensive labora-tory experience. During the summer of 2003 he had aGEBS internship to do research in Dr. Elaine Sia’s Bi-ology Department lab and has continued that work asformal Independent Research during the year. Takinghis research forward this summer, Max will be work-ing on “Synthetic lethality screen for proteins that ge-netically interact with the mitochondrial DNA polym-erase, Mip1p.”

Steven Chan, BBC major, class of 2005, thoughthis career goal was to become a doctor until he tookMolecular Biology, the first course in which he studiedoriginal experiments and learned how data is inter-preted and experimental design tested. Through dis-cussions with his instructor he found his way to the

lab of Dr. David Goldfarb in the Biology Departmentwhere he has been doing a semester of IndependentResearch laying the foundation for this summer’sproject. Steve will be exploring “Multiple translocationpathways across the nuclear pore complex.”

Patrick Corey, BEB major, class of 2005, hadteaching experience TAing Bio 110, 111 and 111L be-fore he got involved in research. Pat began his journeyinto the realm of research last November when he ap-proached Dr. Jim Fry of the Biology Department aboutdoing an Independent Research project in his lab. Pat’sstrong interest in evolution led him to choose a projecton the relationship between adaptation and reproduc-tive isolation in Drosophila melanogaster. The excite-ment generated by this project has led Pat to decide tocombine his interest in medicine with his new foundinterest in research and to aim at earning anMD/Ph.D. His de Kiewiet project is “Ethanol inducedresponses of Drosophila species.”

(Continued on page 17)


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Long, Successful Career in Biology ResearchGrew From a College Major in Physics

Stan Hattman, Ph.D. Reflects on Stan Hattman

How did a nice boy from Brooklyn end upspending more than half his life doing sci-ence/teaching at the University of Rochester? Could Ihave been subliminally drawn by the name Rochester,having grown up one city block from Rochester Ave-nue. I attended an all boys high school, BrooklynTechnical H. S. and, despite having a highly sci-ence/technical oriented curriculum, I never took abiology course. After graduating in 1956, I startedCCNY as a physics major (math minor). My newcommute was over an hour each way, so I gave upvarsity swimming and concentrated on the books.Since 5 credit courses met 5 days a week there waslittle breathing room. Despite doing very well, in mysohomore year I became disenchanted with physics.(Advanced Mechanics tended to have that effect onstudents.) I still didn’t dream of switching majors.Then in the fall of my junior year I had an epiphany. Itwas in my first biology course—what was to be a yearlong, mindless exercise in memory/taxonomy. Evenworse, the fall bio lab started at 8:00 am which meant Ihad to leave home at 6:30 am. I still remember thelonely, freezing winter walks in the dark to the sub-way—made spooky by my footsteps echoing in theempty streets, or the sounds of snow crunching undermy boots.

What was this epiphany? It came during oneof the first dissection exercises; viz. the earthworm. It’sembarrassing to admit, but I confess—I was blownaway when I discovered all that ‘stuff’ inside. Wow, Iwas so naïve that I was expecting a hollow tube. Biol-ogy suddenly became interesting. Now, was theresome way I could apply physics to biology? I didn’tknow, but it seemed like a viable notion. I played withthat idea for some time and then I discovered that oneof the CCNY physics faculty members was reputed tobe a ‘biophysicist’. After I visited with him he agreedto mentor me in an independent study course in thecoming spring semester. He did this by farming meout to a cancer research lab at the Francis DelafieldHospital. Having had little meaningful biology and noorganic chemistry, all I did was shave the hind quar-ters of mice so that (un)irradiated tumor tissue couldbe injected, practice pipetting, and watch/talk withthe lab folk. Halfway through the semester I was in-formed that in order to get college credit for thecourse, I would have to write a term paper. Uh-oh!!Since I had nothing substantive to show for my ‘work,’my mentor gave me a choice of topics: radiation effectson bacteria or radiation effects on viruses. Virusessounded ‘sexier’, so I chose the latter. In 1959, the lit-erature was limited, but there was enough to occupy

me. I could even apply target theory and use somesimple differential equations in my paper which Iprinted by hand because I did not type.

The approach of summer demanded an im-portant decision. After working six years as a life-guard, I now decided to pass that up for a position inthe clinical radio-iodine lab at Sloan-Kettering Institute(arranged by my mentor). After one week, I had mas-tered all there was to learn, so in my spare time I be-gan hunting all around the building to see what elsewas going on. It was my good fortune to find a smallgroup doing X-ray inactivation studies on bacterio-phage and phage-infected cells. I could not have beenhappier and I went there at every opportunity. Istarted reading original journal articles and discoveredthe recently published book, Bacteriophages, by MarkAdams which I still have on my shelf. I decided thatphage research was what I wanted to do and I ar-ranged another independent study, but at Sloan-Kettering with the phage group. My time was dividedbetween courses on campus and research on the so-


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called ‘oxygen effect’ on phage-infected cells, a highersensitivity to X-irradiation damage in the presence ofoxygen vs nitrogen. As a footnote, my data was subse-quently published, but I was neither co-author noreven acknowledged for doing the experiments. Nomatter, I was still thrilled to see my data in print.

With the fall semester drawing to an end, Ihad to begin thinking about graduate schools. Severalhad programs in biophysics, including MIT and JohnsHopkins University. From my reading Bacteriophages,the leading workers were readily identified by havingthe largest numbers of citations in the Bibliography.By chance, one of them, Salvador E. Luria, later a No-bel Prize recipient, had recently moved to MIT. One ofmy buddies had known him at U. Illinois, Urbana, andsaid he was a great guy. This seemed like a great con-figuration of the stars; so, with the blessing of myCCNY and Sloan Kettering mentors, I applied to MITover Thanksgiving break. Surprisingly, before the newyear, I received their acceptance. And so it was thatmy fate was decided.

Within weeks of arriving at MIT, I switched tothe Microbiology track. Deep down I had known allalong that I had no more interest in physics or bio-physics. Still it was necessary to pay the price forhaving had such a weak background. Now I had totake the undergraduate courses in Biochemistry, Ge-netics, Physical Chemistry and Organic Chemistry.There were no lab rotations at that time. So in thesummer of ’61, I attended the Cold Spring HarborSymposium on Gene Regulation and stayed on to takethe Bacterial Genetic lab course along with a dozen orso post-docs and seasoned scientists. One of the par-ticipants was Heinrich Matthei, whose name is proba-bly unknown to everyone still reading this. Duringone afternoon break, I remember him describing hisresearch to a group of fellow students, all of whomseemed excited by his account. I glanced at the writingon the blackboard and sniffed, “Oh, biochemistry,”and I looked away. What Heinrich was relating washis ground-breaking post-doctoral work on in vitropoly U-directed polyphenylalanine synthesis. To thisday, I am embarrassed—and miffed that Heinrich didnot share the Nobel Prize with his mentor MarshallNirenberg.

I returned to MIT and started research in theLuria lab. I worked on two projects that hit dead ends.Although we did publish a NOTE on one of them,there was no real thesis project in sight. A year later, inthe summer of ‘62, I spent time in Geneva, Switzer-land, working in the lab of Werner Arber (later , also aNobel Prize recipient) on the transfer of phage l host-specificity through successive growth cycles in differ-ent hosts. This experience convinced me that I had tostudy the host-specificity phenomenon which hadbeen discovered by Luria working with phage T2. Af-ter returning to MIT I pushed to drop my old project,and Salva finally agreed. Ten years earlier Luria cameupon an E. coli B strain which he designated B/4o. Itwas isolated during the selection of phage T4-resistant

variants. These mutants fell into two phenotypicclasses: resistant only to T4, and resistant to phages T3,T4 and T7. Surprisingly, a single growth cycle ofphage T2 in B/4o (but not B/4) yielded a modifiedform, designated T*2, that had lost the ability to infectall E. coli B and K12 strains, hence the name “host-induced-modification”. However, T*2 phage was ableto infect a related enteric bacterium, strain Sh of Shig-ella dysenteriae.

I began by checking out all the bacterial strainsthat I would be working with. Since the Luria lab usedagar media with various sugars and dyes, I decided tostreak out my cultures on these plates in order to ex-amine their carbohydrate utilization abilities. I was notsurprised to see that B/4o was gal-, while the parental Band mutant B/4 were gal+. I thought, OK, differentreceptors were affected by the B/4 vs. B/4o mutations,and these might require different carbohydrate-utilization capabilities. It had no special significance tome, and I just made a mental note of the observation.To confirm the production of T*2, I carried out a one-step growth experiment in E. coli strain B/4o, moni-toring progeny phage titers on different host strains.Everything went as expected; the very next day, To-shio Fukasawa arrived from Japan. As I was thinkingabout what I should do next, he began informally de-scribing his research to my bench neighbor. Interestedin galactose metabolism, Toshio had isolated andcharacterized the enzymatic defect in each of a num-ber of E. coli K12 gal- mutants. One such gal- strain[W4597] behaved strangely. When he infected it withphage T4, although the cells lysed at the normal time,they did not appear to produce progeny phage; i. e.,there was no apparent increase in phage titer whenassayed on E. coli K12 or B strains. BINGO!!! It wassuddenly all clear to me, and I burst into their conver-sation that I had just solved both his problem and theT*2 mystery. At this point, I should mention thatphage T2 (as well as T4 and T6) DNA is highly un-usual. First, all the cytosine residues are replaced by 5-hydroxymethylcytosine [hmCyt]. Moreover, theseresidues are glucosylated [by phage-induced gluco-syltransferases] to produce hmCyt-glucose. As itturned out, Toshio’s odd W4597 gal- mutant strain wasdefective for UDPG-pyrophosphorylase, an enzymeinvolved in the synthesis of UDP-glucose. This cellularmetabolite was the glucosyl donor for the phage glu-cosyltransferases. Thus, I predicted that strain B/4o gal-

had the same enzyme defect as W4597, that T*2 DNAlacked glucose, that gal+ revertants from B/4o wouldnot produce T*2 phage, and that T4 grown in W4597would have a normal titer if plated on Shigella Sh (i. e.,it would have a T*4 phenotype). Within a month, allthese predictions were corroborated, and my “thesisproblem” was no longer a problem. Talk about beingin the right place at the right time!

We published these results, which representedthe first case where the chemical basis of a host-induced modification had been elucidated. It would betwo more years before W. Arber showed that DNA


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methylation was involved in host-induced-modification of phage l. However, DNA methylation,not glucosylation, was the more general mechanismfor conferring host specificity, as well as playing a rolein a wide variety of other biological functions. Well,that was more than 40 years ago. I’ve done a lot of sci-ence since then, but all subsequent discoveries cameafter considerable effort. Nothing occurred with thelightning insight I experienced on that fateful day in1962, although my love of phage never diminished inall the years. At Rochester I’ve had basically two inde-pendent careers: one was studying regulation of gene

expression (transcriptional and translation regulationof the mom operon in bacteriophage Mu); the otherwas devoted to study of the enzymes that mediateDNA methylation in prokaryotes and lower eukaryo-tes and their biological function(s). I can say withsome (im)modesty that I’ve made good contributionsto both fields. Now, although I will be hanging up myprofessional garb on July 1, that will not be true of mylab coat. So, see you around Hutch.

(That is if he’s not spending more time with histwo new grandchildren.)

Meet the newest Hattman grand-children—Rebecca’s son AndrewConlin Spencer (4 1/2 months inthe picture) and Ursula’s sonGavin Winter Suskin (2 weeks oldin the picture).

________________________________________________________

(de Kiewiet Summer Fellows continued from p. 14)Brandi Davis, BBC major, class of 2005, spent 40

hours a week one summer coordinating an interna-tional conference on Heme Oxygenase for Dr. MahinMaines while at the same time volunteering in the labof Dr. Jeffrey Hayes in Biochemistry and Biophysics.She began working with Physarum polycephalum, aslime mold, trying to find DNA sequence information.All that was in pursuit of her desire since the age of 6or 7 to be a scientist when she “grew up.” She has beena TA for BIO 111, BIO 111L and CHM 131L along theway and found that teaching these courses helped herto re-evaluate her own research work. All this has ledto her de Kiewiet project “Generation of a cDNA li-brary and identification of histone H1 clone from Phy-sarum polycephalum.” Brandi hopes to enter a Ph.D.program and eventually both to teach and to do re-search at a University.

Vanessa Franco, BNS major, class of 2005, didsummer research in an Environmental ProtectionAgency Program at the University of Cincinnati whileshe was still in high school. Just before graduatingfrom high school Vanessa contacted a few researchersat UR and came up with an offer to work in Dr. MarcSchieber’s lab her freshman year. She has stayed therefor two and a half years including two summers. Her

de Kiewiet project, “Determining the variation in post-spike effects during errors,” has grown out of her ex-periences there. Vanessa is interested in the possibilityof entering an MD/Ph.D. program.

Andrew Hart, BNS major, class of 2005, cameto UR with the intention of studying the mind and thebrain from a biological perspective. He worked foreight months as a laboratory assistant in one lab in theCenter for Aging and Developmental Biology andthen spent three summer months doing research in aneighboring laboratory. Last January he began an In-dependent Research project with Dr. Kathy Nordeenin the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences. Itis this project, “The role of dopamine in avian vocallearning” that he will expand during his de Kiewietsummer.

Jason Moore, BNS major, class of 2005, has along list of activities: TA for BCS 200 Statistics and Ex-perimental Design and for the NSC 203 Laboratory inNeurobiology, tutor in the College Writing Program,Business Manager and Primary Science editor forJournal of Undergraduate Research. For a career Jasonis interested in the effect that scientific research canhave on the field of medicine, especially in discoveringtreatments for diseases. He hopes “to translate clinicalobservation into scientific hypotheses and scientific


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research into clinical treatments” and will pursue anMD/Ph.D. to reach that end. His de Kiewiet researchproject will be done in the laboratory of Dr. James Isonin the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences.The title is “Effects of aging in mice and humans ongap detection for within- and between-channel fre-quency signals.”

Julie Sullivan, BEB major, class of 2005, con-siders herself lucky to have had the opportunity to doresearch last summer in the GEBS program at UR be-cause she has been able to continue her project in thelaboratory of Dr. John Jaenike in the Biology depart-

ment beyond the summer. That study, on levels of re-inforcement in D. recens and D. subquinaria, has culmi-nated in a paper for Evolution on which Julie will be aco-author. The focus of her de Kiewiet project, whileinvolving Drosophila, as did her summer of 2003 re-search and that of her fall semester, will be slightlydifferent from her original project. This summer’sproject is “Behavioral ecology in Drosophila innubilaand Drosophila recens” which involves behavioralstudies of Drosophila mating. Julie plans to go tograduate school and make a career out of research inevolution and ecology.

CongratulationsAwards and Grants

Marty Gorovsky has been made a Fellow of theAmerican Academy of Microbiology.

Naina Phadnis was chosen by the University to re-ceive the Edward Peck Curtis Award for Excellence inTeaching by a Graduate Student. She received $500 forher outstanding teaching efforts and the Departmentreceived $250 to improve undergraduate course mate-rials or laboratory equipment.

Qun Yu has been awarded a Messersmith Fellowship.This prestigious fellowship, which the Universityawards to only one or two outstanding graduate stu-dents in the sciences each year, will contribute oneyear of support to Qun's graduate stipend. Qun is

studying chromatin boundary elements that definedomains of gene expression in the yeast model organ-ism. Qun is advised by Xin Bi.

John Jaenike has been awarded an NSF grant for 2003through 2006 for his project “Evolutionary ecology ofmale-killing Wolbachia in Drosophila innubila”.

Robert L Minckley was awarded a grant of $45,000for his project “Borderland ecosystem effects of theinvasive plant saltcedar to a keystone ecological proc-ess” by Center of Environmental Research & Policyeffective 1 June 2004- 30 May 2005.

Births

Xiaoyun and Junqiang Ye are the proud parents of agirl, Jenny Zixuan. Jenny was born on Saturday, Feb-ruary 28, weighing 6 lbs. 15 oz. She was 20 1/2 incheslong. Junqiang is a graduate student in the Eickbushlab.

Amit and Sonia are proud parents of a boy, JoshuaMark Fernandes. Joshua was born on Friday, March 5

weighing 7 lbs. He was 19 3/4 inches long. SoniaD’Silva is a graduate student in the Miller lab.

Adam and Rebecca Mason are the proud parents ofLaura Alice Mason born March 31, 2004, weighing 6lbs. 9 oz. and 19 inches long. Adam Mason is a post-doc in the Goldfarb lab.

Other

Jack Werren is promoting the full genome sequencingof Nasonia, an emerging model system for studies ofcomplex genetic traits. A full genome sequence willmake positional cloning of genes more practical. ThisMay the NSF Frontiers in Integrative Biological Re-search (FIBR) group on Biology of Wolbachia is meetingoutside Tucson, Arizona, to coordinate the use of Wol-bachia in research and education. Jack Werren, John

Jaenike and Cathy Westbrook are organizing thismeeting.

On the non-science front, Jody LaRose is happy to re-port that Sunshine, her Shetland Sheepdog, has earnedher Novice Agility titles in both "Standard" and"Jumpers with Weaves" AKC dog agility competition.

Class of 2003 Choose Permanent Labs

Five graduate students completing their first year havebeen assigned to the labs in which they will do theirdoctoral research. Chun Chen will do her work in

Bradford Berk’s lab in the Department of Medicine;Lu Gao has chosen Robert Bambara’s lab in the De-partment of Biochemistry & Biophysics; Rhitoban Ray


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Choudhury has joined Jack Werren’s lab in the De-partment of Biology; Deborah Stage and Jun Zhouwill be working with Tom Eickbush in the Department

of Biology. Susan Elizondo will do a fourth rotationwith Xin Bi in Biology.

Arrivals and Departures

Molly Saweikis is the new Lab Tech in Jim Fry’s labo-ratory. Molly earned a BS in Biotechnology at RIT in2002. Her interests are rock climbing, Brazilian jiu-jitsuand pets.

Hong Qin, Ph.D. will be a visiting professor in theGoldfarb lab with the title of Assistant Professor,Center for Aging and Developmental Biology. Dr. Qincomes from a postdoc position at the University ofChicago.

Robert Gromadka began his postdoctoral studies inJanuary of 2004 in the Gorovsky lab. He received hisPh.D. from The Institute of Biochemistry and Bio-physics PAS (Poland). Robert will analyze the functionof RNA-dependent RNA polymerase in DNA elimi-nation. Robert’s hobbies are reptile breeding and cre-ating stained glass. When not in the lab, Robert likes toroller skate with his friends. In Poland, he spendsmuch time in a stable and horseback riding.

Tomoko Noto joined the Gorovsky lab as a postdoc inFebruary, 2004. She received her Ph.D. from Kana-zawa University in 2003. Tomoko’s research projectwill focus on the functional study of TWI gene familyin Tetrahymena. Besides research, she likes readingbooks and snowboarding.

Paul Cheresh joined the Gorovsky lab in April of 2004.Paul received his Ph.D. from Northwestern University

in 2003. As a postdoctoral fellow, Paul will study therole of gamma tubulin in the biogenesis and regula-tion of centriole/basal body formation in Tetrahymena.When not studying the lower eukaryotes, Paul likes torun with the Genesee Valley Harriers. His other inter-ests include yoga, photography, the histories of sci-ence and architecture, ethnic food and conversation.

The Gorovsky lab will miss their hard working under-graduate students, Cornelia Zorca and Mark O'Hara,who will graduate in May.

Michael Clark will be a Postdoctoral Fellow in thelabs of Jack Werren and John Jaenike. He will beworking on several projects on interactions betweenWolbachia and their insect hosts. Michael has been do-ing a post-doc with Tim Karr at the University of Chi-cago.

Cathy Westbrook is a new Laboratory technician inthe Werren Lab. She received a B.A. in Biology in 1996,from the University of California, Berkeley, and anM.S. in Entomology in 2003, from Cornell University.Cathy is engaged to Bill Turechek, a plant pathologistat Cornell. She is the owner of a 12 year old puppydog named Leibniz. Cathy likes to play soccer and tocook.

Laura Baldo, visiting scientist in the Werren lab, hasreturned to her home institution, U. Milan, Italy.

Off Campus

James Fry was an invited speaker at the Symposiumon Comparative Biology of Ethanol Consumption, So-ciety for Integrative and Comparative Biology in NewOrleans, LA, January 6-8, 2004. The title of his talkwas "Ethanol tolerance in Drosophila: evolutionary andecological genetics." At the Gordon Conference onPlant-Herbivore Interactions in Ventura, CA, March 2-5, 2004, Jim’s talk was "Towards an evolutionary ge-netic understanding of host specialization in insects".

Dave Goldfarb spoke on autophagy of the nucleusand cell death in yeast at, the Department of Anatomyand Structural Biology, Einstein College of Medicine,12/10/03 and the Biology Department, University ofNorth Carolina, Asheville, 4/26/04.

Marty Gorovsky gave an invited talk at a Meeting ofthe French Society of Protistology in Montpellier,France on May 12. The title of his talk is “The role ofRNAi in genome rearrangement in Tetrahymena”. OnMay 17 Marty will give an invited talk at the NASSackler Colloquium on Biology of RNAi in Washing-

ton, DC. The title of his talk is “Small RNAs in genomerearrangement in Tetrahymena”.

Stan Hattman performed with Afrikuumba, the Afri-can Dance and Drum Ensemble, at Monroe Commu-nity College during its International Day celebrationon April 28.

John Jaenike spoke at an invited seminar at PennState.

Robert Minckley gave a talk on “Evolutionary andecological consequences of floral exploitation by spe-cialist bees” at Cornell University on February 9, 2004and at Brock University on January 24.

Allen Orr gave a seminar at The College of Williamand Mary, Department of Biology, in February, 2004.In March he gave the Plenary Lecture at the Mecha-nisms of adaptation, genetic differentiation and spe-ciation meeting, Tutzing, Germany, "Population ge-netic theories of adaptation." In April, Allen gave the


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Lecture to Staff Scientists at National Institutes ofHealth, National Institute of General Medical Scienceson "The genetics of speciation in Drosophila" and at theCarnegie Institution of Washington, Department ofEmbryology, 26th Annual Mini-Symposium (Topic:Evolution), he spoke on "The genetics of speciation inDrosophila."

Louise Vanni and Kathy Giardina attended an NSFRegional Grants Conference held at Columbia Univer-sity March 15-16, 2004. The conference offered severalgeneral and specific sessions led by top officials fromNSF. Louise and Kathy attended sessions on BiologicalSciences and Grant award and Administrative issues.Jean Feldman, Policy Office head, Office of Budget,Finance and Award Management, Division of Grantsand Agreements, gave an outstanding presentation.Other topics covered were: NSF overview, proposal

preparation, merit review, and challenges and oppor-tunities and new directions.

Jack Werren spoke at the following seminars and con-ferences: Seminar on Organismic and EvolutionaryBiology, U. Mass, 2004; Wolbachia FIBR WorkingGroup Meeting (Organizer); 45th Annual DrosophilaMeetings Workshop;conference on Genetics of Non-Drosophilid Insects (Co-Organizer & Speaker); semi-nar at Baylor Human Genome Center, “Using haploidgenetics in a complex eukaryote: Nasonia as an emerg-ing model system"; conference speaker at KeystoneMeeting Genetic Variation in Model Organisms; semi-nar at NYU, Biotic Resources: Integrating Development,Genetics, Evolution, and Systematics Program; seminarat Department of Entomology, U. Mass, “Plant gameto-phytes: evolution, development and function; openinglecture, Ascona, Switzerland, 2nd Nasonia Workshop,Schiermonnikoog, Netherlands.

Recent Publications

Eickbush

Christensen S, T.H. Eickbush. 2004.Footprint of the retrotransposonR2Bm protein on its target site be-fore and after cleavage. J Mol Biol.Mar 336(5):1035-45.

Bibillo A, T.H. Eickbush T.H. 2004.End-to-end template jumping bythe reverse transcriptase encodedby the R2 retrotransposon. J BiolChem. 279(15):14945-53.

Fry

Fry, J.D. 2004. How common areoverdominant mutations? Genetics167 (1): in press.

Fry, J.D. 2004. Estimation of ge-netic variances and covariances byRestricted Maximum Likelihood.In A. Saxton, editor, Genetic Analy-sis of Complex Traits with SAS. SASBooks for Users Series, SAS Insti-tute, Cary, NC., in press.

Fry, J.D. 2004. On the rate andlinearity of viability declines inDrosophila mutation-accumulationexperiments: genomic mutationrates and synergistic epistasis re-visited. Genetics 166:797-806.

Fry, J.D. 2003. Multilocus modelsof sympatric speciation: Bush vs.

Rice vs. Felsenstein. Evolution57:1735–1746.

Fry, J.D. 2003. Detecting ecologicaltrade-offs using selection experi-ments. Ecology 84:1672–1678.

Fry, J.D. and S.V. Nuzhdin. 2003.Dominance of mutations affectingviability in Drosophila melanogaster.Genetics 163:1357-1364.

Messina, F.J., and J.D. Fry. 2003.Environment-dependent reversalof a life history trade-off in theseed beetle Callosobruchus macula-tus. Journal of Evolutionary Biol-ogy 16:501-509.

Goldfarb

Strawn, L.A., T. Shen, N. Shulga,D.S. Goldfarb and S.R. Wente.2004. Minimal nuclear pore com-plexes: Genomic strategy definesFG repeat domains essential fortransport. Nature Cell Biol. 6:197-206.

Jarolim, S., J. Millen, G. Heeren, P.Laun, D.S. Goldfarb and M. Bre-itenbach. A novel assay for repli-cative lifespan in Saccharomycescerevisiae . FEMS Yeast Res, inpress.

Kvam, E. and D.S. Goldfarb. Nvj1pis the nuclear receptor for oxys-

terol binding protein Osh1p in Sac-charomyces cerevisiae. J. Cell Science,submitted.

Patent Pending: Materials andmethods for identifying genesand/or agents that alter replicativelifespan. Filed as U.S. Serial No.10/790, 456 on March 1, 2004.

Gorovsky

Mochizuki, K. and M.A. Gorovsky.2004. Small RNAs in genome rear-rangement in Tetrahymena. Curr.Opin. Genet. Dev. 14:181-187.

Hattman

Hattman, S. and E.G. Malygin.2004. Bacteriophage T2 and T4D a m D N A - ( N 6 - a d e n i n e ) -methyltransferases. Prog. Nucl.Acid Res. & Mol. Biol. 77: 67-126,in press.

Jaenike

Dombeck, I. and J. Jaenike. 2004.Ecological genetics of abdominalpigmentation in Drosophila falleni.Evolution 58: 587-596.

Shoemaker, D.D., K.A. Dyer, M.Ahrens, L. Sheill, C. Militzer, and J.Jaenike. 2003. Molecular evolu-tionary effects of Wolbachia infec-tions: decreased diversity but in-


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creased substitution rate in hostmtDNA. Genetics, submitted.

Dyer, K.A. and J. Jaenike. 2004.Evolutionarily stable infection by amale-killing endosymbiont: Mo-lecular evidence from the host andparasite genomes. Genetics, sub-mitted.

Minckley

Minckley, R.L, J.H Cane, L Kervinand D. Yanega. 2003. Biologicalimpediments to measures of com-petition among introduced honeybees and desert bees (Hymenoptera:Apiformes). Journal of the KansasEntomological Society 76: 306-319.

Minckley, R.L and T.H Roulston.2004. Incidental mutualisms andpollen specialization among bees.In, N.M. Waser and J. Ollerton(eds.) Specialization and generaliza-tion in plant-pollinator mutualisms.Univ. of Chicago Press.

Orr

Coyne, J.A. and H.A. Orr. Specia-tion. 2004 Sinauer Associates, Sun-derland, MA. 480 pp.

Orr, H.A. 2004. The probability ofparallel speciation. Proc. Natl.Acad. Sci. USA, submitted.

Orr, H.A. 2004. A passion for evo-lution (review of A Devil's Chap-lain: Reflections on Hope, Lies, Sci-ence, and Love by RichardDawkins). The New York Reviewof Books, February 26, 2004, pp.27-29.

Werren

Werren, J.H. 2003. Invasion of theGender Benders. Natural History112:58-63.

Baldo, L., J.D. Bartos, J.H. Werren,C.. Bazzocchi, M. Casiraghi and S.Panelli. 2003. Different rates ofnucleotide substitutions inWolbachia from arthropods andnematodes: arms race or hostrange? Parasitologia 44: 179-187.

Baudry, E., K. Emerson, T. Whit-worth and J.H. Werren. 2003. Wol-bachia and genetic variability in thebirdnest blowfly Protocalliphorasialia. Molecular Ecology 12:1843-1854.

Bordenstein, S.R., J.J. Uy and J.H.Werren. 2003. Host genotype de-termines Wolbachia cytoplasmicincompatibility type in Nasonia.Genetics 164:223-233.

M. Lachmann, N.W. Blackstone, D.Haig, A. Kowald, R.E. Michod, E.Szathmáry, J.H. Werren, and L.Wolpert. 2003. Cooperation andconflict in the evolution of ge-nomes, cells, and multicellular or-ganisms. In Genetic and CulturalEvolution of Cooperation. DahlemConference Publications, Berlin,GE.

Bordenstein, S.R., D.H.A. Fitch andJ.H. Werren. 2003. Absence of Wol-bachia in Nonfilariid Nematodes. J.Nematol. 35(3):266-270.

McAllister, B.F., L.W. Beukeboomand J.H. Werren. 2004. Site-specificmapping of the paternal-sex-ratio(PSR) chromosome. Heredity 92(1): 5-13.

Werren, J.H. 2004. Heritable mi-croorganisms and reproductiveparasitism., New York.

Velthuis, B.J., W. Yang, T. vanOpijnen and J.H. Werren. 2004.Intra-specific variation in sexualisolation: Genetics of female matediscrimination in Nasonia longico-rnis (Darling) (Hymenoptera,Pteromalidae). Animal Behavior,in press.

Documents

May 2004 Volume 19, Number 2 THE NONSENSE SUPPRESSOR · Dr. Thomas Eickbush, Professor of Biology and Department Chair, ... Number 2 The Nonsense Suppressor May, 2004 2 The Department