When most people think of a large pharmaceutical company, they imagine either a very wealthy business or a cutting edge research organization. Emily Levy ’06 came into contact with both of these elements during the past six months.

The molecular biology and biochemistry major recently attended a lavish undergraduate conference at Pfizer Inc.’s Groton, Conn. research facility. There, Levy presented a poster on her recent work, which uses olfactory, or smell, receptors as a model for the selective expression of similar genes. The poster marks the culmination of research started last spring, and is a jumping off point for further work in the coming year.

The conference was attended by 40 undergraduate researchers from a variety of fields, as well as their scientific advisors. Each student was selected from a highly competitive pool of applicants based on the merits of comprehensive proposals submitted in March. Winners were awarded a $5000 fellowship to pursue their research goals over the summer.

“It’s a pretty sweet deal,” Levy said.

Over the summer, Levy lived and worked alongside undergrauates funded by Wesleyan’s Hughes Fellowship, which offers students a $3600 stipend. After constructing a preliminary poster design for the culmination of the Hughes program in August, Levy used the following month to fine tune her research and its presentation for the Pfizer conference.

“I spent my entire week [before the conference] on it, instead of doing class work and/or sleeping,” she said.

Levy’s research addresses questions relating to the way in which a single cell chooses which genes to express, and which not to. According to her research proposal, olfactory receptors (OR) are a good model for this, because of the thousands of different types that exist in mammals. This variety is what gives animals the ability to sense subtle differences in smells, as each type of receptor is sensitive to a different chemical stimulant in the environment.

Each olfactory sensory cell carries the genetic code for every possible type of OR. A single cell, however, must express only one out of the thousands of possible genes in order to become adequately specialized. Recent evidence suggests that the process of selecting only one OR gene is partially regulated by interactions between the OR genes and another section of the chromosome, the “H-region,” on which they are located.

Interaction between two sections of a chromosome generally requires the presence of DNA binding proteins. These proteins likely cause the chromosome to loop back on itself. This brings the H-region, which they initially bind, closer to the OR genes, whose expression they regulate. Levy is focusing her research on isolating the proteins that bind to the H-region. This will allow for structural analysis of the proteins, which will in turn give insight into how they work.

This area of research is one part of a greater project on olfactory receptor work being conducted by assistant Professor of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry Robert Lane.

Much of Levy’s work so far has been preliminary, establishing that techniques work and confirming previous findings. Levy said she is happy with the progress so far and the poster she was able to present. The Pfizer representatives she met with were pleased with the result.

“People on the [selection] committee were really happy to finally see the people behind the papers they chose,” Levy said.

Pfizer worked hard to impress and congratulate the undergraduate researchers. Students were flown first class from universities across the nation, and were met by limousines at the airport. Levy declined a flight to the Groton facility from Bradley International Airport, opting instead to drive herself.

The conference was geared towards scientific networking, according to Levy. Students attended a lecture on new research into cancer treatment drugs in the evening. Levy joined the small group of students who had won the award for molecular biology on a tour of labs working in that field.

“The scientists were really into what they were doing,” Levy said. “They also took time out of their own schedules to come meet with us and see what we had worked on.”

While students were also given a talk on the benefits of career paths within the industry, Levy was unimpressed by the less open nature of the research.

“Security was ridiculous,” she said. “It was worse than at an airport. They wouldn’t even let you take a cell phone, because some phones have cameras, which aren’t allowed.”

Levy also noted the contrast between academic science, in which researchers are generally happy to share information, and the Pfizer scientists, who were at times unable to answer specific questions because of secrecy rules regarding data.

For now, Levy is continuing her research in the academic sphere. Her current set of experiments is likely to turn into a senior thesis or an article in a peer-reviewed publication. She is also enjoying the fact that undergraduate researchers at Wesleyan are allowed to keep their own, often unconventional hours, unlike the more rigorous schedule kept within the industry.

“The day [at Pfizer] started with a 6:45 [a.m.] breakfast,” Levy said. “There’s no way I was getting up for that.”