Honored for their work in genetics, Tania Rozario ’05 and Lee Jacobson ’05 won prestigious science awards this summer. Jacobson and Rozario were awarded for their undergraduate research in antigens and yeast respectively.
Rozario received a Pfizer Undergraduate Research Fellowship for her research on ‘gene silencing’ (interrupting or suppressing gene activity) expressed in yeast molecules.
“Yeast is great, though it’s kind of sad that my life is ruled by this unicellular organism,” Rozario said. “Now that we have a couch in our lab, I don’t even go home.”
Rozario displayed some of her findings at the 2004 Yeast Genetics and Molecular Biology Meeting at the University of Washington. Rozario’s dedicated research, guided by her mentor Scott Holmes, associate professor of molecular biology and biochemistry, won her $5,000 to cover research costs over the summer and replace a stolen computer. Rozario is preparing to meet up with other scholarship winners to present her results to Pfizer next week.
Holmes expects Rozario’s research to be published in scientific journals as soon as she establishes herself in the field.
“[Yeast] is a great model organism,” Rozario said. “It’s more closely related to humans than most people think. It’s relatively easier to manipulate compared to, say, mice or human tissue cultures. I think a lot of discoveries are made in yeast that later become models for trial in higher organisms. Gene silencing is becoming a hot topic and, maybe my point of view is biased. But any research that looks at shutting genes off and on contributes to our understanding of how to treat genetic diseases.”
According to Rozario, she has tried various strategies in order to reach success.
“I talk to them a hell of a lot,” Rozario said. “I have theories about the talking actually being beneficial to my research.”
Jacobson took home first prize for his antigen research at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology held in Boston, where he beat 80 undergraduates from universities such as Yale and Cal-Tech. Jacobson’s study of a three-piece antigen involved with DNA replication and repair, is closely related to the study of cancerous growths.
According to Assistant Professor of molecular biology Manju Hingorani, Jacobson’s mentor, Jacobson intends to genetically engineer a “funky protein” that acts identical to the three-piece antigen. This would aid researchers in studying the effects of mutations of the antigen on different proteins in the cell. Both Jacobson and Hingorani are anxiously waiting for the test results within the next few weeks.
Jacobson said he hopes that his and Rozario’s research will draw some attention from the student body towards their respected fields. According to Rozario, Wesleyan’s small science community boasts opportunities that not even bigger doctorate programs offer.
“You don’t feel like your voice is getting lost or that you have to walk around with a sign that reads ‘Don’t hurt me; I’m just an undergraduate,’” she said.
Jacobson also spoke favorably about sciences at the University.
“Most people think that no one does sciences at Wesleyan,” Jacobson said. “I hear tour guides walking through Hall-Atwater saying things like ‘Oh, nobody here does science. It’s mostly social sciences and humanities,’ or ‘Wesleyan doesn’t have a particularly strong or large science program. But some 30 percent of Wesleyan graduates are NSM majors. More than 60 undergrads have been co-authors on scientific publications since 2000.”
Wesleyan boasts $11.5 million in research grants making it the top funded liberal arts school in the nation for sciences.
Leave a Reply