Katy Augustyn ’01 inaugurated the Wesleyan Women In Science (WesWIS) program this year with a lecture delivered on Friday. Augustyn, now a graduate student at the California Institute of Technology (Cal Tech), presented five years’ worth of research that combined aspects of organic chemistry, biophysics, and molecular biology in DNA charge transfer.
“Overall, we’re interested in the effect [that charge transfer has] on biological functions and the regulation of certain pathways,” Augustyn said, citing DNA repair and cell cycle arrest as potential targets.
Augustyn described the mechanisms of DNA charge transport, a process that occurs naturally and could be used by researchers to help reverse damage caused by oxidation. Charging DNA changes its structure and this shift, Augustyn said, could potentially be manipulated in such a way as to regulate DNA binding proteins.
Augustyn indicated protein P53 as especially promising. Often labeled the “guardian of the genome,” P53 functions as a tumor suppressor. Augustyn said that researching the protein in conjunction with charge transfer raises the ultimate possibility of cancer prevention.
“We’re looking at regulating P53 activity and its differential sequence affinity as a function of charge transport,” Augustyn said.
Augustyn followed her presentation with reflections on life after the University as a graduate student. With a B.S. in both organic chemistry and biochemistry from the University, Augustyn said that she was nevertheless surprised by the amount of independence expected of research students at Cal Tech. “No one’s going to be there to hold your hand—it’s intense,” Augustyn said. “It wasn’t easy, but you get through it.”
Augustyn hopes to graduate from Cal Tech this coming May.
WesWIS is a student-led group that was established in the early ’90s.
“[It aims to help women] support each other in fields where they might feel in the minority or marginalized, coming from a culture that does not encourage girls as much as boys to enter those fields,” said Visiting Associate Professor of Biology and Faculty Advisor to WesWIS Laurel Appel.
Appel said that she is proud of the influence WesWIS has had on campus.
“I was surprised to learn, at [a lecture in the series last year] that merely having an active and visible Women in Science group on a campus increased the likelihood that women from that campus would go on to higher levels in science education or careers, whether they had even attended any meetings,” Appel said.
“It’s good to see a female role model in the upper levels of science,” said attendee Linden Brown ’09. “The importance [of WesWIS] is different for different people, and it might help me decide what to major in.”
WesWIS aims to schedule events once monthly, usually arranging for women scientists who speak in science or math department seminar series to meet for discussions. The program’s website can be found at www.wesleyan.edu/wis.
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