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Students Present Research on Capitol Hill
Students advocate the importance of undergraduate research with the nation's lawmakers
Lake Forest, Ill. -- On April 20, 2004, the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) welcomed 80 undergraduate student researchers from across the nation to Capitol Hill. Lake Forest College students Nijee Sharma ’04 and Isaac Holmes ’05 were among this select group of students advocating the importance of undergraduate research with the nation's lawmakers.
Accompanied by their faculty mentor Assistant Professor of Biology Shubhik DebBurman, Sharma and Holmes met with the congressional aides in the office of Senator Peter Fitzgerald and met with Congressman Mark Kirk. As representatives of the undergraduate research community, and proponents for the value of liberal arts colleges like Lake Forest, they made their request for increased support from lawmakers to boost the level of funding to the National Science Foundation (NSF) and National Institutes of Health (NIH). They also had the opportunity to discuss current issues in science policy.
In an afternoon symposium, students displayed posters summarizing their research to Members of Congress, federal agency officials, and invited guests. In addition to presenting their work to several visitors (from scientific and political backgrounds), Sharma and Holmes met and discussed their work with scientific program directors from both the NIH and NSF, as their work in Professor DebBurman’s lab is funded by these agencies and CUR.
Research
In 2003, Nijee Sharma ’04 was one of four undergraduates nationally to be awarded a Council of Undergraduate Research (CUR) fellowship for her proposed thesis in Professor Shubhik DebBurman’s research lab. She developed further an initial Baker’s yeast model for Parkinson Disease first created by Brandon Johnson ’03 (who is now pursuing his PhD in molecular neuroscience at Stanford University). Through this faculty:student collaborative project, Sharma has contributed exciting new insight into the biology of an important brain protein, alpha-synuclein, whose malfunctioning causes Parkinson’s disease. Even as a junior, Sharma was awarded Third Prize for her preliminary work at the 2003 Chicago Society for Neuroscience Symposium. As a senior, she has presented her progress at the annual Argonne National Labs Undergraduate Research Symposium and at the American Society of Cell Biology’ annual national meeting in December 2003 (San Francisco, CA). She is first-author on a primary research article being submitted for publication by Professor DebBurman this summer. Next fall, she will begin a dual MD/PhD degree at the Loyola Stritch School of Medicine and her PhD studies will focus in the area of neuroscience. Eventually, she hopes to practice medicine and integrate it with biomedical research as a physician scientist.
Isaac Holmes ’05 along with graduating biology senior Samantha England ’04(who will pursue her PhD in biology at the University Of Rochester) has pioneered a fission yeast model for Parkinson’s disease in Professor Shubhik DebBurman’s lab. This faculty:student collaborative work represents the first brain disease to be modeled in this simple, yet powerful, experimental organism. For his thesis next year, Holmes will continue to conduct experiments in this model aimed at understanding how to prevent Parkinson’s disease. For this proposal he has been awarded a prestigious 2004 Parkinson Disease Foundation summer research fellowship open to undergraduates and medical students nationwide (http://www.pdf.org). Holmes was recently also awarded the First Prize, among undergraduate researchers, at the 2004 Chicago Society for Neuroscience Symposium and is preparing for a career in medicine and research after graduation.
Sharma and Holmes have recently each been awarded prestigious 2004 ASBMB Research Travel Fellowships by the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) to present their individual works at this Society’s June 2004 meeting in Boston, Massachusetts.
Lake Forest College is a private, liberal arts institution located 30 miles north of downtown Chicago. The College has 1,300 students representing 46 states and 50 other countries.
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Contact: Irene Ratliff
847-735-6010
ratliff@lakeforest.edu
Accompanied by their faculty mentor Assistant Professor of Biology Shubhik DebBurman, Sharma and Holmes met with the congressional aides in the office of Senator Peter Fitzgerald and met with Congressman Mark Kirk. As representatives of the undergraduate research community, and proponents for the value of liberal arts colleges like Lake Forest, they made their request for increased support from lawmakers to boost the level of funding to the National Science Foundation (NSF) and National Institutes of Health (NIH). They also had the opportunity to discuss current issues in science policy.
In an afternoon symposium, students displayed posters summarizing their research to Members of Congress, federal agency officials, and invited guests. In addition to presenting their work to several visitors (from scientific and political backgrounds), Sharma and Holmes met and discussed their work with scientific program directors from both the NIH and NSF, as their work in Professor DebBurman’s lab is funded by these agencies and CUR.
Research
In 2003, Nijee Sharma ’04 was one of four undergraduates nationally to be awarded a Council of Undergraduate Research (CUR) fellowship for her proposed thesis in Professor Shubhik DebBurman’s research lab. She developed further an initial Baker’s yeast model for Parkinson Disease first created by Brandon Johnson ’03 (who is now pursuing his PhD in molecular neuroscience at Stanford University). Through this faculty:student collaborative project, Sharma has contributed exciting new insight into the biology of an important brain protein, alpha-synuclein, whose malfunctioning causes Parkinson’s disease. Even as a junior, Sharma was awarded Third Prize for her preliminary work at the 2003 Chicago Society for Neuroscience Symposium. As a senior, she has presented her progress at the annual Argonne National Labs Undergraduate Research Symposium and at the American Society of Cell Biology’ annual national meeting in December 2003 (San Francisco, CA). She is first-author on a primary research article being submitted for publication by Professor DebBurman this summer. Next fall, she will begin a dual MD/PhD degree at the Loyola Stritch School of Medicine and her PhD studies will focus in the area of neuroscience. Eventually, she hopes to practice medicine and integrate it with biomedical research as a physician scientist.
Isaac Holmes ’05 along with graduating biology senior Samantha England ’04(who will pursue her PhD in biology at the University Of Rochester) has pioneered a fission yeast model for Parkinson’s disease in Professor Shubhik DebBurman’s lab. This faculty:student collaborative work represents the first brain disease to be modeled in this simple, yet powerful, experimental organism. For his thesis next year, Holmes will continue to conduct experiments in this model aimed at understanding how to prevent Parkinson’s disease. For this proposal he has been awarded a prestigious 2004 Parkinson Disease Foundation summer research fellowship open to undergraduates and medical students nationwide (http://www.pdf.org). Holmes was recently also awarded the First Prize, among undergraduate researchers, at the 2004 Chicago Society for Neuroscience Symposium and is preparing for a career in medicine and research after graduation.
Sharma and Holmes have recently each been awarded prestigious 2004 ASBMB Research Travel Fellowships by the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) to present their individual works at this Society’s June 2004 meeting in Boston, Massachusetts.
Lake Forest College is a private, liberal arts institution located 30 miles north of downtown Chicago. The College has 1,300 students representing 46 states and 50 other countries.
###
Contact: Irene Ratliff
847-735-6010
ratliff@lakeforest.edu
