Biochemistry majors are Hughes Research Scholars
Undergraduate biochemistry students take advantage of Hughes fellows program
Feb. 21, 2011
By Randy Mertens
More than half of this year’s University of Missouri Hughes Research Scholars, four out of seven, are Biochemistry majors.
The Hughes Research Fellowship program is coordinated by the MU Office of Undergraduate Research. Fellows participate in a full calendar year of research, working on life science projects that include computational biology or bioinformatics components. Fellows will also work closely with journalism students to communicate results through a science news portal, SciXchange.
The program centers around a concept called C3 – Collaboration, Computation and Communication. The C3 program offers additional training opportunities for undergraduates throughout the year, including a regional computational biology conference, summer biomedical informatics institute and a science journalism forum.
The students are:
Derek Benham, Junior
Major: Biochemistry
Hometown: Webb City, Mo.
Project topic: Determining the tertiary structure of light harvesting complex using UVRR.
Faculty mentor: Jason Cooley (Chemistry)
Kayla Knuf, Junior
Major: Biochemistry
Hometown: Highland, Ill.
Project topic: Determining & comparing the sensitivity of different technologies in detecting heteroplasmic mitochondrial DNA mutations.
Faculty mentor: William Folk (Biochemistry)
David Kirby, Junior
Major: Biochemistry
Hometown: Columbia, Mo.
Project topic: Enrichment of plant protein through targeted Lysine expression.
Faculty mentor: William Folk (Biochemistry)
Mitchell Padkins, Freshman
Major: Biochemistry
Hometown: Troy, Mo.
Project topic: Using Proteomics to identify proteins that enable cancer cells to metastasize to other tissues.
Faculty mentor: Vladislav Glinskii (Anatomical & Pathological Sciences)
The C3 Program is supported in part by a grant to MU from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute through the Precollege and Undergraduate Science Education Program.