July 8, 2002

$60,000 Research Award Focuses on Links Between Chemistry, Biology

Boise State University students are gaining a hands-on understanding of the connections between biology and chemistry as a part of a new $60,000 research program funded by the Merck Company Foundation and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

The program provide stipends over a three-year period for selected undergraduate students to work on interdisciplinary research projects with faculty teams from biology and chemistry. Boise State is one of 15 institutions nationwide to receive funding through the program.

“By interacting with faculty from both the biology and chemistry departments on a single project, students will learn the role played, and the language spoken, by the other discipline,” said Martin Schimpf, associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and the program’s principal investigator.

“This experience will allow undergraduate biology and chemistry students to take a giant step into the future, where multidisciplinary teams will become increasingly important to the advancement of scientific knowledge,” he added.

Schimpf, a chemistry professor, is collaborating with biology professor Julia Oxford and student Phuong Doan to study the role a specific type of large molecule called a propeptide may play in molecular structures that lead to retinal detachments and subsequent vision loss among elderly patients.

The project draws on Oxford’s expertise in the structure and function of collagen, a protein involved in a variety of biological structures. The project also draws on Schimpf’s expertise in field-flow fractionation, a separation technique he has developed over the past 15 years that can be used to isolate and study the interaction of molecules.

In Oxford’s lab, Doan will learn to prepare cultures that contain vitreous humor, a collagen structure that holds the eye’s retina in place. Then, in Schimpf’s laboratory, he will use field flow fractionation to study the role of the propeptide in the behavior of those structures. By modifying the cultures in specific ways, the team can then learn about the molecular mechanism that leads to changes in the vitreous humor. That knowledge could help researchers develop a strategy to prevent vision loss where a deteriorating vitreous humor causes retinal detachments.

Students each receive a stipend of $5,000 a year. Other faculty teams include biology professor Steve Novak and chemistry professor Robert Ellis, who are working with students Kevin Hansen and Robert Lefler on genetic studies involving Medusahead Rye, an invasive grass species, and on a project to study the responses of certain plant species capable of growing at mine sites contaminated by heavy metals.

A third faculty team pairs biology professor Marcelo Serpe and chemistry professor Henry Charlier with Boise State student Amber Hibbard. They’ll study the role of certain proteins in the development of plant cells that produce latex. Latex is an important source of natural rubber and also contains many compounds that have potential pharmaceutical use.

The interdisciplinary approach provides unique opportunities for both students and faculty, Schimpf added. “The students benefit by getting involved in team-oriented research, as opposed to research directed by an individual investigator,” he said. “By involving faculty from both chemistry and biology, we’re able to initiate undergraduate research projects that would otherwise be impossible to carry out.”

Contact:
Martin Schimpf
College of Arts and Sciences
426-1414