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Research across the world

By Kari VanDerVeen
December 18, 2007

Economies are global. Healthcare is global. And science is global. As St. Olaf students prepare to make use of their new Science Complex next fall, it's interesting to consider how -- with all the global projects they're working on already -- the new facility and its programs will only enhance their St. Olaf experience.

Four students who recently worked with international researchers associated with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) are already doing the kind of work the Science Complex is designed to nurture.

The program, funded from a $1.4 million grant St. Olaf received from HHMI in 2004, provides students with the opportunity to work with top-notch researchers while fostering an international scientific workforce, says Associate Dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics Dave Van Wylen '80. "Our students are working with some of the very best researchers in the world," he says.

Kristina Stoermer '08, a biology major with a concentration in biomolecular science, conducted research at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, Australia, examining the immune response to viral infections. Brad Wagenaar '08, a psychology major with a statistics concentration, worked in the protein engineering laboratory of the National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology in Bangkok, Thailand, where he researched the effectiveness of various antimalarial drugs and their ability to hinder the development of drug-resistant mutations.

Mary ("Liz") Welch '08 worked with researchers at Semmelweis University in Budapest, Hungary. There she used quadruple mass spectrometry to study the hydrogen-deuterium exchanges of various proteins. And Jeffrey Teoh '09, a biology major with a neuroscience concentration, conducted research at the University of Basel in Basel, Switzerland, where his work focused on the translocation of bacterial proteins into human epithelial cells.

This was the third year St. Olaf students worked with HHMI's international research scholars, and the current grant from the institute will cover the program for one more summer. The college's application for an additional four-year HHMI grant is pending.

Contact Kari VanDerVeen at 507-786-3970 or vanderve@stolaf.edu.