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'Gene Stream' students co-author journal article

By David Gonnerman '90
May 18, 2008

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Eukaryotic Microbiology co-authors (l-r) Mary Welch '08, Doug Beussman '92, Matthew Majerus '08, Megan Rooney '08 and Eric Cole pose in front of the college's mass spectrometer.
Work within St. Olaf College's National Science Foundation-funded "Gene-Stream" project recently resulted in recognition for St. Olaf students Matthew Majerus '08, Megan Rooney '08 and Mary Welch '08. The three seniors are cited as co-authors of an article featured on the cover of an upcoming issue of the Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology. Other authors of the article, titled "Cloning Fenestrin from the Tetrahymena Nuclear Exchange Junction, a Proteomics Approach," include Ross Fulton '05, Johanna Savage '05, Paul C. Anderson '07 and Amy Wentland '07, as well as principal investigators Douglas Beussman '92 of the chemistry faculty and Eric Cole from biology.

"Being an undergraduate co-author on a cover story is rather extraordinary," says Cole, a professor of biology. "It's also a nice demonstration of what we hoped students would achieve through participation in the Gene Stream."

Publication of the article marks the end of a three-year project, supported by a $540,000 grant, that began as an experiment bridging laboratory research and classroom activities across such diverse disciplines as chemistry, biology and the emerging science of biotechnology.

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Cole
Cole says that the Gene Stream has been successful by any measure. "This grant supports a remarkable undergraduate research pathway. It's given our students an experience resembling that found in more advanced graduate programs," he says. St. Olaf ranks among the top 10 U.S. liberal arts colleges whose graduates go on to earn doctorates in the sciences, including No. 4 in chemistry and No. 9 in biological sciences.

Within the "Gene Stream" model, students initiate work in one class, carry it into another class, and pursue it even further during St. Olaf's funded research program over the summer. Students gain insight into how multiple disciplines approach the problem of solving a gene's function within a living cell.

This project is supported by sophisticated instrumentation at St. Olaf, including:
  • A mass spectrometer that can measure the exact mass of a protein
  • Computer technology that uses these measurements to identify the corresponding gene from an organism's entire gene assemblage
  • A scanning laser confocal microscope that creates three-dimensional images of live cells whose gene products have been fluorescently tagged
St. Olaf currently is pursuing funding to maintain this project as it continues to unfold in the college's new Regents Hall of Natural and Mathematical Sciences that will open this fall.

Contact David Gonnerman at 507-786-3315 or gonnermd@stolaf.edu.