HHMI 
Undergraduate Research Scholars
Alumni 
Kelly Chisholm Jessica Jackowski Elisabeth McCarty Stacey Sheasley
Daniel Dries Erika Kutsch Kathryn O'Reilly Amanda Simons
John Dueber Jacob LaPorte Jennifer Paulson Lindette Thornton
Nicole Goodwin Lynne LaRochelle Ayis Pyrros Laura Tolen
Brooke Heidenfelder Michelle Lazarus Elizabeth Richardson Madhavi Vuthoori
Adam Himebauch Jennifer Leszl Matthew Russell Katherine Wong
Isaac Hubner Laura Maliszewski Jennifer Rutan Richard Yoon
Amy Humfeld Elizabeth Manning Michael Scoblete

Kelly Chisholm

Double Major:  Chemistry and French

Research Mentor: John Bulkowski, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Project Title:  Organic Synthesis of Coordination Compounds Binding Dioxygen

Current Position: She is currently attending the L. Jeffrey Selznick School for Film Preservation at the George Eastman House where she is a recipient of the 2002 Kodak Fellowship in Film Preservation. (more)
 


 

Daniel R. Dries

Major:  Biochemistry     Minor: Russian

Research Mentor:  Melinda Duncan, Department of Biological Sciences

Project Title:  Analysis of a Novel Marker of Vascular Smooth Muscle Differentiation

Honors and Awards: Class of 2000 Alexander J. Taylor, Sr. Award for the outstanding man in the graduating class, Elected to Phi Beta Kappa and  Phi Kappa Phi honor societies,  Elizabeth Dyer Award for excellence to a senior in chemistry or biochemistry, Honors Degree Distinguihed Fellow.

Fall 2000: University of California at San Diego. Ph.D. Program in Pharmacology and supported by the Molecular Biophysics Training Program.  Recipient of a Phi Kappa Phi National Graduate Fellowship.


 

John Dueber


Major:  Biochemistry   Minor: Psychology

Research Mentor: Anne Skaja Robinson, Department of Chemical Engineering

Thesis Project Title:  Expression, Purification, and Refolding of Tailspike Protein Aggregates.

Honors and Awards: President, American Chemical Society Student Affiliates; Departmental Merck Index Award. Honorable Mention, 2001 NSF Fellowship at UCSF

Current Position:  Biochemistry Ph.D. Program, University of California at San Francisco. John has been very successful at UCSF being a finalist in the 2003 Collegiate Inventors Competition. His graduate research work was recently published in Science: "Reprogramming Control of an Allosteric Signaling Switch Through Modular Recombination" John E. Dueber, Brian J. Yeh, Kayam Chak, and Wendell A. Lim Science Sep 26 2003: 301, 1904-1908.


 

Nicole Goodwin

Major: Chemistry

Research Mentor: Douglass Taber, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Project Title: Stereo-Controlled Synthesis of Polycyclic Natural Products

Presentations: 64th Annual Intercollegiate Student Chemists' Conference, Bloomsburg University, 15 April 2000.

65th Annual Intercollegiate Student Chemists' Conference, Goucher College, 21 April 2001.

Honors and Awards:  American Chemical Society Delaware Section Scholarship, Quaesita Drake Scholarship, Phi Beta Kappa

Fall 2001: California Institute of Technology, Ph.D. Program in Organic Chemistry, 


 

Brooke Heidenfelder

Major:  Biochemistry

Research Mentor:  Don Dennis, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Thesis Project Title: Sequence of the Catalytic Site of HIV-1RT Using Photo Affinity Labeling with 3'-AZTP.
 

Honors and Awards:   Imperial College/University of Delaware Undergraduate Research Exchange Program, Recipient of a book award at the 1998 Undergraduate Poster Session of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Washington, DC.

Fall 1999: University of North Carolina, Ph.D. Program in Biochemistry
 


 

Adam Himebauch

Major/Minor:  Biology/Biochemistry

Research Mentor:  William Cain, Department of Biological Sciences

Project Title: A Mouse Model for Lipoprotein a "Lp(a)"Catabolism .

Publications and Presentations: American Heart Association, Atlanta, GA. 7 -10 November 1999
.
Honors and Awards: Elected to Phi Kappa Phi

Fall 2002: MD Program University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine


 

Isaac Hubner

Major:  Biochemistry

Research Mentor: John Koh, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Project Title:  Thyroid Hormone Drug Analogs that Interact with Mutant Receptors

Presentations: 64th Annual Intercollegiate Student Chemists' Conference, Bloomsberg University, 15 April 2000

Honors and Awards: Honorable Mention 2001 NSF Graduate Fellowship, Harvard University.

Fall 2001: Harvard University, Ph.D. Program in Chemistry supported by an HHMI predoctoral Fellowship in the research group of Professor Eugene Shakhnovich.


 

Amy Humfeld

Major:  Biology

Research Mentor: Malcolm Taylor, Department of Biological Sciences

Project Title:  Reproductive Cycle in Fundulus heteroclitus

Honors and Awards: Richard M. Johnson, Jr. Award for the outstanding junior in Biology. Elected to Phi Kappa Phi.

Fall 2001: George Washington University, MD Program; Recipient of an Elsie B. Moore, four-year scholarship. Recipient of Alec Horwitz First Year Scholar Award.


 

Jessica Jackowsky

Major:  Biotechnology/Women's Studies

Research Mentor: David Northmore, Department of Psychology

Project Title:   Neural Applications of the Superior Colliculus to the Silicon Neuromorph
 


 
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Erika Kutsch

Major:  Biology

Research Mentor: Melinda Duncan, Department of Biological Sciences

Project Title:  Subcellular Location of Bves


 

Jacob LaPorte

Major:  Biochemistry

Research Mentor: Junghuei Chen, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Project Title:  Elucidating the Role of DNA Aggegates in the Homologous Recombination Strand Exchange  Reaction

Honors and Awards: Elected to Mortar Board, Recipient of an NSF Graduate Fellowship to the Scripps Research Institute, 2001

Publications: Zhaoquin Zhang, Dennis Yoon, Jacob R. LaPorte, and Junghuei Chen, Appropriate Initiation of Strand Exchange Reaction Promoted by RecA Protein Requires ATP Hydrolysis. J.Mol. Biol.  309, 29-43 (2001)

Fall 2001: Harvard University, Ph.D. Program in Chemistry supoported by an HHMI Predoctoral Fellowship.


 

Lynne LaRochelle

Major:  Chemistry

Research Mentor:  John Bulkowski, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Thesis Project Title:  Investigation of DiCopper Reaction Centers
 

Honors and Awards: Second Place in the Inorganic Chemistry Division at the 63rd Intercollegiate Chemists' Conference at Gettysburg College, April 10, 1999; Departmental Inorganic Chemistry Award 1999.

Fall 1999:  University of Pennsylvania, Ph. D. Program in Chemistry, 
 


 

Michelle Denise Lazarus


Major: Biology

Research Mentor: Gary Laverty, Biology

Project Title: Ammonia Transport in Avian Proximal Tubules

Fall 2001: Thomas Jefferson Medical College, Ph.D. Program in Cell Biology


 

Jennifer Leszl

Major:  Biology

Research Mentor: David Usher, Department of Biological Sciences

Project Title:  Catabolism of Turtle HDL, SAGE Analysis of Gene Expression

Fall 2001: Pennsylvania State University,  Interdisciplinary Ph.D.Program in Genetics studying the craniofacial effects on a mouse model for Down Syndrome in laboratory of Joan Richtsmeier Department of Anthropology.
(home page


 

Laura Maliszewski

Major:  Biotechnology

Research Mentor: Allan Shapiro, Department of Plant and Soil Science

Project Title: A Screen for Mutants give Programmed Cell Death in
Arabidopsis despite Chemical Inhibition of Nitric Oxide Synthase

Abstracts: Worley, C.K., Maliszewski, L.E., Hubner, J.H. and Shapiro, A. D., "Genetic Screen to Identify Arabidopsis Mutants Which Overcome a Nitric Oxide Synthase Inhibitor Block of the Hypersensitive Response" 11th International Conference on Arabidopsis Research, Madison, WI, 2000. 

Worley, C.K., Maliszewski, L.E., Hubner, J.H., Farnworth, B., Yang, H.-Y. and Shapiro, A. D., "hdn (HR Despite NOS inhibitor) Mutants Identify Multiple Controls over Arabidopsis Programmed Cell Death" 12th International Conference on Arabidopsis Research, Madison, WI, 2001 and at 10th International Congress on Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions, Madison, WI, 2001.

Fall 2001: Harvard Medical School, Ph.D. Program in Virology working in the laboratory of Judy Lieberman on RNA interference.


 

Elizabeth Manning

Major:  Biology

Research Mentor: Robert Hodson, Department of Biological Sciences

Project Title:  Characterization of Turtle Apolioprotein-A-II Gene

Honors and Awards: Elected to Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi

Fall 2000: Johns Hopkins University, Ph.D. Program in Pharmacology


 

Elisabeth McCarty

Major:   Biology/Philosophy

Research Mentor: Patricia DeLeon, Department of Biological Sciences

Project Title:  Analysis of Hyaluronidase Activity in Rb6.15 Mouse Sperm

Fall 2000: University of Pittsburgh, Ph.D. Program in Genetic Counseling
 


 

Kathryn O'Reilly 

Major:  Biochemistry and French

Research Mentor: John Koh, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Project Title:  Redirecting Novel Transcription Regulators to New Cellular Targets

Presentation: Second Place Biochemistry Division, 64th Annual Intercollegiate Student Chemists' Conference, Bloomsburg University, 15 April 2000.

Honors and Awards: Kevin Beale Award for outstanding CHEM/BIOCHEM freshman, Phi Beta Kappa Clift and DeArmond Award for an outstanding freshman,  Phi Kappa Phi, Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Delta Pi (French Honor Society), Alpha Lambda Delta, Advanced Honors Certificate, American Chemical Society Award to the outstanding junior in chemistry or biochemistry.

Publications: Hai Fen Ye, John T. Koh* and Kathryn E. O'Reilly, A subtype-selective thyromimetic designed to bind a mutant thyroid hormone receptor implicated in resistance to thyroid hormone (RTH)., J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2001, 123, 1521-1522.  (featured in C&E News)

Fall 2001: Cornell Medical School, MD-PhD Program


 

Jennifer Paulson

Major:   Chemistry

Research Mentor: Eugene Mueller, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Thesis Project Title:  Characterization of E. coli Pseudouridine Synthase Mutants

Publications: 
Vidhyashankar Ramamurthy, Steven L. Swann, Jennifer L. Paulson, Christopher J. Spedaliere, and Eugene G. Mueller, 
Critical Aspartic Acid Residues in Pseudouridine Synthases,
Journal of Biological Chemistry 1999, 274, 22225-22230.

Eugene G.Mueller,  Christopher J. Buck,  Peter M. Palenchar, Lora J. Barnhart, and Jennifer L. Paulson,
Identification of a Gene Involved in 4-Thiouridine Generation in tRNA,
Nucleic Acids Research 1998, 26, 2606-2610.

Honors and Awards: Barry M. Goldwater Scharlarship;  Elizabeth Dyer Award for Excellence in Chemistry, Second Place Biochemistry Division, 63rd Intercollegiate Student Chemists' Conference, Gettysburg College, April 10, 1999.

Fall 1999: University of California at San Francisco,  Cellular Biology Ph.D. Program, Recipient of an NSF Graduate Fellowship, 2001. She is working on cell cycle kinases in the Kevan Shokat's lab. Home page


 

Ayis Theseas Pyrros

Major:  Biology

Research Mentor: Roger Wagner, Department of Biological Sciences

Thesis Project Title:  The Localizatioon of Phosphodiesterase in Vertebrate Outer Rod Segments
 

Honors and Awards: Medical Scholars Program

Fall 1999:  Thomas Jefferson Medical College, MD 2003. Now working in Cognitive Neuroscience and Brain Imaging Laboratory of Joseph I. Tracy in the Department of Neurology.
 


 

Elizabeth Richardson

Major:  Biology

Research Mentor: David Usher, Department of Biological Sciences

Project Title:  The Distribution of ApoC-III and ApoE in Familial Combined Hyperlipidemic Patients before and after Treatment with Statins.

Honors and Awards: Elected to Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi.

Fall 2000: Jeffereson Medical College, MD Program


 

Matthew Russell

Major:  Biology/Anthropology

Research Mentor: Gregory Stephens and David Usher, Department of Biological Sciences .

Project Title: Structural Conservation of the Turtle (P. scripta) apolipoprotein A-I gene.

Presentation: 15th Annual Mid-Atlantic Lipid Symposium in Atlantic City, NJ, March 9-10, 2000.

Abstract: Jennifer Rutan, Michael Usher, Matthew Russell, Robin Davis, Shui Quig Ye, Gregory Stephens, Robert Hodson, and David Usher. Conservation of the Apolipoprotein AI-CIII Linkage Group in Reptiles. ASBMB Meetings, Orlando, FL. April 2001.

Fall 2001: Harvard Medical School, Research Associate
 


 

Jennifer Rutan

Major:  Biotechnology/History

Research Mentor: Robert Hodson and David Usher, Department of Biological Sciences

Project Title:   Characterization of 38kD Apolipoprotein DNA in the Turtle, Pseudemeyes scripta.

Honors and Awards: Elected to Mortar Board, Gamma Sigma Sigma National Service Sorority (president), Motar Board, Phi Kappa Phi, Phi Beta Kappa

Abstract: Jennifer Rutan, Michael Usher, Matthew Russell, Robin Davis, Shui Quig Ye, Gregory Stephens, Robert Hodson, and David Usher. Conservation of the Apolipoprotein AI-CIII Linkage Group in Reptiles. ASBMB Meetings, Orlando, FL. April 2001. Portand Press Honorable Mention Award

Fall 2001: University of North Carolina, Ph.D. program in Mircobiology and Immunology


 

Michael Scoblete

Major:  Chemistry and Chemistry Education

Research Mentor: Klaus Theopold, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Project Title:  Iron-Coordinating Complexes that Bind and Cleave Dioxygen

Presentations: 64th Annual Intercollegiate Student Chemists’ Conference, 15 April 2000, Bloomsburg University, Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania. 

33rd Middle Atlantic Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society, 
16 May 2000, Newark, Delaware. 

Fall 2001: Teaching academic and advanced chemistry at  Mendham High School in West Morris Regional High School District, New Jersey.


 

Stacey Sheasley

Major:  Biochemistry

Research Mentor: Colin Thorpe, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Thesis Project Title:  Exploring the Catalytic Versitility of Chicken Egg White Sulfhydryl Oxidase

Karen L. Hoober, Stacey L. Sheasley, Hiram F. Gilbert, Colin Thorpe, 
Sulfhydryl oxidase from egg white. A facile catalyst for disulfide bondformation in proteins and peptides.
Journal of  Biological  Chemistry, 1999, 274(32):22147-22150.

Honors and Awards: Elizabeth Dyer Award for Excellence in Chemistry

Fall 1999:  University of Virginia, MD-Ph.D. Program


 

Amanda Simons

Major:  Biochemistry

Research Mentor: Junghui Chen, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Thesis Project Title: The Role of Tumor Suppressor Protein p53 in Branch Migration
Publications: 
Zhaoqin Zhang, Amanda M. Simons, Vidhya P. Prabhu, Junghuei Chen, 
Strand exchange protein 1 (Sep1) from Saccharomyces cerevisiae does not promote branch migration in vitro.
Journal of Biolological Chemistry, 1998, 273(9):4950-4956.

Vidya P Prabhu, Amanda M. Simons, Hiroshi Iwasaki, Dahai Gal, Daniel T. Simmons, and Junghuei Chen, p53 Blocks RuvAB Promoted Branch Migration and Modulates Resolution of Holliday Junctions by RuvC.
Journal of Molecular Biology, 2002, 316, 1023-1032.

Honors and Awards: Imperial College/University of Delaware Undergraduate Research Exchange Program, Recipient of a book award at the 1999 Undergraduate Poster Session of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, San Francisco; Honors Degree Distinguished Fellow. 

Fall 1999:  Harvard Medical School, Ph.D. Program in Biochemistry, in Jeffrey Parvin's Lab. Recipient of an NSF Graduate Fellowship, 2001.


 

Lindette Thornton

Major:  Biochemistry

Research Mentor: Junghuei Chen, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Project Title:  DNA Recombination Enzymes

Fall 2001: Wistar Institute, Research Technician in Ronen Marmorstein's lab.
 


 

Laura Tolen

Major: Biochemistry

Research Mentor: Hal White, Chemistry and Biochemistry

Project Title: Induction of Autoimmunity to Riboflavin-Binding Protein in Chickens.

Presentations: 65th Annual Intercollegiate Student Chemists Conference, Goucher College, 21 April 2001

Honors and Awards: Quaesita Drake Scholarship,  Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi 

Activities: President, American Chemistry Society Student Affiliate Chapter 

Fall 2001: University of Maryland, Ph.D.Program in Pharmacy 
 


 

Madhavi Vuthoori 

Major:  Biology

Research Mentor: David Usher, Department of Biological Sciences

Project Title:  Effectiveness of Statin Drug THerapy on Patients with Familial Combined Hyperlipidemia

Fall 2000: Internship at NIH, Now with the Biology Group at the Academy for the Advancement of Science and Technology.


 

Katherine "Kaia" Wong

Major:  Neuroscience

Research Mentor: Malcolm Taylor, Department of Biological Sciences

Thesis Project Title:  Variations in Lipid Deposition over the Reproductive Cycle of Female Killifish (Fundulus heteroclitus)

Current Position: Ph.D. Program, University of Delaware

Honors and Awards: Dean's Scholar, Richard M. Johnson Jr. Memorial Award,  Amelia Warner Award as the outstanding woman in the graduating class.

Fall 1999: University of Delaware, MS Program


 

Richard Yoon

Major:  Biology

Research Mentor: Robert Hodson, Department of Biological Sciences

Thesis Project Title:  Sequencing Apolipoprotein B

Fall 1999:  Thomas Jefferson Medical College, MD Program
 


Return to HHMI Undergraduate Research Scholars Page, University of Delaware HHMI Home Page
Created 21 September 2001, Last up-dated 22 October 2003 by Hal White
Copyright 2002, Harold B. White, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Delaware