Jenny.Green@asu.edu
MaryZhu @asu.edu
Chemistry.asu.edu

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ASU seniors, Charlene Bashore and Eric Anderson, named among top students by USA Today

Charlene, who is a biochemistry senior in our department, about to graduate on May 13, was named to the All - USA College Academic First team. This award is the icing on the cake of Charlene's extremely successful undergraduate career here at ASU.

"Charlene Bashore is one of the most interesting and versatile young women ever to study at ASU," says Janet Burke, associate dean of Barrett, the Honors College, where she also is enrolled. "She has enormous potential to make an impact in an important field, not only because she has accomplished so much already, but because she has the focus, drive and talent to propel herself to the top."

We congratulate Charlene and wish her well as she continues her work at UC Berkeley's doctoral program in molecular and cell biology in the Fall.

Eric, a bioengineering, biochemistry and biological sciences major, is continuing at ASU to complete concurrent degrees in Biological Sciences and Medicinal Biochemistry. He has the honor of being named to the All - USA College Academic Second team.

Over the past three years Eric has experienced many clinical situations that have made him aware of the challenges and rewards that await him as a future physician. He has also had the opportunity to work on a number of research projects at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) in downtown Phoenix and at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale. Eric plans to "continue my clinical and translational research involvement throughout my undergraduate career and explore the intimate and vital process of translating scientific discoveries into bedside applications that will directly affect patient care. After obtaining my undergraduate degree, I plan to attend medical school and earn an MD or MD/PhD degree."

We congratulate both Charlene and Eric as these are extremely prestigious honors for both our department and ASU.

New Goldwater student awards continue the Chem/Biochem record...

Joshua Niska	Ben Strauber

It has just been announced that biochemistry undergraduate students Joshua Niska and Charles "Ben" Strauber are among the three ASU 2009 Goldwater Scholars. The $7,500 awards (per year for up to two years) are the nation's premier undergraduate awards for students in the natural sciences, math and engineering. This is the third time in four years that two of the winners of this prestigious scholarship are biochemistry students. In 2006 James Cronican and Shannon Fortin were winners as well as Eric Anderson in 2007 and Charlene Bashore and Lara Cardy won Goldwater awards last year. Over the last 16 years ASU has won 41 total Goldwater awards, and of those, 37 percent (a total of 15) have been chemistry/biochemistry students.

Niska, 21, has been doing biomedical research on brain and breast cancer at Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) for three and a half years, first as a volunteer and a TGen Helios Scholar and fellow, then as a fellow in the ASU School of Life Sciences Undergraduate Research Program. Currently he works about 15 hours a week on his own project, investigating the role of a gene/protein in breast cancer.

"Josh is a very bright and talented student, one of the best I have taught," says Ian Gould, President's Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry. "This is especially impressive in consideration of the time he spends in the research lab, doing high-quality research work. He also has been an enthusiastic teacher to junior high students in an outreach program."

Strauber, 21, came to ASU as a Flinn and a National Merit Scholar, and he soon began working in the Biodesign Institute, learning lab techniques and investigating methods for analyzing nanowires for bloodstream drug delivery. He also created a video presentation explaining the research being done at the Department of Bioelectronics and Biosensors and edited his supervisor's textbook.

Currently he works 30 hours a week in the developmental neuroscience lab of Carsten Duch, associate professor in the School of Life Sciences. He is performing molecular tests to examine the dynamics of potassium channel regulation.

"Ben is unusually proactive, and he has actively sought top international research experiences," says Duch. "Upon his return from Japan, he presented his project in an outstanding research seminar to my group. I was impressed by the academic rigor he applied to the interpretation of his results. "Within a few weeks of starting his own research project in my lab, he has produced exciting data. His work has the potential for a publication in a high ranked peer review international journal. He is also a great pleasure to work with. I anticipate a great scientific future for him."

Graduate student Sarah Staton receives Fulbright to study Ecuadorian biodiversity

ASU continues its record as one of the top producers of Fulbright Awards for students in this country. Sarah Staton, graduate student in the department, has recently been awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to study biodiversity from aerosolized biological material in Ecuadorian rainforests with technologies developed right here at ASU.

Janet Burke, Director of the ASU Office of National Scholarship Advisement, observes that ASU students are more successful than most at winning student Fulbrights because of strong support from faculty mentors and the university's emphasis on global studies and foreign languages.

Sarah's mentor and advisor in the department is Associate Professor Mark Hayes, who describes her in the following manner, "Sarah has amazing intellectual capacity, interpersonal capabilities, physical skills, vision and work ethic. She has chosen an incredibly creative and insightful application of new technology coming out of our laboratory. One of the unique qualities that stand out with Sarah is a quiet, self-assured ambition. This may seem like an oxymoron, that ambition and quiet are rarely connected, but she does not preach or trumpet her aspirations, she simply thinks long and hard about visions and goals, and then executes the detailed and pragmatic steps to make those good things happen."

The respect is mutual as Sarah states that, "Mark has been instrumental both in supporting my application for this award as well as through the ups and downs of everyday research. Where other advisors would not have been as willing to support a student using their technology as part of a cultural exchange, Mark has been wonderful and very supportive."

While in Ecuador Sarah will be working with Dr. Kelly Swing of the Universidad San Francisco de Quito and director of the Tiputini Biodiversidad Station as well as Dr. Tod Swanson, Professor of Religious Studies at ASU, who is also the Director of the Andes and Amazon Field School in Napo Province, Ecuador. Sarah will be collecting bioaerosol samples in various forest settings in Ecuador including the pristine forest at the Tiputini Biodiversidad Station and a mixed forest environment near Tena. From these bioaerosol samples she will be quantifying the amount of protein found, along with performing basic chemical characterization. Building on the research she conducts at ASU looking at organism identification through bioaerosol characterization and high resolution separation technology she hopes to evaluate these methods as a means of determining biodiversity in rainforest environments.

Sarah's ebullience is contagious, "This is a once in a lifetime experience. I cannot wait to learn about the culture, science, and environment in Ecuador."

The proteins on which Sarah's work will focus are the keratins. Keratins are the major protein components of hair, wool, nails, horn, hoofs, and the quills of feathers. There are distinct variations from species to species. The proteins are released into the atmosphere and become bioaerosols. In the environment these bioaerosols can be detected rapidly, cheaply and remotely using new methods that are being developed here at ASU.

Sarah echoes the sentiment of many people in the department when she says, "Too many people think there is a gulf between chemistry and the real world. I intend to utilize technology and chemistry to make the environment and world around us a little bit better."