Berea Williams Chemistry PhD (May 2010)
Current Career: Senior Scientist at Henkel
 s an undergraduate chemistry major, the decision between medical school and graduate school was easily resolved once I started conducting laboratory research; I realized I wanted to be the scientist that invents and discovers the new ideas and tools that physicians would eventually use in the clinic.
 This inventor mindset is what attracted me to Arizona State University (ASU). Out of the 5 universities I visited for graduate school, I found that ASU’s department of chemistry and biochemistry was the most focused on discovering and developing new use-inspired concepts. During my first year at ASU, I had the privilege to be a recipient of the National Science Foundation- Integrative Graduate Educational and Research Traineeship (NSF-IGERT) with a handful of other engineers, biologists,
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physicists and chemists. Together we developed a new conceptual model of building a nanoscale DNA-based circuit board. My experience with the NSF-IGERT set a solid foundation for my future in solving complex problems through interdisciplinary research. That foundation was further built upon during my Ph.D. research, which involved the collaboration of six independent professors on three novel bionanotechnology based projects, all of which resulted in successful publication.
ASU provided me with more opportunities than I could conceive and I was only limited by time on what resources to take advantage of. From travel grants for attending conferences to infinite laboratory resources and research collaboration, I feel I was extremely fortunate to be a member of the department of chemistry and biochemistry at ASU. Additionally, the department’s exceptional educational and training program has prepared me for my new career as a Senior Scientist at Henkel, where I will continue inventing by developing new formulations for personal care products!
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"Ms. Berea Williams has been an outstanding graduate student in our department, and plans to pursue a successful career as a Research Scientist. I look forward to her continued success and wellbeing". - Dr. John Chaput, Berea's Ph.D. Advisor |
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Mingyi Xie Biochemistry Ph.D (May 2010)
Current Career: Postdoc, Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University
 o explore the mystery of life has always been my dream. The idea of understanding complicated biological questions from the ecosystem perspective fascinated me at first. As a undergrad research assistant, I joined the Laboratory of Coastal and Wetland Ecosystems to study the re-forestation of coastal mangrove ecosystems in southern China. During the two years of research in the ecology lab, I realized that the fundamentals of many biological phenomena could only be revealed on the molecular basis. Therefore, I decided to pursue a scientific career in biochemistry and molecular biology.
In 2005, I was fortunate enough to be enrolled in Associate Professor Julian Chen's lab as a graduate student in our department. Chen lab is a perfect place for me in every way. Telomerase research is the cutting edge of molecular biology as this enzyme has great implications in cancer and aging. The fellow graduate students in Chen lab are outstanding and I learned so much from every one of them. And Associate Professor Chen, a successful scientist himself, wholeheartedly mentored me to grow into a true scientist. During the 5 years training in the Chen lab, I have significantly improved in doing research, whether it is designing an experimental strategy, working at the bench, analyzing the data or writing a manuscript. My skills in scientific presentation were also polished through our weekly-based group meetings and the conferences that we have attended. Most importantly, I found immense joy discussing scientific issues with Julian, colleagues or anyone else.
The projects I have been working on in the Chen lab were aimed at deciphering the mechanism of telomerase reaction. As a ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complex, telomerase is composed of a catalytic protein component called Telomerase Reverse Transcriptase (TERT) and a telomerase RNA (TR) component.
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 Most telomerases are able to utilize a short RNA template sequence within TR to synthesize a long stretch of telomeric DNA without dissociation from the substrate, an ability termed "repeat addition processivity". By using human telomerase reconstituted both in vitro and in vivo, I have demonstrated that a conserved motif in the reverse transcriptase domain of the telomerase protein is crucial for both telomerase repeat addition processivity and rate. Furthermore, I have designed a "template-free" telomerase system to show that RNA/DNA duplex binding is a critical step during telomere repeat synthesis. In an attempt to expand our understanding of vertebrate telomerase, I have studied RNA-protein interactions of telomerase from teleost fish. The teleost fish telomerase RNA is by far the smallest vertebrate TR identified, providing a valuable model for structural study of telomerase RNP.
Investigating the structure and function of telomerase has provided me with the experience of various RNA-protein molecular biological and biochemical techniques, as well as expanded my research interest in the "RNA world." In particular, I find the fast growing field of microRNA research fascinating. My long-term goal is to continue conducting research on important biological questions in this field.
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"I am proud to say that he(Mingyi) has transformed quite impressively from a regular run-of the-mill student to a capable and independent researcher. The key to his success is that he always takes my advice and his projects seriously, and puts forth every effort to meet the expectations. He has certainly raised the bar high for other students in the lab." -Dr. Julian Chen- Mingyi's Ph.D. Advisor |
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