Akiko Doi, a ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College senior from Kyoto City, Japan, recently won the Undergraduate Student Research Achievement Award Poster Competition in the enzymology category at the annual meeting of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, in Washington, D.C.

Doi, a double major in biological chemistry and music, received a plaque and $500 from ASBMB. Research scientists from various institutions and research areas judged approximately 110 entrants and recognized one in each of four research areas.

The work Doi presented at the conference focused on one of two projects that she has investigated during the last two years, both of which look at how viral protein concentrations are controlled within cells. The research Doi presented featured the selective degradation of a crucial viral protein, the encephalomyocarditis virus 3C protease, by a molecule that tags a protein for degradation by the 26S proteasome.

“The quality of the research presented by these students is very high, so the judges’ selection of Akiko as one of the four winners is truly noteworthy and reflects upon her outstanding abilities as a researcher and communicator,” says her thesis adviser, Professor of Chemistry Glen Lawson. The awards go to undergraduate students who have not only carried out a substantial research project that results in new findings, Lawson says, but excelled in their ability to present and explain their research to other professional scientists.

Lawson points out that Doi has completed the equivalent of two thesis projects since she began working in his lab last summer. He plans to include one of these in a paper he will submit for publication later this year.

“To present at such a prestigious conference was exciting to begin with,” Doi says, “but to be especially recognized for my work was thrilling.” Doi says that working with Lawson has inspired her to pursue a career in biochemical-biomedical research. “Without his guidance, I could not have obtained such a strong background,” says Doi, who will attend Johns Hopkins School of Medicine to obtain a doctorate.

“ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ has afforded me opportunities that go beyond the ordinary undergraduate experience. The student-faculty interactions are superb because the faculty go out of their way to help students,” she says.

Only at a liberal arts college such as ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, says Doi, would she have been able to pursue simultaneously her interests in biochemistry and music. A talented pianist, she has especially enjoyed performing works by Chopin, Liszt, Schumann and Mozart.

ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College has received a $1.3 million grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the nation’s largest private supporter of science education from elementary school through postdoctoral studies.

The HHMI grant will support a broad range of activities, including summer fellowships for students conducting science research with ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ faculty; students conducting applied science outreach projects such as water-quality work for municipalities; the development of new science courses and teaching laboratories; and curriculum development projects between ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students and local K–12 science teachers.

The grant will also fund science education initiatives aimed at encouraging more ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ math and science students to consider careers in K–12 teaching. Two colloquia for ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ faculty and Maine K–12 teachers on precollege science education and the Maine Learning Results are being planned, and new ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ courses on the methodology of teaching science will be developed.

“I am particularly excited about the portion of the award earmarked for the development, in collaboration with colleagues in the Department of Education, of programs that will encourage our students to become involved in secondary level teaching,” said T. Glen Lawson, a biochemist, associate professor of chemistry at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ and a member of the HHMI grant planning committee.

“This support will provide ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ with a tremendous opportunity to become actively involved in meeting one of the most serious and widely spread challenges currently faced by our education system, a shortage of adequately prepared high school and middle school science teachers.”

ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½’ global information system and lab instrumentation for courses in the life sciences will be upgraded, and weather stations will be installed on the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ campus and at the 574-acre ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½-Morse Mountain Conservation Area, in Phippsburg. The ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Science Education Outreach Grant program, supported by the recent HHMI grant, will continue to fund science education improvements in underresourced K–12 schools in Maine.

“The colleges and universities receiving these grants contribute greatly to the education of both scientists and nonscientists,” said HHMI President Thomas R. Cech. “These grants will help them do what they do best: provide undergraduate research opportunities and build bridges between the sciences and the humanities. I expect that these programs will serve as models for other undergraduate institutions.”

The ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ grant is among $50.3 million that HHMI recently awarded to 53 colleges and universities to support science education programs. HHMI invited 224 U.S. colleges and universities to submit grant proposals. The recent $1.3 million grant, among the largest HHMI awarded this year, is the fourth grant that ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ has received from HHMI in the past decade.

HHMI’s grants program supports science education in the United States and a select group of researchers in other countries, complementing its principal mission: research in cell biology, computational biology, genetics, immunology, neuroscience and structural biology with its own scientific teams. About 350 investigators are employed in HHMI laboratories at 72 academic medical centers and research institutions across the United States. Altogether, the Institute has awarded more than $850 million in grants, primarily to enhance science education from preschool through postdoctoral studies.