The Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology recognizes undergraduates annually with several BMB Undergraduate Research Awards, as well as The College of Natural Science BMB Outstanding Undergraduate Student Award. Awardees are honored at the BMB Annual Student Awards Banquet in April. The Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Undergraduate Research Awards are solicited in Spring Semester of each year. These awards are given to MSU BMB undergraduate majors who want to pursue research in the laboratory of a BMB faculty member. For the 2002-2003 academic year five $1,000 Undergraduate Research Awards and one $2,000 Undergraduate Research Award were awarded.
BMB Undergraduate Research Awardees
David Taggart is one of BMB's Outstanding Undergraduate Students for 2004. Greta Monterosso is also a BMB Outstanding Undergraduate Student for 2004 Janel Funk received the 2001-2002 College of Natural Science Outstanding Undergraduate Award. Janel began working primarily on human transcription factor IIF in Dr. Zachary Burton's lab. She performed a mutational analysis throughout the N-terminal domain of RNA Polymerase II Associating Protein 74 (RAP74), the larger subunit of TFIIF, and subsequently focused on determining the molecular target of the RAP74 alpha-1 helix. Her research has been submitted to the Journal of Biological Chemistry. Justin Barnes received a $2,000 BMB Undergraduate Research Award for 2002-2003 presented by Dr. Zachary Burton. Justin is doing research on the isolation and characterization of mutant wri1-1 suppressors under the supervision of Dr. Christoph Benning. Irene Flick, $1,000 BMB Undergraduate Research Award for 2002-2003. Irene has begun cloning Knirps fragments into pGEX vectors for preparation of GST-fusion proteins that will be used to test wheher acetylation of Knirps regulates binding of the Knirps corepressor CtBP in the laboratory of Dr. David Arnosti.	Cassandra Campbell was presented with a $1,000 BMB Undergraduate Research Award by Dr. Zachary Burton. She works in Dr. Laurie Kaguni's laboratory whose research focuses on studying the human mitochondrial Shanna Ashley a $1,000 BMB Undergraduate Research Award. Shanna has been doing research in Dr. Jack Preiss's laboratory studying the C-terminal of the E. coli ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase using molecular biology techniques to study the function of this portion of the enzyme. Jay Sage received a$1,000 BMB Undergraduate Research Award for 2002-2003. Jay is working on exploring an assay with a lambda derivative carrying the E. coli replication origin in the laboratory of Dr. Jon Kaguni. Aaron Kosinski received a $1,000 BMB Undergraduate Research Award for 2002-2003. Aaron is researching the Gcn5, a prototypic histone acetyltransferase (HAT) in the budding yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae in Dr. Min-Hao Kuo's laboratory.
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