Dr. Malcom Lippert, associate professor of biology at Saint Michael's College, has been awarded a $197,456 grant from the National Institutes of Health. Professor Lippert, a resident of Jericho, Vt., learned of the grant earlier this summer and has since been fully engaged in the sponsored research project, "Transcription-associated mutations," with two Saint Michael's students, William Crall of Pittsfield, Mass., and Matthew Alexander of Richmond, Vt.
The three-year NIH Academic Research Enhancement Award is specifically designed to advance science and train young scientists at four-year colleges. Professor Lippert's success in helping his students become serious scientists was a key factor in his selection for the grant.
Recently he has had students go to graduate school at Dartmouth, UMass, Worcester, the University of Washington, and dental school at the University of Buffalo.
Professor Lippert and his two students, who each receive $4,000 summer stipends from the grant, are spending their days, and sometimes nights, in the labs at Saint Michael;s examining the mechanisms in cells that cause mutations. Excessive or uncontrolled mutations, or the unregulated growth of cells, can result in cancers. Thus their research seeks answers to the question of why transcription elevates the rate of mutation, and is directly connected to understanding and finding ways to treat and prevent genetic diseases, particularly cancer.
The three scientists will present the results of their research at the 39th annual Environmental Mutagen Society conference in Puerto Rico, Oct. 18-22, 2008. They are also expected to publish their findings in a peer-review journal.
"On top of the research results, it's so rewarding to see students love research and continue it in their careers," Professor Lippert said.
William Crall '09
"I really love it," said Crall, confirming his professor's hopes. The son of David and Susan Crall, William Crall, a senior biology major, graduated from Saint Joseph Central High School before coming to Saint Michael's. He is a member of the Saint Michael's varsity golf team, and a frequenter of the Pittsfield Country Club, when he's not in the lab.
"I love doing experiments," Crall said, "It's like solving a puzzle." Professor Lippert said Crall's diligence and enthusiasm really show. "Will has really good hands for science; he's really organized and has just really taken to it," Lippert said.
Matthew Alexander '09
Matthew Alexander, a senior biology major, son of Susan Turcotte of Richmond, Vt., and Edwin Alexander of Cambridge, Vt., graduated from Mount Mansfield Union High School before coming to Saint Michael's. Last summer he did biomedical research in a lab at the University of Vermont. When not in the lab, Alexander is running, as a member of the Saint Michael's varsity cross-country team, but he definitely plans to pursue a career in medicine or pure science after college.
"Manipulating living cells and trying to figure what goes on inside them is really fascinating," Alexander said. He explained the Saint Michael's summer research project this way: "We're trying to determine what lesion on DNA is causing a certain kind of mutation when a gene is highly transcribed." He said further, "When you increase the rate of transcription, you get these mutations," which they are carefully, painstakingly measuring in the lab.
Professor Lippert is excited about the summer work. "These guys work very well as a team; both are excellent students, who've shown a lot of promise with lab skills." And, he added, "They are very accurate; they get good, reproducible results. When they've done an experiment, I really believe the results," the professor said.
Saint Michael's College, founded in 1904 by the Society of St. Edmund and headed by President John J. Neuhauser, is identified by the Princeton Review as one of the nation's Best 368 Colleges. A liberal arts, residential, Catholic college, Saint Michael's is located just outside of Burlington, Vermont, one of America's top college towns and less than two hours from Montreal. As one of only 270 institutions nationwide with a prestigious Phi Beta Kappa chapter on campus, Saint Michael's has 2,000 full-time undergraduate students, some 500 graduate students and 200 international students. In recent years Saint Michael's students and professors have received Rhodes, Woodrow Wilson, Guggenheim, Fulbright, National Science Foundation and other grants, and Saint Michael's professors have been named Vermont Professor of the Year in four of the last eight years. The college is currently listed as one of the nation's Best Liberal Arts Colleges in the 2008 U.S. News & World Report rankings.
Photo caption: Saint Michael's NIH grant researchers, William Crall, Matthew Alexander and Professor Malcolm Lippert in the lab.