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Endowed Professorships in Natural Sciences

Name of Professorship	Appointment Date	Current Holder	Description
Centenary Research Professorship in Natural Sciences #1	2006-2008	Cynthia Brame (Vita)	Funded in 1991, this professorship will allow Dr. Brame, Assistant Professor of Biology at Centenary, to introduce course-embedded research in molecular genetics into the biology curriculum. It is commonly accepted that a critical part of education in the sciences involves completion of a research project. In fact, many institutions require completion of an independent research project as a capstone experience in a natural sciences education. It is often difficult, however, to ensure a high quality research experience in which the students are asking a novel question, using modern (and thus broadly applicable) techniques, and thoroughly analyzing the data. The goal of this proposal is to give students a quality research experience investigating the structural regulation of Yck2, a protein that is known to be involved in cellular morphogenesis and cytokinesis, cell wall accumulation, bud site selection, and mating pheromone response in yeast and that is a member of a protein family that regulates synaptic transmission, receptor signaling, circadian rhythm, DNA repair, nuclear import, and cell division in multicellular organisms. This project, which will be a collaboration between Centenary students, a Centenary professor, and a professor at the LSU Health Sciences Center in Shreveport, will allow students to investigate a biological question whose answer has implications for understanding basic cellular mechanisms as well as disease mechanisms. In investigating this question, students will learn to use modern techniques that are important in any genetics laboratory—both “classroom” laboratories and research labs. Finally, the students will be guided through the procedures and data analysis, helping ensure understanding of the experiments, their results and their implications. This project will be directed toward students in Genetics (BIOL313), a class required for all biology majors and frequently taken by biochemistry and neuroscience majors. To reach the goal of providing students with a quality research experience investigating a real-world biological question, the project has several specific aims: 1. Students will generate six distinct, directed mutations in the C-terminal tail of Yck2, a region known to be involved in Yck2 localization and regulation. 2. Students will investigate the function of the Yck2 mutants. 3. Students will investigate the localization of the Yck2 mutants by visualizing the fluorescently-tagged Yck2 using fluorescence microscopy. 4. Students will analyze their results and present them in a lab report based on the format of the scientific literature.
Centenary Research Professorship in Natural Science #2/ Research #6	Summer 2008	Cynthia Brame (Vita)	Funded in 1999, this professorship will allow Dr. Brame and student researchers to continue research of the role casein kinase 1 (CK1) subfamily of kinases is among the most abundant groups of protein kinases plays in degenerative diseases. Multiple members of the subfamily are present in all eukaryotic cells, and specific isoforms can be found in most subcellular compartments. CK1 protein kinases from multicellular organisms regulate processes including synaptic transmission, receptor signaling, circadian rhythm, DNA repair, nuclear import, and cell division. CK1 activities also have been implicated with roles in neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer and could be involved in a variety of cancers. During spring 2008, students in BIOL 313 (Genetics) identified three amino acid sequences that are highly conserved in CK1 enzymes but not in other kinase subfamilies. To try to determine the importance of these sequences, the students designed mutations in these conserved sequences. They then used site-directed mutagenesis to introduce these mutations to Yck2, a CK1 enzyme from Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Yck2 and its homolog Yck1 are essential, redundant, membrane-associated CK1 enzymes in yeast. These proteins appear to be essential for cellular morphogenesis and cytokinesis, cell wall accumulation, bud site selection, and mating pheromone response as well as ubiquitination and internalization and/or vacuolar targeting of membrane proteins that results in their turnover. During summer 2008, we will be investigating the effects of these mutations further. Specifically, we will integrate the mutant alleles into the yeast genome and determine their effects on cell division, cell morphogenesis, and Yck2 kinase activity and localization. To complete this work, Centenary students Jordan Day and Jessica Miller will collaborate with Dr. Brame and with Centenary student Spencer Saulsbury and LSUHSC-S professor Dr. Lucy Robinson.
Centenary Research Professorship in Natural Science #3/ Research #7	Summer 2008	Cynthia Brame	See above.
Centenary Research Professorship in Natural Science #4/ Research #8	Summer 2008	Troy Messina (Vita)	Funded in 1999, this professorship will allow Dr. Messina, and 2 students, Marco Reyes and Jennifer Garza, to conduct research on structure and function relationships in molecular biophysics. Detailed understanding of the chemical and physical nature of interactions that drive functional performance in molecular biology is necessary for the development of biotechnology and pharmaceuticals. The proposed research aims to elucidate the structure/function relationships of ligand-bound glucose/galactose binding protein (GBP). Measurements using a fluorescent glucose analog will provide information specific to ligand-bound protein states. Previous efforts have revealed two ligand-bound states using a single acrylodan chromophore covalently attached to the protein; however, acrylodan has little characterization reported in the literature for quantifying the polar environment of the probe based on fluorescent lifetime and time-dependent Stokes shift. The glucose analog binding results will be combined with quantitative polarity-dependent characterization of the acrylodan and glucose chromophores. Together, the chemical nature of the two ligand-bound states can be understood. In addition, other investigators can directly correlate their results to known standard values for the fluorescent properties of these probes obtained from this research.
Centenary Research Professorship in Natural Science #5/ Research #9	Summer 2008	Troy Messina	See above.
Centenary Research Professorship in Natural Science #6/ Research #10	Summer 2008	Mark Goadrich (Vita)	Funded in 1999, this professorship will allow Dr. Goadrich to conduct two summer projects. First, Bradlee Robertson and I will be using machine learning algorithms into improve multi-agent robotic simulations in the RoboCup Rescue competition. This annual competition simulates the use of robots in search-and-rescue missions after natural disasters. Second, Nolan Baker and I will be writing educational mathematical software for the XO Laptop, developed and distributed by the One Laptop Per Child foundation, using Python and open-source Sugar operating system. We will be implementing an environment for elementary and middle-school students to explore different aspects of finite mathematics, such as sets, probability, and logic.
Irene Wright Mathematics Department Professorship #1-5	2005-2007	Mark Schlatter (Vita)	Funded in 2003, this professorship will be used to support the scholarly activities of the holder and the advancement of the department.

Last updated May 30, 2008.