College of Arts and Sciences
DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGY
2010 Recipients of APLE Funding
The College of Arts & Sciences has announced its Spring 2010 recipients of the Academic
Programs for Learning and Engagement (APLE) awards. Awards are made on a competitive
basis to grant proposals submitted by undergraduate students and evaluated by a committee of
college faculty. Students work with a faculty research advisor to design a research project then
the student writes up a mini-grant proposal. We are pleased to announce that two students
working with Biology Department faculty were among the recipients of the 2010 awards.
Funding was awarded to Heather Czapla (Biological Science) and Anh-Thu Ngoc Lam
(Biochemistry).
Heather Czapla is a Biological Science major with a minor in Chemistry and Women and Gender
Studies. Heather conducted a full year of undergraduate research in Dr. Judith Van Houten’s
laboratory researching a specific receptor in Paramecium tetraurelia called the Paramecium
cyclic adenosine monophosphate receptor 1 (pCAR1). This gene was thought to be related to
Cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) chemoresponse in Paramecium. Through RNA
interference she successfully down regulated the PCAR1 gene and correlated those results with a
change in attraction to cAMP. She found that when pCAR1 was down regulated the paramecia
were less attracted to cAMP. Throughout the last academic year she gathered enough data to
establish that pCAR1 is directly related to cAMP chemoresponse in Paramecium tetraurelia.”
Anh-thu Ngoc Lam is a Biochemistry major with a minor in Spanish. Since the Fall of 2008,
Anh-Thu has been active in research within the Biology Department under the guidance of Dr.
Bryan Ballif. Anh-Thu is studying the phosphor-regulation of Collapsin Response Mediator
Proteins (CRMPs), which are key effectors in developing the understanding of the phosphorregulatory mechanisms involved in an important neuronal positioning pathway.