Dr. Stephanie Toering Peters and Jessa Bidwell ’15 (left) are studying synapse development in the FUTURE in Biomedicine program. (Photo by Susan McClellen)
Two Wartburg College professors and a student are participating this summer in the University of Iowa’s FUTURE in Biomedicine program.
Drs. Shawn Ellerbroek, associate professor and the Otto Endowed Professor in Chemistry, and Stephanie Toering Peters, associate professor of biology, are collaborating independently with University of Iowa professors as fellows in the FUTURE in Biomedicine program.
Jessa Bidwell, a senior neuroscience and Spanish major from Grinnell, is working alongside Toering Peters.
The FUTURE (Fostering Undergraduate Talent — Uniting Research and Education) in Biomedicine program, now is its sixth year, runs nine weeks and gives students and professors at six Iowa colleges access to the state-of-the-art instruments, research facilities, and faculty expertise at the University of Iowa’s Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine. The collaborations are designed to evolve into long-term research and learning partnerships.
Toering Peters and Bidwell are working with Dr. C. Andrew Frank, UI assistant professor of anatomy and cell biology, on how motor neurons and muscles must form a specialized structure, “a synapse,” to allow the neuron to correctly signal the muscle to contract. They will determine the role of a particular gene called Dgk in the formation and function of the synapse.
Toering Peters first participated in the program with Frank in 2011.
Ellerbroek is working with Dr. Kris DeMali, a UI associate professor of biochemistry and dermatology, on a project regarding the importance of cell movement during wound healing and cancer cell growth and invasion by studying how certain proteins orchestrate cell movement.
He first participated in the program with DeMali in 2010.
The fellows are chosen through a competitive application process, while the undergraduates are selected to participate with their professors. The program is free for undergraduate students.