Dr. Gentile takes CAREER to new level!

Congratulations to Dr. Lisa Gentile on receiving the Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the National Science Foundation!

Dr. Gentile received the CAREER award this past fall, 2004. The Chemistry Department would like to congratulate her for receiving this very distinguished award and we wish her continued success in her teaching and research. We encourage everyone to congratulate her when you next see her.

Dr. Gentile (pictured center) at graduation with her research students Amanda Hall (left) and Abbie Lambert (right)

Dr. Lisa Gentile

Lisa is a Biochemist who is interested in protein structure; how a structure dictates function and biomolecular recognition, and what happens when the structure is altered in diseased states. The CAREER award will allow Dr. Gentile's group to continue their research efforts toward the mapping the pregnenolone sulfate binding site on the NMDA receptor. The long range goal of the project is to understand why neurosteroids are components of the human brain and how they positively and negatively regulate the activity of the ionotropic glutamate receptors. Interestingly, pregnenolone sulfate (PREGS) and 3-alpha (or 3-beta)-hydroxy-5-beta-pregnan-20-one sulfate (PREGAS), endogeneous neurosteroids differing only in the presence of one double bond, elicit opposite functions when bound to the NMDA (N-methyl-D-aspartate) receptor, while both elicit a similar function when bound to non-NMDA glutamate receptors (AMPA and kainate). The Gentile Group's focus is on how PREGS activates the NMDA receptor, but inhibits the non-NMDA glutamate receptors.

The educational component of the grant revolves around providing an inquiry-based research laboratory experience for two high school chemistry/biology teachers and two of their junior/senior students for each of the five years of the award. Additional goals of the educational aim for the teachers are to allow them to encounter new techniques ranging in scope from biophysics to chemistry to molecular biology, gather ideas for new courses or labs, satisfy their clock hour requirements, and introduce them to University faculty that can serve as future mentors and resources. The goals for the involved students are to help them develop their critical thinking and problem solving skills as well as to expose them to the excitement of science and the idea of future careers in the sciences. Jamie Yoos from Bellingham High and Mari Knutson from Lynden High are the first two teachers that have been selected, and will begin during the summer of 2005. Jamie and Mari are each currently in the process of selecting the students that will participate.

The Gentile Group has had other notable success this past year including: 1) a publication with four undergradutes in the journal Lipids, and 2) Gentile Group members Brian Jeppesen (senior biochem major) and Sandlin Preecs (junior biochem major), were selected as among a group of 60 undergraduates in the US to go to Washington, DC in April to present their research as part of CUR's Posters on the Hill event.