From the Department Head In the last Newsletter, I indicated that new faculty hiring would be largely curtailed until such time as new space became available to our department. Accordingly, in the personnel section in this issue you will not see introductions for any new faculty. However, I am happy to report that new space is on the way in the form of a new Life Sciences Building which the Eberly College of Science will share with other colleges who have life scientists. Last year at this time, the building was not even on the books. However, the need was so great that when the University recently added it to the long wish list of construction projects submitted to the State, its initial place on the list was at the top. The building was originally scheduled for completion in 2003, which would mean that faculty hiring would remain at a standstill till then. However, our new dean, Daniel Larson, assumed leadership of a committee to raise funds specifically for the building, and as a result, the date of completion has been moved up to 2001. Therefore, new faculty hiring should commence again relatively soon.

You will see an additional request for information in this issue. You are familiar with the WHERE ARE YOU? page where you can provide an update on your activities which we include in the next Newsletter. This issue, however, you will also see a request for information which we hope to include in a Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Alumni Directory. I indicated in a previous issue that we are not able to provide you with names and addresses of alumni of our department because dissemination of such information requires permission of the alumnus/alumna. Therefore, we are providing you with the opportunity to provide us with information along with your permission to publish it in a directory.

Each Newsletter has a volume number corresponding to the number of years we have published the Newsletter and an issue number which corresponds to the number of the issue in that year. I have always hoped to publish more than one Newsletter per year, but so far the issue number has never made it beyond 1. I had hoped that the request for Directory information would be in a separate, No. 2, Spring issue so that it wouldn't be confused with the request for information on the WHERE ARE YOU? page, but just like every other year, neither Nancy Johnson, my Administrative Assistant, nor I, who write and publish the Newsletter, could find the time to put together a second issue once the school year was underway. Therefore, this issue contains a WHERE ARE YOU? page as usual, so that we don't have to wait two years to bring people up to date on your activities, and a separate page for information to go into the Directory which we will begin compiling.

Once compiled, the Directory will provide you with the opportunity to discover what your former classmates may be doing now, but also to discover whether other graduates of our department may be living in your area. Who knows what networking might result? I have to warn you that this is an entirely new endeavor for us, so there are some unknowns. We have no idea how many responses we may receive, so we don't know how much staff time will be required in this effort or how long it may take. Depending on the responses, we may begin with a directory of graduate degrees because the number will be smaller. With what we learn in the process, we'll move on to the undergraduate directory. So please bear with us in this undertaking!

Personnel

Two faculty members announced their retirement this year after many years of distinguished service to the department and to the University.

Bill Taylor retired in July of this year. Bill became an assistant professor of Biophysics in 1961 and was promoted to professor in 1971. He served as head of the Department of Biophysics from 1971-75 and as associate head of the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology from 1975-83. Bill also served as Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Education in the Eberly College of Science, as Acting Director of the Biotechnology Institute, the Intercollege Materials Research Laboratory, and Acting Dean of the Graduate School. Prior to his retirement, he served as Director of the Intercollege Research Programs at Penn State.

Roy Hammerstedt, Professor of Biochemistry, will be retiring in December of this year after 30 years of service. During his tenure in the Department he taught 14 different courses and directed research on cellular bioenergetics, surface membranes and cryobiology, using spermatozoa as a model system. In the mid 1980s he founded a biotechnology company, BioPore Inc. in State College, and will be devoting his time in "retirement" to adding commercial value to scientific discoveries. Details on the company can be found at the web site www.biopore.com. Roy wishes to thank the many colleagues and students he met over the years for the pleasure and stimulation of their company. "Professing is a wonderful and privileged profession!"

Because of the large increases in undergraduate enrollment in the life sciences (our department now has about 600 undergraduate majors and delivers about 25,000 student credit hours of courses per year), section sizes have increased as the number of faculty has remained about constant. In order to reduce section size until new faculty can help alleviate the problem, the Life Sciences Consortium has provided us with funds to hire additional instructors. Therefore, although I do not have any new faculty to introduce to you this year, we have two new instructors.

Michael Sypes received his bachelor's degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and in 1994 received his Ph.D. in Dave Gilmour's lab. Since then, he has gained experience teaching biochemistry, which will be his main responsibility in our department.

Jim McDonel received his bachelor's degree from Millersville in Lancaster, his Ph.D. in Microbiology from Notre Dame and did postdoctoral studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Some of you may recognize his name, because Jim became an assistant professor in our department (the part of it then called Microbiology) the same year I did, 1976. In 1981, he became Vice-Director of a pharmaceutical company in Vienna, Austria. Since returning to the United States, Jim has been a teacher and administrator in several different venues in the Midwest. His main teaching responsibility for us will be microbiology. Jim will also assume the duties of the department facilities coordinator, taking over for Greg Grove who has served in that capacity for the past eight years and who will return to the ranks of full-time teaching. We express our heartfelt thanks to Greg for his dedicated service to the department as facilities coordinator.

Honors and Awards

Yours truly was been selected to receive a 1999 Eberly College of Science Alumni Society Distinguished Service Award. The award, which recognizes exceptional service and leadership contributions to the Eberly College of Science, will be presented at a reception this Fall.

It gives me great pleasure to tell you that Eileen McConnell, who has provided the department with outstanding secretarial support for 17 1/2 years, has been selected to receive the Eberly College of Science Staff Excellence Award, which she will receive at a reception this Fall.

A couple of years ago, we began having a reception in the Spring to honor our undergraduates, graduate students and postdocs who received national recognition in the preceding year. In addition, we inscribe their names and their awards on plaques in 456 N. Frear where the receptions are held. Last year's recipients were:

Undergraduates -

• Robert Gage - Department of Defense Predoctoral Fellowship
• Sonja Pyott - Fulbright Fellowship
• Jayatri Das - Howard Hughes Predoctoral Fellowship

Postdoctoral Students -

• LeAnn Howe - Medical Research Council of Canada Fellowship
• Thomas Lechner - Austrian Science Foundation Fellowship

You may also be aware that in the lobby of Althouse we have plaques on which are inscribed the names of the Spring Commencement standard bearers for each of our undergraduate majors. Those so honored in Spring 1999 were:

• Christopher Nguyen - Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
• Michael Ronan - Biotechnology
• Jennifer Brincat - Microbiology

As announced in the last Newsletter, two awards were established to recognize outstanding student dissertations. The Frederick C. Wedler Outstanding Honors Dissertation Award was shared by David Dudzinski (Farber) and Brian Kelch (Bollinger). The Frederick C. Wedler Outsanding Doctoral Dissertation Award was shared by Barbara Bour (Abmayr) and Cheryl Keller (Abmayr). Their names were inscribed on plaques hung in 456 N. Frear.

And finally, as first announced last year, we now have several endowed funds to recognize outstanding teaching in the department. The recipients for the 1998/99 academic year are Jean Brenchley (Tershak Outstanding Faculty), Peggy Schlegel (Althouse Outstanding Instructor) and Robert Durso (Althouse Outstanding Teaching Assistant). Teaching assistants receiving Honorable Mention were Malini Chatterjee, Brian Galletta, Laurie Lenox and Kristen Neely.

Other News

Each issue we thank those who have provided gifts to the department in the preceding year. This year, with the University's $1,000,000,000 fund-raising effort underway, I thought it would be appropriate to provide you with an example of how we are using some of the funds you have so generously contributed to the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department, the Biochemistry Program and the Microbiology Program. A previous Newsletter told of our newly established program for training graduate students in the expanding field of microbial structural biology. With this program came the need for a facility to culture novel microbes with unusual growth requirements and purify unique enzymes for structure/function studies. With help from funds contributed by alumni and friends of the department, we have established a Biofermentation Facility in the basement of North Frear, ironically in a room which had "Fermentation" on the door designating its original use in 1937. The facility provides students not only with experimental material, but also hands-on training in fermentation technology and cutting-edge protein purification techniques employing recent advances in instrumentation and techniques. The facility not only serves students in the specialized training program, but is also available to an expanding group of facility in diverse departments on campus who have needs for generating microbial cell material and purification of enzymes in a common facility dedicated to supporting graduate research. Mark Signs oversees the facility and is experienced in training students in understanding the fundamentals and operation of both fermentation and protein purification.

I can assure you that without the funds contributed to the department, we would not have been able to provide such a facility which allows us to compete for the best students and faculty. In recognition of those contributions, we will place on the wall outside the facility a plaque which indicates that the facility was made possible, in part, by contributions of alumni and friends of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Chu Featured in April Issue of Cancer Research

T. Ming Chu (Ph.D., Biochemistry, 1967) was featured in the April 15, 1998, issue of Cancer Research. Chu, an early pioneer in using tumor cell products for the diagnosis and therapy of cancer, played a leading role in the discovery of prostate specific antigen (PSA) and the development of the PSA test. Dr. Chu is currently Chair, Diagnostic Immunology Research at Roswell Park Cancer Institute. A native of Taiwan, he received a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from The Pennsylvania State University in 1967. After spending 3 years at the Medical Foundation of Buffalo and Buffalo General Hospital, he joined Roswell Park. Shortly after joining the Institute, with the support of the State of New York and the National Cancer Institute/National Institutes of Health, Dr. Chu embarked upon a major prostate cancer research project with a team of able colleagues. His goal was to identify prostate tumor-specific or associated antigens, and to develop a blood test for early detection of prostate cancer.

Dr. Chu's work, in collaboration with Ming C. Wang, eventually resulted in the discovery and purification of PSA from the prostate (Invest. Urol. 17: 159, 1979). With PSA and antiPSA in hand, he turned his attention to the development of the PSA test. Working with Lawrence D. Papsidero, he was able to demonstrate the presence of PSA in the sera of prostate cancer patients (Cancer Res., 40: 2429, 1980). Noteworthy then, and more so now, was the observation that circulating PSA exhibits predominantly as 100 kDa versus that of prostate tissue as 33 kDa, and it is "contaminated" with normal serum protein. This is also the first report describing the existence of complexed PSA versus free PSA as it is called today.

Together with Manabu Kuriyama, Dr. Chu then developed an enzyme linked immunosorbent assay for PSA (Cancer Res., 40: 4658, 1980). The results revealed the potential diagnostic value of PSA. In patients with benign prostatic hypertrophy, PSA levels were greater than those of healthy controls. Patients with prostate cancer demonstrated even higher PSA levels, which increased with increasing disease stage. Working together with the National Prostatic Cancer Project urologists, he and Gerald P. Murphy evaluated the additional clinical value of PSA (Cancer Res., 41: 3874, 1981). PSA was of prognostic value in patients with advanced disease. Serial PSAs were also of value in monitoring prostate cancer patients undergoing treatment. Significantly, patients with localized prostate cancer, who underwent curative therapy and later developed metastasis, were found to exhibit increasingly elevated PSA before disease recurrence was detected clinically. Furthermore, Dr. Chu and his laboratory colleagues showed that PSA is expressed in vitro and in vivo by prostate tumors and is a marker for prostate epithelial cells (J. Natl. Cancer Inst., 66: 37, 1981 and 68: 99, 1982). Hence, the basis for the use of PSA in the diagnosis of prostate cancer was established firmly.

Dr. Chu also reported the first experiments characterizing fundamental properties of PSA. Together with Drs. Wang and Rueyming Loor, he showed that PSA biochemically is a glycoprotein in isomeric forms (Methods in Cancer Research, Vol. 19, p. 179, New York: Academic Press, 1982; Int. Res. Commun. System Med. Res., 11: 327, 1983). He then tried to discern what its biological function is, if any. Together with Yoshihito Ban, he presented the answer in a ground-breaking paper, which is the first report that PSA biologically is a unique protease (Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun., 23: 482, 1984). This finding also provided the genesis of today’s "PSA-protease inhibitor" complexes.

A simplified purification procedure for PSA and the preparation of antiPSA monoclonal antibody further facilitated the widespread use of the PSA test (Oncology, 39: 1, 1982); Hybridoma, 2: 139, 1983; J. Urol., 141: 152, 1989). Dr. Chu is also responsible for the transfer of PSA technology to the biomedical industry, which subsequently has made PSA reagents readily available. Consequently, expanded basic research and clinical application of PSA was extensively conducted by investigators all around the world. One measure of the profound impact of Dr. Chu’s pioneering PSA work can be quantified from the exponential increase in the number of papers published on PSA from only one in 1979 to the rate of more than one a day at present. The tremendous number of investigations on PSA eventually led to the approval of the PSA test by the Food and Drug Administration for the purpose of monitoring in 1986 and for diagnosis of prostate cancer in 1994.

Dr. Chu made a seminal discovery and then pursued its translational research with global impact on prostate cancer patient care (Tumor Biol., 18: 123, 1997). In additional to PSA, his research interests include immunodiagnosis of breast cancer, immunohistochemistry of ductal carcinomas, experimental cancer immunotherapy, and activation of TGF-ß. He has published over 300 research articles and holds 11 patents related to diagnosis and therapy of cancer. He has been a member of the American Association for Cancer Research since 1973. Dr. Chu has received numerous awards, including the Presidential Award of the American Urological Association, the Dornier Innovative Research Award of the American Foundation for Urologic Disease, as well as the Abbott Award of the International Society for Oncodevelopmental Biology and Medicine, the Schoellkopf Medal of the American Chemical Society, and the Van Slyke Award of the American Association for Clinical Chemistry. He is also a recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award from both The Pennsylvania State University and North Carolina State University.

Theses

The following undergraduate students graduated as University Scholars in 1998/99:

James V. Alvarez, B M B, Dr. Gilmour, "Test System for In Vivo Analysis of Transactivator Function"

Todd A. Armen, B M B, Dr. Gay, "Non-Genomic Effects of Testosterone and Estradiol on Bone-Forming Cells"

Morad Askari, P M, Dr. Tu, "Assessing Suspected Glutathione S-Transferase in Sacharomyces cerevisiae for Enzymatic Activity"

David E. Benson, B M B, Dr. Hymer, "Effect of Resistance Exercise Training in the Human Female on Bioactive Growth Hormone in the Circulation"

Nicole R. Bianco, B M B, Dr. Bryant, "Insertional Inactivation of the hofD Gene of Synechocystis sp. Stain PCC6803 Leads to a Bald and Lame Phenotype"

Aaron Dixon, B M B, Dr. Pugh, "The TBA/TFIIA Interaction and the Role of the Amino Terminal Domain of TBP in Its Dimerization"

Michael J. Dougherty, MICRB, Dr. Tien, "Site-Directed Mutagenesis of the Heme Pocket of Manganese Peroxidase"

David M. Dudzinski, B M B / CHEM, Dr. Farber, "Studies on the Structure of Proteins: a/b Barrel Proteins, Histidine Ammonia-Lyase, and Expansins"

Carla S. Fisher, B M B, Dr. Babitzke, "Genetic Characterization of Bacillus subtilis csrA"

Stephen M. Fuchs, B M B, Dr. Tien, "Heterologous Expression of Fungal Lignin Peroxidase Isozyme H8 and Characterization of the Veratryl Alchohol Binding Site"

Robert M. Gage, B M B, Dr. Tu, "Differential Gene Expression in Drosophila melangaster Following Pentobarbital Treatment"

Brian A. Kelch, B M B, Dr. Bollinger, "Chemical Rescue of Electron Transfer in the R2 Subunit of Ribonucleotide Reductase"

Amy K. McCardell, B M B, Dr. Reese, "Selection and Analysis of TAF90 Mutants in Yeast"

Christopher Nguyen, B M B, Dr. Brenchley, "Characterization of a b-Galactosidase from a Psychrophilic Isolate"

Elizabeth A. Przybysz, B M B, Dr. Mastro, "Characterization of the Developmental Patterns of Prolactin and Prolactin Receptor Gene Transcription in Rat Small Intestinal Epithelial Cells and Intraepithelial Lymphocytes"

Anish K. Ravindra, P M, Dr. Simpson, "High Resolutin Structural Analysis of Chromatin at Specific Loci: Saccharomyces cerevisiae Silent Mating Type Locus HMRa"

Lumelle Schmiedekamp, B M B, Dr. Pugh / Dr. Schlegel, "Interaction Analysis of Macromolecular Assemblies: I. Solution Interactions of Yeast General Transcription Factor IIA, Yeast TATA-Binding Protein and TATA Containing DNA. II. Surface Interactions of Soluble CD14 and Annexin V with Phospholipid Surfaces"

The following students received MS or Ph.D. degrees in BMMB in 1998/99:

Robert Coleman, Ph.D., B. Franklin Pugh, "TBP Dimerization: A Role in Negatively Regulating Transcription Complex Assembly"

Divvya Dhulkotia, M.S., Zhi-Chun Lai, "Characterization of a GP150 Homolog in Drosophila Virilis and its Expression during Embryogenesis"

Jennifer (Horney) Dunbar, Ph.D., Gregory Farber, "I. Structural Studies of Ribonucleases: Ribonuclease A and the Petunia Inflata S-Proteins. II. Structural Studies of Enzymes Involved in Amino Acid Metabolism: Aspartokinase III Human Branched-Chain Amino Acid Aminotransferase and L-Aspartate Ammonia Lyase"

Laura L. Elnitski, Ph.D., Hardison, "Conserved E Boxes in the Locus Control Region Contribute to Enhanced Expression of ß-Globin Genes via TAL1 and Other Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Proteins"

Bhavana Joneja, Ph.D., Don Wojchowski, "Mechanisms of EPO-Mediated Hematopoietic Progenitor Cell Proliferation and Survival: Roles for C-KIT JAK2 P1M1 Kinase and Y343 of the EPO Receptor"

Cheryl Ann Keller, Ph.D., Susan Abmayr, "An Investigation into the Role of Nautilus in Drosophila Myogenesis"

William Peter Long, Ph.D., Gary Perdew, "Examination of the Role of Protein Kinase C in Regulating the Transcriptional Activity of the Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor and the Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor Nuclear Translocator Proteins in Dimer Contexts"

Lakshmi Madabusi, Ph.D., David Gilmour, "Studies on the Drosophila bsp 70 core promoter: Role of the downstream TFIID contacts in transcription and pausing"

Jason Newman, Ph.D., Richard Frisque, "Identification and characterization of JCV variants present in two pediatric and two adult PML patients"

Elizabeth A. Przybysz, M.S, Andrea M. Mastro, "Characterization of the Developmental Patterns of Prolactin and Prolactin Receptor Gene Transcription in Rat Small Intestinal Epithelial Cells and Intraepithelial Lymphocytes"

Laura Zapanta, Ph.D., Ming Tien, "Transformation of Phanerochaete Chrysosporium and the Expression of Antisense Lignin Peroxidase Isozyme H2 M"

Congratulations!

WE APPRECIATE YOUR SUPPORT

Below is a listing of funds within our department. We would of course be very pleased to receive donations toward any of them you may choose to support. Following the list of funds are those of you who contributed to any of them in 1998; we greatly appreciate your support.

Endowed Funds

Other Funds

Contributors in 1998

Alumni News

'40

Barbara Heckler Perkins (B.S., MedTech, '48) is retired and living in Mt. Vernon, OH.

'60

Anthony A. Capolupo (B.S., Chem, '68) has been self-employed for the past 25 years selling comic books, records and games. In addition, he hand-assembles custom computers.

'70

F. Alan Andersen (Ph.D., Biophys, '72) After 22 years with the FDA, Dr. Anderson left to become Director of Cosmetic Ingredient Review, a company which conducts independent, expert safety assessments of cosmetic ingredients.

Brooks Betts, II (M.S., Micrb, '76) is Associate Director of the Easton Area Family Medicine Associates in Easton, PA. He's also Director of the School Board for the Easton Area School District.

Bridget Polanski Breyfogle (B.S., Micrb, '75) is a cell culture technician for MatTek Corporation in Ashland, MA.

William M. Cress (B.S., Biochem, '77) is a Chemical Specialist at the Beaver Valley Power Station (commercial PWR nuclear reactor) in Shippingport, PA.

Robin M. Fleck (B.S., Biochem, '74) After earning her law degree, Robin is a self-employed medical-legal expert in dermatology and internal medicine. She is also the single parent of a 7-year-old son.

William H. Gowen (B.S., Micrb, '75) is an attorney with The Office of Patents and Licensing at Princeton University.

Barbara (Shingledecker) Grzenczyk (B.S., Biochem, '73) is a Contracts Manager with Wellington Environmental in St. Louis, MO.

Kathryn (Tomsich) Kunkle (B.S., MedTech, '75) is a Senior Technologist in the Stem Cell Transplant Program/Cryolaboratory at Albert Einstein Healthcare Network/Cancer Center in Philadelphia.

Fred Laufer (M.S., Biophys, '74) is in private practice in Allentown, PA as a family physician and is also Director of "The Vein and Skin Care Center."

William P. Peters (B.S., Bioch/Biophys, '72) is President, Director and CEO of Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit, MI.

Gary S. Ross (B.S., Biophys, '78) joined Emund Scientific as an OEM Sales Representative for the industrial optics division in December '98.

Donna Kaelber Strom (B.S., MedTech, '73) is a Toxicologist at Penrose/St. Francis Health Services in Colorado Springs, CO.

Thomas Thrall (B.S., Biophys, '72) received his M.D. from Indiana University Medical School in 1979. He is currently practicing medicine in Portland, Oregon. He and his wife, Deborah, live on a farm in Oregon's coast range.

Richard Wallace (B.S., '70) graduated from Thomas Jefferson University Medical School in 1974 and is now in private practice in Internal Medicine in Philadelphia, PA.

Richard Wicks (B.S., Biochem, '73) is President of Fortron Bio Science, Inc., a company engaged in research on novel blood markers for cardiovascular and neurological diseases. He and his wife, Marie, have three children and reside in Carey, NC.

'80

John M. Rumberger (B.S., Bioch, '89) is a Laboratory Director with Hexos, Inc. in Bothell, WA.

Kimberly Detwiler (B.S., Micrb, '88) has been at Merck for the past 10 years and is currently Release Coordinator at their West Point site.

Mary B. Fullerton (B.S., Micrb, '88) is a National Account Manager for Parke-Davis in VA.

Edward J. Furey (B.S., Micrb, '88) received his doctorate in optometry in 1993 and currently has a private practice in Atlanta, GA.

David E. Hutchinson (B.S., MCB, '89) is bulk sales specialist with Fisher Scientific/Acros Organics in Doylestown, PA.

Dan Loeb (B.S., Biochem, '81) is Associate Professor of Oncology at the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Lauri Ellis Neyer (B.S., MCB, '89) received her Ph.D. in Immunology from Cornell University in 1995 then did a post-doctoral fellowship at Stanford University. She is currently employed as a Sr. Scientist with Bayer Corp. in California. Her husband, David Neyer, is also a Penn State alum (B.S., Chem).

Jim Powell (B.S., MCB, '88) recently completed a fellowship in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at Duke University Medical Center. He is currently a Pediatric Oncologist at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children in Philadelphia, PA.

Joseph H. Quinn (B.S., Biochem, '83) received his M.S. in Chemistry in 1989 from the University of Scranton and is employed in the Regulatory Affairs Department at Pasteur Merieux Connaught. He and his wife, Teresa, have three children.

Burton Sarnoff (B.S., MCB, '86) started a new position as Product Manager for fluorescent spectrometers at C & L Instruments in Hummelstown, PA. He indicates he and his family are now living in the Chester Tyson family ancestral home in Floradale, PA (Tyson Building at Penn State is named after him).

William P. Swaney (B.S., MCB, '87) received his M.S. from the University of Pittsburgh's Department of Human Genetics in '98 and has been accepted for Ph.D. Study at the University of Pittsburgh. At the time of his response, he and his wife, Lynn, were expecting their 2^nd and 3^rd children (a set of identical twin girls). The best to all!

Rosanne Specialetti Welcher (B.S., Micrb, '80) received her Ph.D. in Microbiology at the University of California-Davis in '85 and an MBA from the University of La Verne in '97. Rosanne is the Manager of Research and Development for Dako Corp. in Carpinteria, CA. She and her husband, Andy (a scientist with Amgen), have one child.

MeLinda R. Wilson (B.S., Micrb, '83) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics and Human Development at Michigan State University. She is currently doing research on changes in cell population dynamics during apoptosis in tumorgenic cells. She and her husband, Michael Daeschlein, have one daughter.

'90

Alison L. Bell (B.S., Micrb, '98) Alison is pursuing her Ph.D. degree in the Department of Biology at Penn State and is currently working with Dr. Thomas Whittam on research in the area of evolution of infection of E. coli in urinary tract infections in women.

Sonja Cerra-Gilch (B.S., Micrb, '90) finished residency training in Diagnostic Radiology at Temple University Hospital and is currently employed as a radiologist in private practice with Radiology Associates of the Main Line at Paoli Memorial Hospital and Bryn Mawr Hospital. She and her husband have two children.

Lisa (Stover) Conner (B.S., Biochem, '93) is a manager with Industrial Science and Technology Network, Inc. in York, PA.

Kirk Davenport (B.S., Micrb, '90) is an Environmental Consultant in Exton, PA. He and his wife, Colleen O'Brien Davenport (B.S., Micrb, '90) have two children. Colleen is a Research Fellow for the Institute for Cellular Therapeutics in Glendden, PA.

Theresa B. Donohue (B.S., MedTech, '95) is a 1^st year graduate student in the Physician Assistant Program at George Washington University.

Martin P. Flynn (B.S., Micrb, '97) is a Cell Processing Scientist with Chimeric Therapies, Inc., a private start-up company in the Philadelphia area which is currently enrolled in Phase II clinical trials performing cell manipulation for leukemia and solid organ transplants. Martin specializes in bone marrow transplantation.

Angela B. Hess (B.S., Micrb, '98) is enrolled in the Ph.D. program in the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology at the University of Iowa. Her husband, David Shaffer, is also a Penn State Alum, graduating with a bachelors in Electrical Engineering in 1998.

Melissa M. (Sladicka) Jones (B.S., Micrb, '90) completed her MBA at Villanova University in December 1998. She is a Senior Validation Engineer at SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals. Melissa and her husband live in Woodlyn, PA.

Nathan Karpowich (B.S., Micrb, '98) is enrolled in the Ph.D. program in the Department of Biological Sciences at Columbia University.

Paula Lundgren (B.S., Micrb, '90) completed a 5-year surgical residency at Lehigh Valley Hospital and is now practicing general surgery in DuBois, PA.

Amish Mehta (B.S., Biochem, '93) is a physician in training at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. He married Amy Rippon (B.S., Biochem, '93) in 1996. Amy is a graduate student in Biological Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University.

Gabrielle P. Raia (B.S., MCB, '94) is employed by Stratagene in LaJolla, CA as a Technical Sales Representative.

Marc Schlank (B.S., Micrb, '91) completed his M.S. in Microbiology from Thomas Jefferson University in May '98 and was appointed to the College of Graduate Studies Alumni Board of Directors that same year. He is an Assistant Standards Administrator with NCCLS. He and his wife, Bliss, live in Springfield, PA.

Elizabeth Shank (B.S., MCB, '98) is currently a graduate student at the University of California-Berkeley.

Christine Silverstrim (B.S., Biochem, '91) is a Sr. Assoc. Res. Scientist at Bayer Corporation in West Haven CT and has been working in oncology drug discovery for the last 3 years.

Douglas Smith (Ph.D., MCB, '92) is Associate Professor of Biology at Clarion University. He received tenure last year and has been awarded a sabbatical to co-author a book, "Science for the Human Good," with Dr. Julia Bartkoviak. He and his wife, Rebecca Burkert (B.S., Biol., '88) have two children and operate an organic produce farm, "Echo Valley Farm," in Sligo, PA.

Alumni Directory Information

Where Are You?

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