Last summer, Katelyn Comeau, C’19, was one of ten participants to travel to the University of Oklahoma where she partook in the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) Program in Structural Biology. Katelyn, who is a Biochemistry major and on a pre-med track, took crash courses on biochemistry, structural biology, and x-ray crystallography to aid in her research over the two month program.
The goal of the research was to diversify natural products and drugs for diseases like cancer. Katelyn was able to successfully freeze and store an active and pure prenyltransferase enzyme which the lab will use for progress in drug leads.
As Katelyn finishes up her junior year here at the Mount, the honors student has already accepted an offer for a position with Dr. David Ginty, a Mount grad and last year’s keynote speaker at SPARC. The position will have Katelyn traveling to Harvard University Medical School this summer along with a few other undergrads from other universities. Katelyn will be assisting one of Dr. Ginty’s post doctorate students with projects in neuroscience. She will be working on a pain perception project, as well as analyzing mouse models of autism and links they have to neurology.
Katelyn applied to a total of 25 research programs for this coming summer, resulting in offers from Dr. Ginty, as well as two additional programs, one being at the University of Maryland Medical School in the Nathan Schnaper Intern Program in Translational Cancer Research.
Katelyn is extremely interested in translational cancer research, and plans to attend medical school upon completing her undergraduate studies next year. Congratulations to Katelyn on all her success, and we look forward to hearing about all she accomplishes this summer!