Each day Taryn Campbell ´12 is working in a Connecticut College lab this summer, synthesizing compounds alongside her peers and Chemistry Professor Timo Ovaska. These manmade compounds have anti-human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) properties, which may be useful for developing a drug to help cure the virus.

-The compound we are trying to make occurs naturally in an inconvenient place, making it difficult and expensive to extract,- Campbell said. -If our proposed synthesis works, then the compound could be mass-produced in a lab.-

Campbell, a dance and chemistry major, is one of 25 students taking part in the Keck Undergraduate Science Program, which encourages students to undertake comprehensive research projects over a 14-month period. She and her peers also receive grants from the W.M. Keck Foundation and the Marion Lowell Jenkins ´25 Science Scholarship Fund to support their on-campus summer research with professors.

But the work of Campbell and her co-researchers is just one of the many projects students are carrying out this summer.

Samuel Alvarez ´12, a chemistry major, is conducting research with Professor of Chemistry Marc Zimmer and six student peers. Together, they are studying bioluminescence, the chemical reaction that makes organisms glow.

-The students are using computers to examine how a fluorescent protein called killerred kills cells around it, which may be used as an anti-cancer agent in the future,- Zimmer said. -They are also doing a database analysis of fluorescent proteins to understand how they work and what their function is.-

While there are approximately 35 science students working in
Connecticut College labs this summer, many of their fellow students, including Amy Smith ´12, are researching at other organizations and institutions around the
country.

Although Smith appreciates the chance to conduct research at a large university, she says it has helped her gain a new perspective on the opportunities at Connecticut College.

-Conducting research at a large university for the summer has made me appreciate the intimate setting of a liberal arts college and the benefits of being a science major at a small school,- Smith said. -Although some people only think of the humanities when they hear the words ´liberal arts,´ the research opportunities are exceptional at Connecticut College, and the chemistry program is outstanding.-

By Kelly Parlin ´12