Drake University student Amanda Marwitz and Adina Kilpatrick, assistant professor of physics, are engaging in a program that aims to strengthen undergraduate science education in Iowa. FUTURE (Fostering Undergraduate Talent – Uniting Research and Education) in Biomedicine allows select professors and undergraduates in Iowa to use the University of Iowa (UI) laboratories for research.
Through a competitive application process, Marwitz and Kilpatrick were selected to work with a UI researcher to study calmodulin recognition of ryanodine receptor.
“The best part of this experience has not only been getting to work with one of my professors on research, but I’m also going to be able to bring valuable techniques and skills back to Drake,” says Marwitz, a biology major from Crystal Lake, Ill. “The point of the program is to be able to bring back what we’ve learned, so our institution can benefit.”
Marwitz and Kilpatrick have had the unique opportunity to learn together as a student and teacher pair as well as collaborate with a UI researcher. Because of their participation in the program, they have developed a unique partnership with UI and learned new lab techniques that will benefit Drake.
The FUTURE in Biomedicine program has selected Drake to participate the past four years. Visit http://now.uiowa.edu/2013/06/summer-research-program-twist for more information on the program and past Drake participants.