CSU-LSAMP Global Awareness Trip to Medical University of Innsbruck, Austria

Following up on a successful trip in 2009, the California State University Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (CSU-LSAMP) will again be supporting 4 students to conduct biotechnology research at the Innsbruck Medical University and Innsbruck Biocenter in Austria. Covered costs include return airfare travel LA to Austria, housing in Austria and a stipend of $2000 to cover incidentals, local travel, food and cultural experiences. The CSU-LSAMP program is supported by funds from the United States National Science Foundation (NSF:HRD - 0802628), the CSU Office of the Chancellor, and 22 participating CSU campuses. The goal of this program is to increase the number of targeted students who graduate with degrees in the sciences, technology, engineering, or math (STEM). Targeted students are individuals who have faced or face social, educational, or economic barriers to careers in STEM.

Students applying to the programs in Innsbruck should have previously participated in research and have some familiarity/experience with basic laboratory skills and/or computational skills (bioinformatics, proteomics, molecular modeling). Skills to be learned will include various methods of protein quantification, genotyping techniques, various imaging techniques, and computational methods.

Research Projects:

Dr. Hans Dieplinger, Department of Genetic Epidemiology, Innsbruck Medical University, is conducting research on transport processes involved in pathophysiological mechanisms leading to cancer, cardiovascular diseases and infertility. Previous work by LSAMP students used comparative modeling and simulated docking to investigate the vitamin E binding properties of afamin, a member of the albumin gene family and a cancer marker. Students participating in the 2011 project will continue on the structure studies on Afamin to learn more about its concrete mechanisms leading to important functions in several pathophysiologies including cancer, cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases and infertility. In addition, students will be involved and introduced into functional work employing protein-chemistry, cell biology and molecular biology techniques.

Dr. Lukas Huber, Managing Director, Innsbruck Biocenter, is characterizing the function of proteins participating in important pathways in signal transduction. This project is part of ONCOTYROL, an international partnership between academia and industry to accelerate the development and evaluation of individualized cancer therapies, along with prognostic and preventive methods. Previous work used computational models of the protein complex p14/MP1/MEK/ERK to help better understand these signalling interactions at the molecular level, with the aim to ultimately inhibit kinase signaling by interfering with scaffolding and subcellular localization. Students participating in the 2011 project will be involved in the development of a cell-biological pilot screen (that should be up-scaleable to high-through-put) in order to identify small molecular weight  (SMW) compounds that target the p14/MP1 complex and will specifically block p14/MP1 mediated MAPK signaling, but not the MAP-kinase activity in general.

Become a fan of our Facebook pages: CSUF LSAMP