Wheaton College Alumni Magazine Spring 2014 | Page 10

WHEATON news

STUDENT NEWS

Professors Receive Fifth National
Science Foundation Grant
Dr. Daniel
Burden and Guest Associate Professor of Biology Dr. Lisa
Keranen-Burden received a 3-year, $300,000 grant from the
National Science Foundation (NSF) to characterize protein
nanopores with modified caps.This is the fifth NSF grant
the Burdens have been awarded since 2006.Two of their
past awards were received in conjunction with science faculty
Dr. Peter Walhout, Dr. Jenny Busch, and Dr. Brian Hunt.
The grant supports the couple’s scientific and
pedagogical goals: to explore the behavior of a particular
class of cell-membrane protein after large chemical
alterations are made to its molecular structure (with
potential applications for ultra-rapid DNA sequencing,
new chemical sensors, and medicine), and to provide
cutting-edge undergraduate research opportunities
for Wheaton students at the intersection of chemical
synthesis, analysis, and computer simulation.
“We have been working with this class of proteins for
some time; however, this particular avenue of research is
new, not only to our laboratories at Wheaton, but also to
the field,” Dr. Daniel Burden says. “We will be creating
and characterizing novel nanopores that will help inform
the field about broader nanopore-design principles.”
Over three years, H