Consider these facts for a moment:

-- While heart disease has decreased 20 percent on average for all Americans in the past 35 years, it has decreased by only 13 percent for African Americans.

-- 80 percent of children born with HIV in the US are born to African-American and Hispanic women.

-- 41 million Americans have no insurance and millions more are underinsured.

-- U.S. ranks 24th in the world in terms of life expectancy for men.

-- U.S. ranks 18th in the world in terms of life expectancy for women.

America is the only industrialized nation in the world that does not have some sort of national health insurance plan. In order to radically change these statistics, "we need a revolution," asserted Dr. Gaston, former Assistant Surgeon General. "Webster’s defines 'revolution' as a radical change in a situation," she continued, "and there is no question that we need a radical change in the situation of our health in this nation."

Dr. Marilyn Hughes Gaston, MD, was the keynote speaker at the 2003 Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS) sponsored by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) and by the American Society for Microbiology (ASM).

Dr. Gaston proposed to improve access to quality care on multiple levels: service delivery system, training, policy and legislation, and most importantly research. Research is needed to gather more information on genetic differences, to find out why some ethnic groups acquire diseases earlier in life than others, and to find out the best ways to help change our lifestyles to prevent and cope with chronic illness. Dr. Gaston unwrapped the conference with the idea of a revolution and throughout the next three days, I along with the other 2,560 attendees witnessed the innovations that are currently at work.

Other inspirational professionals shared their thoughts for the duration of the conference on a broad range of topics, from hormones and mammary glands, to mathematical analysis of cumulative voting. Dr. Sampson Davis, Dr. George Jenkins, and Dr. Rameck Hunt, the authors of the inspirational book, The Pact: Three Young Men Make a Promise and Fulfill a Dream, shared some of their stories as well. My favorite of the talks was perhaps the one given by Dr. Carlos Bustamante from UC-Berkeley. His presentation was titled "Grabbing the Cat by the Tail: Studies of Packaging of DNA by Single PH29 Bacteriophage Particles Using Optical Tweezers."

Dr. Bustamante, to whom TIME magazine gave the title of "protein wizard," has devised novel methods of single-molecule visualization, such as Scanning Force Microscopy (SFM) and optical tweezers, to study the dynamics, structure, and kinetics of nucleoprotein assemblies. The optical tweezers allow him to manipulate a single molecule at a time and help to characterize the elasticity of DNA, to induce the mechanical unfolding of individual protein molecules, and to investigate the machine-like behavior of molecule motors. I was astounded by this genius device and pondered about the possibilities of understanding protein folding via these methods for the rest of my day.

I had an amazing time learning from fellow undergraduate and graduate students as they presented their research. Scientists came from all over the U.S. and the world. Presentations were scheduled throughout the conference in poster and oral form, and the topics that nearly 1600 presentations covered were overwhelming, as you might imagine.

In 2003, more than 280 representatives from 182 graduate programs at U.S. colleges and universities, as well as scientists from government agencies, foundations, and professional scientific societies attended the conference. So there was a lot of recruiting going on as well. I noticed that for many students who were applying to graduate programs this was of particular benefit; students had an opportunity to meet someone from their prospective programs and share with them the research the students had been involved in. And for those of us who still have a few years before finishing our undergraduate education, it was a grand chance to get guidance and advise.

At the conference, I presented a poster on the project which I had worked on my first year as a UBRPer in Dr. Daniel Stamer’s lab, Ophthalmology. The Stamer lab focuses on glaucoma research; their goal is to determine the molecular and cellular mechanisms that underlie normal and abnormal maintenance of aqueous humor outflow. The research I worked on was concerning a family of calcium depended transmembrane protein, known as cadherin, that mediate cell-cell adhesion through specific protein:protein interactions of cytoplasmic domains. The aim of my project was to examine the expression of cadherins in Schlemm’s Canal cells, which play a significant role in adherens junction complexes that control permeability of vascular endothelia. I was quite amazed to discover several other projects on glaucoma research because there is a limited number of laboratories around the nation that do basic glaucoma research – most of the focus is on clinical research. I exchanged my findings with the others and we had a great time figuring out other possible ways of targeting the problem. I received a lot of questions about glaucoma in general because most people know of someone who suffers from the disease, if not themselves.

The conference was very well organized. During meals there were plenty of opportunities for networking. Tables were set up which included several professionals from various areas, i.e. biochemistry, which provided a great way of getting in touch with others in your area of interest. We did, however, have a little bit of time for exploration during the conference. The conference had arranged several tours of nearby campuses and the city for the attendees. For some people this was their first time in San Diego so they were not able to hold back the urge to visit San Diego Zoo and some of the beaches. Although we were warned about the obvious temptation of the mall located across from the convention center, some couldn’t deny a stroll on the last day. I had fun catching up with some people who I had met at previous conferences and of course, making new friends.

I would like to give a special thank you to Carol Bender and Genevieve Kenney for giving me this opportunity, my mentor Dr. Daniel Stamer, and everyone else from the Stamer lab for their guidance and support throughout the project. I would also like to thank the UBRP Program, the faculty sponsors, and the UA for placing such a strong emphasis on undergraduate research.

Salma Kaochar, former UBRPer in Dr. Daniel Stamer’s lab, Ophthalmology, current UBRPer in Dr. Roy Parker’s lab, Molecular and Cellular Biology