MCB NOTES
JULY 2010
Drotch family remembers, honors
lost son and brother – Bacteriology
grad and cold war hero
UConn Trustee, Peter S. Drotch, recalls his mother receiving
notes from students who had been awarded a Lt. Paul Drotch
Memorial Scholarship. Mrs. Drotch treasured learning about the
background and interests of the young students, typically juniors
and seniors on the threshold of careers in Biology. The Drotch
family established the scholarship forty years ago in memory of
Peter’s older brother Paul, a 1957 graduate of the UConn
Bacteriology Department. The fund has since supported the
education of dozens of undergraduates. It is a testament to this
family's devotion to their lost loved one and its gratitude for
UConn's contribution to their lives.
Inside MCB Notes:
2
2010 BOT Distinguished
Professor, Prof. J. Peter
departments, including Bacteriology, a discipline later combined into the
Department Molecular and Cell Biology. Paul was a serious and confident
Gogarten, recognized
student, but also knew how to balance this with his playful side. He
for his teaching,
graduated in 1957 and planned to further his education in a biology
service, and “hot”
Masters degree program. At the time, the military draft was in effect, so he
research
3
Paul attended UConn when there were several biological sciences
Prof. David Knecht
secures several
enlisted in the Marine Corps, joining its officer candidate school to make
his military service more rewarding. He was admitted to flight school and
national and local
trained as a fighter pilot, an exciting and still relatively new job in the
grants, bringing
military. While Paul was stationed in South Carolina, his wing was sent to
advanced
California in winter 1959-60 for winter survival training. These were tense
fluorescence
microscopy to
times in US relations with Cuba; by spring 1960, Fidel Castro was
UConn labs and
establishing close ties with the USSR and the US bolstered its forces at the
classrooms
Guantanamo naval base. Paul’s wing returned to South Carolina and was
then sent to Guantanamo in May for training. Paul flew an A-4 jet, an aircraft designed to support ground
forces by flying at only a few hundred feet or less. The hilly Cuban terrain was challenging. In late May, Paul’s
aircraft was lost during a training exercise. Peter learned of his brother’s death during finals in his freshman
year at UConn.
The notes “were a
source of comfort
to my mother over
the years.”
The Lt. Paul Drotch Memorial Scholarship was created by the family in
1960 to recognize Paul’s accomplishments at UConn and UConn's role in his
aspirations. Originally an award was made to a single student in
Bacteriology, but the scholarship fund has grown, in part from generous
contributions by Peter. Now the awards are made annually to several high
achieving students in MCB, EEB, PNB or Biological Sciences.
In its early years, awardees were asked to write a note to Paul and Peter’s mother, Sybil, letting her know
of their background and interests. Peter reflected that these notes “were a source of comfort to my mother
through the years." Peter, a UConn Accounting graduate, took on stewardship of the scholarship program
after a highly successful career at Price Waterhouse in Hartford and Boston. He has carried on his mother's
tradition in his own way - each year meeting with the awardees at an awards ceremony on the morning of
the April Board of Trustees meeting on the UConn campus. The ceremony gives him an opportunity to talk
with each of the awardees in the spirit of the notes earlier students had sent to his
mother. The new awardees also learn of the significance of the scholarship and
the generosity of the UConn family.
This year’s awardees were Ann Charles (Junior, MCB), Stephanie Davis (Junior,
MCB), Erin Hickey (Sophomore, PNB), Janiris Lopez (Junior, Biological Sciences),
Ryan Molony (Junior, MCB), Hank Ng (Junior, MCB), Jonathan Novak (Sophomore,
MCB),
Meaghan
Roy-O'Reilly
(Sophomore,
MCB),
Alexander
Shepack
(Sophomore, EEB), and Cleo Szmygiel (Senior, Biological Sciences).
Peter has arranged for the scholarship program to be financially solvent in perpetuity. “Its future is
assured,” he notes. His annual visits with the new scholars make the personal connection between his
brother’s dreams and their ambitions. The scholarship program in Paul’s name assures that future biology
students can follow their ambitions, just as he did.
“Hot science” reaps Gogarten a BOT Distinguished Professor Award
Professor J. Peter Gogarten might not have imagined that a more
distinguished honor might be in store for him than his selection as one of
the “Hot100” scientists by the publisher of the journal BioMed Central. His
recent selection as a University of Connecticut Board of Trustees
Distinguished Professor proved him wrong. This, the University’s highest
award for research, teaching and service accomplishments, follows on
Gogarten’s receipt of a 2006 UConn Alumni Association Distinguished
Faculty Award in Research Excellence.
2 College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
MCB NOTES July 2010
Gogarten’s studies of the origin and early evolution of life have garnered worldwide attention. His
seminal 1989 paper that “rooted” the tree of life established the uniqueness of one of life’s most abundant,
but least appreciated forms, the Archaea. Archaea are microscopic cells, like bacteria, and so were
thought to be closely related to them. Gogarten’s work proved this perception wrong, showing that we are
more related to Archaea than to bacteria, though they are very, very distant cousins. He diagrammed the
currently accepted Tree of Life to show three major branches, the Archaea, the Bacteria and the
Eukaryotes, the latter including all plants, animals and us.
The National Science Foundation currently funds a $2.5 million program, directed by Gogarten and
including other MCB researchers, to better understand the details of relationships on the Tree of Life.
Gogarten's work and that of others in the years since his landmark 1989 publication has shown that a tree is
a poor metaphor to depict the relationships among the microbial branches of the tree. Remarkably,
microbes have been found to share genetic traits with unrelated microbes in a process called horizontal
gene transfer. Consequently the neat branches of the Tree of Life are better depicted as what Gogarten
calls the Web of Life. Gogarten’s research continues to uproot traditional views of life’s evolutionary history.
In addition to his research accomplishments, the Board of Trustees award recognized Gogarten’s
teaching and service contributions. He has spearheaded the development of courses and training
programs
in
the
area
of
evolutionary
bioinformatics.
As
co-Facility
Head
of
the
UConn
Biotechnology/Bioservices Bioinformatics Facility along with Dr. Paul Lewis (Ecology and Evolutionary
Biology), he has brought sophisticated software and computing power to laboratories and courses across
many disciplines on campus. Gogarten has also served on educational committees for the UConn Senate,
particularly in their efforts to implement instruction in quantitative subjects throughout the undergraduate
curriculum.
From lab bench to classroom, computer keyboard to educational board, Gogarten has made major
contributions to scholarship and education at the University. The Board of Trustees recognized those
achievements this year and made him one of our own “Hot” scientists.
Knecht brings a glow to cells through fluorescence microscopy
Looking down on the black landscape you’re fascinated by the colored lights that stream along on
invisible highways, each seemingly determined to accomplish its assigned task. The complexity of the scene
is astounding. What controls those lights to keep them moving so
smoothly? All the more amazing is that you are watching
streaming
lights
inside
living
cells
under
a
sophisticated
fluorescence microscope.
Professor David Knecht leads several efforts to bring the inner
workings of cells to light in laboratories and classrooms in MCB.
Three recent grants, two from the National Science Foundation for
over a half million dollars and one from the University’s fall 2009
Provost’s
3 College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Major
Provost
Equipment
Competition
($634,590),
MCB NOTES July 2010
allowed him to purchase microscopes that visually probe the details
of molecular traffic inside living cells.
Common to all these microscopes is the use of dyes that fluoresce
in many brilliant colors when “excited” by ultraviolet light. Because of
the sensitivity of the equipment and the contrast of the dyes against a
black background, very small numbers of intracellular particles
tagged with dye can be seen within living cells. Internal structures and
the movement of particles within cells are captured in three
dimensions using sophisticated, high-speed optical devices.
For example, a ”spinning disk” confocal microscope system,
purchased with NSF funds, allows time-lapse imaging of living cells or
collections of cells in 3D. Unlike conventional microscopes that illuminate an entire sample with light, a
confocal microscope illuminates only a small point in the sample at a time and a computer-guided optical
system follows that illumination as it scans rapidly across the cell. Images are collected and portrayed on a
dark cell with the fluorescently labeled parts standing out in brilliant, colorful contrast. This system is used for
research in 31 UConn laboratories in 11 departments in Biology to Agriculture to Engineering. Additionally,
undergraduates in advanced MCB courses learn to use the instrument for independent projects.
Knecht secured additional NSF support to incorporate advanced microscopy into several MCB courses
and to enhance Connecticut community college and high school instructional programs. The cost of such
techniques frequently precludes their use in undergraduate laboratory courses, but Knecht has designed a
relatively inexpensive microscope system that allows students to perform fluorescence imaging experiments
that students design for themselves with the guidance of course instructors. Students can investigate cellular
processes with different microscopes, learning the advantages and disadvantages of each. MCB laboratory
courses in cell biology, microbiology, genetics and biochemistry plan to incorporate these exercises, each
exploring topics relevant to their fields. Plans are being made to bring Connecticut community college and
high school instructors to UConn to learn these microscopic techniques so that laboratory exercises
appropriate to their courses can be designed.
The latest acquisition by Knecht, using funds provided by the Provost’s office, is for an advanced Nikon
A1R confocal microscope system. This highly sensitive microscope allows investigators to visualize living cells
without damaging them. It extends the range of colors that can be imaged and allows targeting of small
structures in cells with a laser that can turn on, turn off or change the colors of fluorescent molecules in that
region. This system, along with related instruments on campus that also use fluorescence for detection, may
provide the nucleus of a fluorescence technology research center. Together with the introduction of
advanced microscopy in undergraduate courses, such sophisticated research tools will keep UConn
research and education at the forefront of cellular imaging.
Written and edited by Prof. Kenneth Noll, MCB; [email protected] [Thanks to Peter Drotch for photos]
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MCB NOTES July 2010