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Williams Physics Professor Wins National Grants - March 12, 2008
WILLIAMSTOWN - Daniel Aalberts, associate professor of physics at Williams College, was recently awarded grants from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.
Aalberts uses statistical and computational physics methods to study biological polymers. His research focuses on RNA, single-stranded nucleic acids that play a variety of roles, including supplying cells with the information needed to build proteins and catalyzing key chemical reactions.
The NSF Research in Undergraduate Institutions grant, in the amount of $260,000, will support a three-year project "Improving RNA Pseudoknot Models and Algorithms."
RNA is a long, thin molecule that folds into complex, compact shapes through complementary base paring. One such shape, the pseudoknot, is the rare but highly functional stacked structure that most RNA enzymes take on. Most traditional RNA prediction methods exclude pseudoknots.
To bridge that gap, Aalberts and his undergraduate collaborators have been developing and improving mathematical models to explain pseudoknot structures and calculate their abundance.
A $226,000 NIH Academic Research Enrichment Award grant, also a three- year award, will support a project titled "Binding and Splicing mRNA."
Splice junctions in messenger RNA indicate the boundaries of sequences that intervene in genetic information. As these sequences must be edited away to locate gene signals, predicting these junctions is crucial. While statistical models for this processing step are still incomplete, one effective approach on the cellular level is preferentially binding a small RNA molecule to these splice junctions.
Students in Aalberts' laboratory this year include juniors Teng Jian Khoo of Penang, Malaysia, and Sandy Nandagopal of New Delhi, India. Among the students who have previously worked with Aalberts on pseudoknot structures are Nathan Hodas, class of 2004, winner of the American Physical Society's Apker Award for outstanding undergraduate research, Evan Miller, class of 2006, and Alex Zaliznyak, class of 2007. Past undergraduate collaborators on his binding and splicing projects include Jeff Garland of 2003, Eric Daub and Jesse Dill, both of 2004, Rob Cooper of 2006 and Will Parker, 2008.
Aalberts joined the Williams faculty in 1997. He teaches classes in computational biology, mathematical methods for science, and modern physics. His work has been published in several peer-reviewed journals, including Bioinformatics, Nucleic Acid Research and Physical Review E.
He received his bachelor's degree in physics and doctorate in theoretical statistical and condensed matter physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. |
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