June 07, 2007
Bowling
Green, Ky. - Western Kentucky University student Jameson Mattingly of White House, Tenn., will have the opportunity to conduct cutting-edge biomedical research and work with world-renowned geneticists this summer through the historic Summer Student Program at The Jackson Laboratory.
Mattingly was selected from a pool of close to 400 applicants to take part in the program for qualified undergraduates and high school students, and will join two Nobel laureates as an alumnus of the program.
Over the next 10 weeks in Bar Harbor, Maine, Mattingly will carry out an independent research project in the laboratory of Senior Staff Scientist Juergen Naggert, Ph.D., under the guidance of Yun Wang, Ph.D. In the lab, Mattingly will be studying the molecular genetics of metabolic diseases.
Mattingly, an Honors Program student, is studying biology and chemistry at WKU and will be entering his senior year this fall. He has previously conducted research on pulmonary fibrosis -- the scarring of lung tissue -- in a WKU lab.
In addition to conducting research and working closely with Jackson Laboratory scientists, Mattingly will get to interact with students from across the country who share his passion for science. The 31 college and high school students will be living together at Highseas, a Jackson Laboratory residence overlooking Frenchman Bay.
For 83 years, The Summer Students Program at the Jackson Laboratory has given high school and college students the chance to conduct biological research and develop laboratory skills. Eighty percent of the program’s more than 2,200 alumni have gone on to careers in medicine or biomedical research.
The Summer Student Program also boasts two Nobel Prize winning alumni, Drs. David Baltimore and Howard Temin, who shared the 1975 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
The nonprofit Jackson Laboratory, with a research staff of more than 450, investigates the genetic basis of cancer, heart disease, osteoporosis, Alzheimer’s disease, glaucoma, diabetes, and many other human diseases and disorders as well as normal mammalian development and aging. The laboratory is also the world’s source for nearly 3,000 strains of genetically defined mice, home of the Mouse Genome Database and many other publicly available information resources, and an international hub for scientific courses, conferences, training and education.
More information about the Jackson Laboratory Summer Student Program is available at www.jax.org/education.
More WKU news is available at www.wku.edu. If you’d like to receive WKU news via e-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.
For information, contact Tofer Carlson, The Jackson Laboratory, tofercarlson@mac.com; or Joyce Peterson, The Jackson Laboratory, joyce.peterson@jax.org
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