Kris Rothermal

Junior-Biology and Chemistry

Research for Dr.'s Bonetti and Dillon

Project

I'm Kris Rothermal, a junior at the University of Southern Colorado. I am part of the research team for biology/chemistry department on campus. My work is on biochemistry. I am working with a fungus by the name of Penicillium fellutanum which at the cellular level has many simillarities to the human cells. My goals are to learn what nutrients in the fungus's diet help elevate the levels of the enzyme acid phosphatase. This enzyme has been found to corrolate with certain cancers.

I am currently running experiments in which we grow the fungal spores on a defined media. We are changing the levels of Iron in the media and determining it's effects by looking at enzyme and protein growth. We have also changed phosphate levels. I will link to actual findings quantitatively further down. My research is funded by the Colorado Commission on Higher Education Program of Excellence.

I am both a biology and chemistry major. When not at school, I play baseball, listen to music, and help children.

Update

My work for Dr. Dillon involves a fairly new technique. We devised a way to build a tensiometer (an instrument that measures surface tension) out of a chain-o-matic balance. I have spent most of my time calibrating the instrument and have gotten it very accurate as compared to the values in the CRC handbook and other texts. I am now using it to measure the surface tension of the media from the fungal species mentioned above. We are looking to see any differences in the tension due to both Iron concentrations and time of growth. We are also looking for the agent responsible for surface tension by finding correlations in biopolymer assays.

The research comes slow but steady at this university. This school has always placed value in the classroom first and so the classes get to use research grade instrument in the labs. This takes time away from research use but in the long run more students will have experience with the operation of the instrument and this benefits to have many knowledgeable people. The researchers are also full time students and class schedules conflict with research time.

Honors and Societies

Organizations and awards:
I am currently a member of three honor societies

• Tri Beta (which is an honor society for biology students)
• Phi Delta Mu (an honor society for medical science)
• American Scholars National Honor Society

Graduated class of '97 valedictorian and recipient of

• 1997 -1998 outstanding chemist of the year
• Anthony Cappozola Scholarship (4 year scholarship)
• University of Southern Colorado Diversity Grant (renewed for 3 years)

Campus life

Class sizes are small so there is more one on one with actual professors instead of teaching assistants. The teachers are very easy to access with numerous office hours and a bend over backwards personality. They are eager to help at any time. There are many clubs on campus, both academic and otherwise. The academic clubs have test banks and study groups as well as fun activities and fundraisers.
Our science departments have many research oppurtunities in several fields. We have great instrumentation and instruction. The research gives an oppurtunity to work independantly in problem solving as well as giving teamwork and leadership skills.

If there are any questions, comments, or things I forgot to discuss of interest please e-mail me at: krisnypo21@yahoo.com

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