2008 Woodie Awards
Scientist of the Week: Christopher Laumer
Caitlin Williamson
Issue date: 2/1/08 Section: Features
Senior Christopher Laumer is working toward a double major in biology and geology. He is currently conducting a research project with Dave Hall, associate professor of chemistry, involving the identification of proteins within the shells of hard corals.
"I'm working on a project to determine at least one or several of the proteins that a hard coral uses to build its skeleton," Laumer said. "We have found evidence that there are proteins embedded within layers of calcium carbonate that help form the crystal structure and help guide the nucleation of these crystals, and no one really knows what those are."
The work is tedious, and involves several lengthy processes just to obtain an extraction of protein to sample from the coral. He is specifically studying Pocillopora damicornis, a type of hard coral.
"It's very frustrating; I'm not a biochemist by trade," Laumer said. "I'm doing this because I'm interested in bio-mineralization and this is very much a new approach for me. You pick it up as you go."
Although Laumer is interested in the research he is conducting, it is only a pet project for him. His true interests lie in evolutionary relationships between animals.
The project is "sort of an idea I had and liked," Laumer said. "It's probably not my primary interest in the sciences; it's simply a project I've picked up. I've done a few internships over the past several summers that have helped guide my ambitions and they're pretty different from the project I'm currently working on."
Last summer, Laumer was a student at Dartmouth College and worked in a molecular biology laboratory there, sequencing animal genes.
"I was sequencing them to determine the evolutionary relationships of the animals they belong to, which were sponges," Laumer said.
"[My favorite part] was playing with the different means of analyzing data," he continued. "When all was said and done, I had a thousand amino acids that were all lined up and all aligned relative to one another. You can analyze those in many different ways; it's really sort of a philosophical choice. You get different evolutionary relationships based on what kind of analysis you do, which is a little problematic, but it's a good way to learn where the strengths and weaknesses of this sort of molecular data lie."
"I'm working on a project to determine at least one or several of the proteins that a hard coral uses to build its skeleton," Laumer said. "We have found evidence that there are proteins embedded within layers of calcium carbonate that help form the crystal structure and help guide the nucleation of these crystals, and no one really knows what those are."
The work is tedious, and involves several lengthy processes just to obtain an extraction of protein to sample from the coral. He is specifically studying Pocillopora damicornis, a type of hard coral.
"It's very frustrating; I'm not a biochemist by trade," Laumer said. "I'm doing this because I'm interested in bio-mineralization and this is very much a new approach for me. You pick it up as you go."
Although Laumer is interested in the research he is conducting, it is only a pet project for him. His true interests lie in evolutionary relationships between animals.
The project is "sort of an idea I had and liked," Laumer said. "It's probably not my primary interest in the sciences; it's simply a project I've picked up. I've done a few internships over the past several summers that have helped guide my ambitions and they're pretty different from the project I'm currently working on."
Last summer, Laumer was a student at Dartmouth College and worked in a molecular biology laboratory there, sequencing animal genes.
"I was sequencing them to determine the evolutionary relationships of the animals they belong to, which were sponges," Laumer said.
"[My favorite part] was playing with the different means of analyzing data," he continued. "When all was said and done, I had a thousand amino acids that were all lined up and all aligned relative to one another. You can analyze those in many different ways; it's really sort of a philosophical choice. You get different evolutionary relationships based on what kind of analysis you do, which is a little problematic, but it's a good way to learn where the strengths and weaknesses of this sort of molecular data lie."
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