Dr. Amy Greene joined the chemistry and biochemistry faculty of Albright College in 2018.  She is passionate about helping students experience the full breadth of biochemistry research in the undergraduate lab or as undergraduate research students.  Students working with Dr. Greene in the lab will explore scientific questions based on their interests, designing their own experiments, and presenting their work in professional-style articles and presentations.  In the research lab, Dr. Greene and her students study Vorticella convallaria, a beautiful single-celled organism rarely studied by biochemists, which means that undergraduate students can design novel experiments for exciting discoveries.

• Biochemistry
• Ciliates
• Vesicular Trafficking
• Parasite Innate Immunity
• Student-Designed Research Projects

Vorticella convallaria Biochemistry

Vorticella convallaria are single-celled organisms which look like flowers; their cell bodies are attached to the substrate with a stalk.  Ubiquitous ciliates involved in bioremediation of wastewater, Vorticella are likely to be found in local ponds but are rarely studied by biochemists. Students in the Greene lab have the chance to chemically manipulate and observe Vorticella molecular biology including endocytosis, ATP-independent stalk contraction, and contractile vacuole osmotic regulation, making novel discoveries about Vorticella biochemistry.  We collaborate with Dr. Sangjin Ryu’s fluid mechanics engineering lab (University of Nebraska, Lincoln) to manipulate Vorticella within microfluidic devices.

Student-Designed Research Projects in Undergraduate Laboratories

All undergraduate science majors should to experience the full breath of scientific research: choosing interesting questions, doing thorough background research, conducting experiments, and presenting their data in a professional-style article and oral presentations.  Incorporating authentic research experiences into undergraduate labs allows more students to experience the research process and may increase retention in STEM majors.

• CHE325: Biochemistry I and lab
• CHE326: Biochemistry II and lab
• CHE105: General Analytical Chemistry I (laboratory)
• CHE106: General Analytical Chemistry II (laboratory)

• Amy Styer Greene and Stephen L. Hajduk SL (2016) “Trypanosome Lytic Factor-1 Initiates Oxidation stimulated Osmotic Lysis of Trypanosoma brucei brucei.” J Biol Chem 291(6):3063-307
• Amy Styer Greene (2019). “New Thermodynamics Boxes Simulation.” CBE—Life Sciences Education, accepted (letter to the editor)

• Judge, Science and Engineering Fairs (yearly)
• National Conference on Undergraduate Research Faculty Administrator Network Workshop Talk “Integrating Student-Designed Research Projects into the Chemistry Curriculum” (April 2019)
• The Association of Colleges of the Chicago Area Chemistry Symposium Series host (2018)
• Judson University Chemical Safety Officer – wrote CHP and headed chemical safety committee (2017/2018)

• Nebraska Nanoscale Facility Professor/Student Pair Summer Research Program, 2018
• Biology of Parasitism Course, 2012
• NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, 2011-2014
• Phi Beta Kappa Inductee, 2010

• Albright Creative Research Experiences:
• Nhu Nguyen “Chemical Crosslinking of Magnetic Beads for Studies of Feeding Preference in Vorticella convallaria” Interim 2019 and summer 2019
• Mikhayla Reilly “Temperature effects on Vorticella convallaria food vacuole formation rates AND Conrad Weiser High School Science Research Institute Mentoring” summer 2019