Small-town man does big-time research

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The jobs of most college students consist of cutting vegetables, not DNA. Normal job descriptions include copying papers, not amino acids. Most students create meals, not artificial genes. Normal jobs include doing custom paint jobs, not custom silk fibers. But Sherry Adrianos does not have a normal job.

Adrianos, a graduate student at the University of Wyoming, works in the spider silk research lab in the Molecular Biology Department at the University of Wyoming. Randy Lewis, a professor in the UW Department of Molecular Biology, heads a team of scientists, graduate students and undergraduate students all working toward the same goal: to create a superior fiber by cloning spider silk genes with specific properties. This human-made spider silk could be used for advanced medical surgeries, better protective clothing and improved materials for parachutes and airbags.

Without the help of his team, Lewis’ research would be lost. While Lewis spends most of his time campaigning for money to fund the research, students play a huge role in the execution of the spider silk project.

Adrianos is a wife and mother, but that did not stop her from going back to school. She said, after her kids grew up, she thought about getting an online degree, but decided to come to the university after learning about the spider silk research.

Adrianos, from Kemmerer, said she has always had a passion for science, but she did not become interested in research until later in her life while doing undergraduate research with Lewis. She started working in the Lewis Lab in 2002 as an undergraduate, and she has been there ever since.

“Once I started here, I always found a reason to stay,” she said. She now has a degree in molecular biology and said she is “serious about her science.”

Adrianos starts with a sequence of DNA and uses E. coli bacteria to duplicate the amino acids making the DNA sequence twice as long each time it is copied. This produces a protein that looks and acts like spider silk. She constructs synthetic genes, genes made by humans, to produce custom designed silk fibers.

Monica Rowan, a transfer student from the University of Texas, does not have a normal job either. She is a student who transferred to the UW to take advantage of the research opportunities.

As a young child, Rowan, from Edinburg, Texas, wanted to be a scientist, but as she got older she found “scientist” was a very broad term.

Laughing, she said, “I always knew I wanted to do research. I was just not sure of the direction I wanted to take.”

After transferring to the university, Rowan started work in the spider silk lab in May 2007. Right away, she got involved in the plant aspect of the spider silk research.

To produce human made spider silk, Rowan and the rest of the team attempt to grow the desired DNA in different systems like alfalfa. Rowan’s task is to test each plant to see if it has transformed or carries the DNA for the spider silk gene. If not, it is her job to find out why not.

Rowan said she “loves the idea of getting plants to produce genes for them.”

Rowan, who said she is a “science nerd,” graduated last year with a dual major in biology and zoology and physiology with a minor in anthropology. She is now working on her second degree in molecular biology.

Alyssa Cooper, from Riverton, wanted to be a part of this not-so-normal job as well. She came to UW as a freshman determined to get involved in a research project after attending several programs about research at the university, she said.

She told her adviser she wanted to get involved in research and was then put in contact with Josh Duncan, a senior who also worked in Lewis’ lab. Duncan gave Cooper advice on things she should do and helped her take his place in the lab after he graduated, she said.

In May 2005, Cooper started working in the spider silk lab and she has continued ever since.

Cooper said her part in the research deals with combining the strength unit from one type of spider silk to different ratios of the elastic unit from another type of spider silk. Researchers then “purify the protein and attempt to spin it into fibers,” she said. These fibers are hoped to be lighter, stronger and more elastic than today’s fibers.

Cooper will graduate this fall with degrees in electrical engineering with a biology emphasis, and molecular biology.

Adrianos, Rowan and Cooper seem to agree in their advice that students should ask questions and should not be afraid to contact others who are involved in research. Cooper put it simply: “I think that the ability to perform undergraduate research at the University of Wyoming is one of the best opportunities that our institution offers for its students to get ahead.”

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