2014 SMART Team

smart Team Students Modeling A R e s e ar c h T o p i c

The Governor’s Academy 1 Elm Street, Byfield, Massachusetts www.thegovernorsacademy.org

smart Team

Students Modeling a Research Topic

What is SMART team?

• SMART stands for Students Modeling A Research Topic and is a program sponsored by the Milwaukee School of Engineering.

• A group of bright and talented students collaborate with a nearby University or College researching and modeling proteins.

• After designing and building a model of the protein, SMART teams design a scientific poster which is presented at The American Society of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Meetings (ASBMB). Students have traveled to the following cities to present in past years: • Washington, D.C. • San Diego, CA • Boston, MA • SMART team is offered as an afternoon activity at The Governor’s Academy and is led by Judy Rokous, AP Biology and Honors Biosystems Teacher.

In this multi-faceted program, students develop teamwork as they delve into the molecular world, explore science as a process and not just a collection of facts, and work closely with a research lab investigating the structure-function relationship of a protein the researcher is studying.

SMART Team at Govs • SMART team 2013 – 2014 worked with Charles J. Dimitroff, Ph.D. at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA. • SMART team 2012 – 2013 worked with Dr. Jörg-Walter Bartsch of Philipps-University Marburg in Marburg, Germany.

• SMART team 2011 – 2012 worked with the lab of Lawreen Connors at Boston University School of Medicine on transthyretin.

• SMART team 2010 – 2011 worked with the lab of Thomas Laue at University of New Hampshire on Antibody b-12 (which neutralizes HIV-1).

• During the 2009 – 2010 school year, the first SMART team at the Academy worked with the lab of Catherine Drennan at M.I.T.