By Jessie Darga, MA ’05, Staff Writer

Wearing a typical white lab coat, Dr. Peter Lin walks over to a small fresh-water aquarium in his lab. Miniature Zebra Fish swim back and forth in the tank, but they are not bait. “They breed so rapidly that we can see many generations in a short period of time,” he explains. “They’re great for research. They’re very tough, you can't kill them.”

Lin, a professor of biology, has been teaching at Barry since 1993. That’s 10 years after Barry started receiving the Minority International Research Training (MIRT) and Minority Access to Research Careers (MARC) grants.

These renewable grants have been awarded to the School of Natural and Health Sciences from a variety of sources--the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Fogarty International Center, the Office of Research on Minority Health, and National Institutes of Health.

The Minority International Research Training program provides summer research opportunities for minority undergraduate and graduate students and faculty in Korea, Jamaica, Italy, and Argentina. Students conduct extensive research on a variety of experiments in high-tech, world-class laboratories. They then present their findings at national and international scientific meetings. MIRT allows Barry’s brightest science students to interact with some of the foremost scholars in biology and chemistry from around the world.

Lin’s first international visit through MIRT came in 2004 when he traveled to Hong Kong with two Barry students. They spent two months networking with scientists and colleagues.

But most times Lin can be found in his Barry lab, conducting research on his Zebra fish. The research on the fish helps model a system to supply reproductive hormones. His students perform the basic research.

“Many of the students do work throughout the year, then during summers, they go out for intense research,” he said. “This lets students have a taste to see if they want to do this.”

A large percentage of Barry’s MIRT students go on to pursue their PhDs at other prestigious schools. In some instances they outperform other students from much larger, research-heavy schools.

“What makes them marketable is the kind of experience they have, the kind of training they receive,” Lin added with a fatherly smile. “And that makes us very proud.”

Dr. Stephanie Bingham is one of MIRT's success stories. During the summer of 1996, she traveled to Argentina for a biomedical internship. At La Universidad de la Patagonia in San Juan Bosco, she studied the sleep cycles of elephant seals.

“I was particularly focused on their breathing patterns, as they transition into adulthood to become to deep-sea diving, food foraging animals after their first year of life,” she recalled. Her research was part of a larger project aimed at recovering the degraded rangelands in the Chubut province.

Back home in Barry’s laboratory, she examined the effects of ethanol on fetal nerve cells. Although she eventually chose neurons over seals, both experiences were valuable. “I was exposed to research in different fields,” recalled Bingham. “I think this gave me a decided advantage when the time came to choose which area of biology I wanted to focus my graduate studies on.”

Bingham is currently working to find a cure for paralysis. She is a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine studying molecular biology. Bingham says she plans to pursue a faculty appointment so that she can continue to perform her research. She attributes much of her success to her experiences with the MIRT program.

“By the time I entered graduate school, I was not only familiar with performing research, but with presenting it to the public,” she said. “This came in handy because public speaking is an integral part of the graduate school experience and beyond.”

Traveling abroad is exciting and beneficial, but is not the only way to gain valuable experience. The Minority Access to Research Careers program is open to minority students in the fields of biology, chemistry, psychology, and math. MARC students conduct research on campus and spend their summers at off-campus research sites, but these are stateside.

They present their work at scientific conferences, publish papers with their research mentors, and interact with leading researchers. MARC's main focus, however, is to prepare students for graduate programs and their future careers.

To date, of 110 MARC student researchers that Barry has trained, more than 70 percent have entered or completed PhD programs. Many come back to Barry to serve as role models and give guest presentations. Some, however, come back to Barry to train more successful scientists.

Before receiving his PhD from the University of Michigan, Dr. Joel Rodriguez graduated from Barry in 1999 with a degree in Psychology. Dr. Ana Jimenez received her BS in Biology from Barry before graduating from the University of Miami with her PhD in Neuroscience.

Both Rodriguez and Jimenez came through the MARC program and are now back at Barry, but this time they’re grading the homework of others.

Rodriguez remembers completing his summer project at Yale University investigating perceptions of HIV risk behavior among heterosexual couples. He also completed two other projects while on campus at Barry. He explored perceptions of discrimination in the Cuban community with Dr. Lenore Szuchman and looked into perceptions of Spanish language competency in businesses with Dr. Frank Muscarella.

“I was very prepared for graduate school,” he said. “The Barry faculty helped me in focusing my interests.” Now Szuchman and Muscarella are no longer his teachers, but his colleagues in the Psychology department. “Being on the other side was a bit awkward at first,” he described. “But soon that stage was over and now it’s business as usual.”

Maybe Miami's balmy winters convinced Rodriguez to return to Barry, or maybe that was just a perk. “I came back because I knew it was an atmosphere that fostered scholarship in a caring way,” he explained. His alumni status is an added bonus, “I can give students first-hand information about the undergraduate experience at Barry.”

Jimenez teaches biology classes in the School of Natural and Health and Sciences. “I always had a curiosity to understand life,” she proclaimed. The enthusiasm of a true researcher is evident in her voice.

As a Barry student in the MARC program, she was able to “deal with biology the way I wanted to deal with it.” She was more enthralled with researching than the medical aspect of biology. She studied marine biology and the feeding habits of sea urchins; however, she discovered her interest in neuroscience while participating in a summer internship through MARC. Now she is watching other biology students follow the same path she once walked here at Barry.

“Watching the students have the same discoveries each semester brings back memories of my own first discoveries as a student,” she said. “I can almost see the cartoon light bulb going on over their heads.”

On the surface, these programs offer excellent opportunities for students to learn different aspects of science while building their resumes. Those involved with the MIRT and MARC programs seek to expand minority research efforts plus increase prospects for scientific training. They search for novel approaches to studying health issues that affect minorities. Ultimately, this will help solve international health problems.

“This kind of research gives students real experience in the scientific world,” said Lin, “and they get serious with it.”

As a result, they get into the right graduate schools, go on to become key researchers and professors of future scientists. The legacy of the MIRT/MARC programs continues into the third decade.

This kind of exponential growth will impact peoples lives for many generations, said Bingham. “And the foundation was laid while at Barry.”

With reporting from Joseph McQuay, MBA ’94

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