Launching Tomorrow’s Biomolecular Scientists

Mentoring award winner Sherry Hikita guided a total of 18 undergrads while she was doing her doctoral dissertation research in molecular biologist Dennis Clegg’s lab. Professor Clegg’s research lab focuses on identifying and understanding the external molecular clues that guide the development of neurons.

Life-changing guidance

Eleven of Sherry’s students were enrolled at UCSB; seven, at Westmont College, south of Santa Barbara. She spent time helping them secure funding for the time they spent in the lab, and worked with them to develop their applications. Six students received awards; one undergraduate applied for and received four grants in all—two from outside organizations and two from UCSB—after Sherry alerted him to the opportunities!

Evidence of Sherry’s teaching effectiveness and her ability to inspire: Her students have been exceptionally productive in the lab, and four were authors on publications. Six have gone on to MD or PhD programs and three have embarked on biotechnology careers. (When Sherry received her Ph.D. degree in June, by the way, she had four postdoctoral fellowships on the table; she has accepted a Tri-Counties Blood Bank Postdoctoral Fellowship administered through the Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology.)

Sherry and her undergraduate assistants researched the role of osteopontin, an extracellular matrix protein found in bone and retina. She discovered that the protein stimulates neurite outgrowth from retinal neurons and also supports neuronal adhesion. “To my knowledge, this is the first demonstration of a neurite-outgrowth-promoting activity for this protein,” Professor Clegg says. Sherry’s findings were published in the journals Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience and Developmental Biology, and two additional manuscripts are in progress.		Osteopontin expression in embryonic mouse retina. The extracellular matrix glycoprotein osteopontin—which Sherry Hikita’s research in the Dennis Clegg lab has shown to be a molecule that promotes neurite outgrowth from retinal neurons—is found with alpha-4 on developing retinal ganglion cells (arrow), where the proteins may play a role in axon extension.
High standards, a kind heart, and patience “I have witnessed Sherry’s mentoring first-hand in the lab; her teaching style is fantastic,” says Professor Clegg, who in addition to being professor and chair of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology is a member of the Neuroscience Research Institute.