UCSC student honored for designing cancer drug

By Kara Guzman

kguzman@santacruzsentinel.com @karambutan on Twitter

SANTA CRUZ >> A new treatment for skin cancer is just one possible outcome of the 15 undergraduate research projects highlighted at the Chancellor's Undergraduate Awards ceremony Friday.

Senior Beau Norgeot used computer analysis to create a drug designed to make cells more receptive to chemotherapy. The bioengineering major received the day's top honor, the Steck Family Award.

When melanoma, a type of skin cancer, spreads, only 20 percent of patients survive, said Glenn Millhauser, UCSC chemistry and biochemistry professor and Norgeot's adviser. What's novel about Norgeot's seven-month project, said Millhauser, is the collaboration it represents. For the first time, Norgeot brought together David Bernick, UCSC biomolecular engineering professor, with Millhauser, to link their work on computer algorithms and chemistry.

Norgeot, 33, returned to UCSC in 2011 to finish his undergraduate degree after leaving in the 1990s to start three companies. He said research has given context to his classwork and shaped his campus experience.

"(From research) I think what I've learned to do is ask good questions," said Norgeot, who said he plans to attend graduate school to continue his work.

What distinguishes UCSC's undergraduate research is student access to faculty, said Richard Hughey, vice provost and dean of undergraduate education. One reason is UCSC's relatively low number of graduate students compared to other UCs, he said. The campus has also launched two initiatives designed in part to prepare undergraduates for research: a freshman honors program and "Challenge Program," for high-achieving students from underserved backgrounds, new to campus.

Senior Emily Healy, a math major, participated in the freshman honors program's pilot year. She won a Chancellor's Undergraduate Award for her work on the relationship between structure and energy in vortices, or whirling fluids. Healy focused on what happens when vortices form knots, a structure similar to a shoelace bow with sealed ends, she said.

Healy said she was introduced to knot theory in one of her first UCSC classes, and wanted to continue studying it in her senior thesis. Not much has been done to tie knot theory with fluid dynamics, she said.

More:
UCSC student honored for designing cancer drug