Guy Caldwell, associate professor of biological sciences, said he expects the students volunteering in his laboratory to have a deep respect and belief in the nature of the biomedical research they are doing, and to not just be working for another bullet on their résumés.
With his commitment to Caldwell's principles, a student has been awarded the Benjamin Cummings Biology Prize - just the kind of thing to spice up a résumé.
Kyle Lee, a sophomore majoring in biological sciences, is the third student to receive the prize and one of only four winners selected across the nation.
"I'm confident that we lead the nation in the number of winners," Caldwell said.
The $1,000 prize is awarded annually by the Benjamin Cummings Publishing Company to students who have used a Benjamin Cummings textbook.
"It's not purely for research experience," Caldwell said. "It recognizes students that are doing exceptional work early on in their college career."
Caldwell, who has had Lee in his classroom as well as his lab, said he is also a committed student and is one of the top students in his class.
The lab, however, is where Lee really shines.
In the Caldwell lab, which is directed by Caldwell and his wife, Lee mainly works as a volunteer with diseases like Parkinson's and epilepsy.
The team works with small, mutated worms that Lee describes as "about the size of a period," and exposes them to different drugs to try to understand what effect the drugs would have on a human.
"We place them in the presence of seizure-inducing medications and gauge their response to find out if a mutation in specific genes can cause resistance or excitability to seizures," Lee said.
Lee said the worms share 50 to 70 percent of their disease genes with humans.
"They also have a simple nervous system, but it contains most of the structures we want to study," Lee said.
"We try to map a pathway by which neurons accept these signals. If there were reduced seizures and no horrible side effects, we would have a marketable drug," he said.
Lee is quick to point out that the drugs would be tested on rats and monkeys before they would be given to humans.
Lee said when he is working in the lab, sleep is not a priority, and he often doesn't get home until four in the morning.
"It's such an interesting project," he said with a shrug.
"He's a daily, weekly, nightly, weekend and summer worker," Caldwell said. "And his work is outstanding."
Lee said he plans to use the money from the prize to keep himself in the lab.
"I want to still do research, and I've been lucky in that I haven't had to have a job yet. As long as I'm getting prizes and scholarships, I don't have to go to work," he said.
The lab is funded in part by organizations such as the Michael J. Fox Foundation and the March of Dimes.
After he graduates from the University, Lee said, he plans to attend medical school.
"I have to find one that will let me sneak in," Lee said.
"Considering I'm a mama's boy, I might go to [the University of Alabama at Birmingham]. But Duke has always been a fantasy of mine," he said.
Though Lee said he would be happy working as an internist or family doctor, he said he would love to be a neurologist.
"I have no doubt that he'll be successful in that," Caldwell said.
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