Apr 12, 2012 - Claremont, Calif. -

Elizabeth Glater, assistant professor of biology, has been awarded a Support of Mentors and their Students from Underrepresented Minorities (SOMAS-URM) grant to support summer undergraduate neuroscience research.

Elizabeth Glater

Glater is one of only five junior faculty nationwide to receive the 2012 SOMAS-URM award.

The $8,000 grant will fund a 10-week neuroscience research project this summer, where Glater will work alongside and mentor student Melissa Chambers ’15 (Pomona). It also covers travel expenses for both to attend the joint Annual Meetings of the Society for Neuroscience and the Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience in October.

Their project, “Elucidating the function of an F-Box Protein in food choice behavior of Caenorhabditis elegans,” will study a particular roundworm gene to understand how it affects neuronal function.

“Understanding the genetic basis of behavior is relevant for understanding inherited human neurological and psychiatric disorders,” said Glater. “This gene encodes a protein that is a component of the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS), a pathway that mediates the degradation of proteins. Dysfunction of the UPS has been strongly implicated in a number of neurological disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and autism.”

SOMAS strives to enhance the recruitment and retention of students in the sciences—particularly those from underrepresented minorities in neuroscience—to strengthen the economic and scientific foundation of the United States. The SOMAS Program is supported by a Howard Hughes Medical Institute grant and two National Science Foundation grants (a Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring and a Director's Award for Distinguished Teaching Scholars).