Terri Holzen, Ph.D., assistant professor of biology at Mount Mary University in Milwaukee, understands the delicate balance between research and education, and she is determined to find ways to infuse her groundbreaking genomics and genetics research into the classroom for the betterment of her students.
Holzen, who earned a Ph.D. in genetics from the University of Chicago and conducted post-doctoral research at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, hopes her work has the potential to identify new insights into how cells become cancerous.
Holzen is resuming her studies of the unique properties of yeast. Yeast are eukaryotic organisms, like plants and animals, which means that they contain cells with a nucleus, and this creates promising new avenues of research on cellular division within human beings. “It’s a very useful organism on which to perform genetics studies,” she said. “A lot of the processes that I’m interested in involve DNA repair or DNA replication and have pretty much stayed the same [in yeast] throughout its evolution. The work done on yeast cells provides insights into what is happening in human cells as well.”
Holzen is interested in studying the genetic programs that are in place in yeast cells that regulate when a cell replicates its DNA. Cells replicate their DNA immediately before they divide, and irregular cell division is closely related to cancer.
Holzen is applying for grants through the National Institute of Health and the National Science Foundation to acquire funding for the necessary equipment to continue this research at Mount Mary.
In addition to the potential for substantial scientific contributions, Holzen is developing a stronger link between her research and the classroom. Her goal is to create a small research lab at Mount Mary and extend opportunities to students to join her in her work.
Dr. Holzen teaches by modeling what an advanced researcher does. “I am an educator but I’m also a scholar, and I should be an example of scholarly activity to my students,” she said.