UNM biology student Robert Dietz was surfing the Internet last year looking for a way to boost his rÇsumÇ and earn more hands-on experience.
After some hard work preparing an in-depth application, he ended up with more than he bargained for - a $6,000 fellowship that allowed him to develop and implement his own research project.
Dietz, a UNM junior and graduate of Albuquerque's West Mesa High School, was one of 32 students selected nationally to win the American Society for Microbiology Undergraduate Research Fellowship.
"This is going to have a significant impact on my career because I now have such great research experience that is hard to come by as an undergraduate student," he said. "Not many people get this kind of exposure. I know people who already have degrees and are waiting to get into medical school who haven't had the chance to do this kind of work."
Prior to earning the fellowship, Dietz completed five two-week internships at the University of California at Los Angeles and worked at UNM's College of Pharmacy microbiology laboratory.
"This is really the first thing I got to really set up on my own," he said. "It was a great experience."
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His project, "Staphylococcus Aureus Competitive Advantage in Inefective Endocartitis," takes the knowledge that blood platelets produce protein that appears to have the ability to kill bacteria when it causes infection, such as inefective enodcartitis, which is an infection of the inner heart tissues.
Dietz specifically looked at what would happen if a strain of staphylococcus aureus, or infecting bacteria, was susceptible to the antibacterial protein and a strain that was resistant to the protein, or did not die when exposed to the protein. He used an in vitro model of a heart to stimulate inefective enodcartitis during the experiment.
He developed the project with his boss at the College of Pharmacy.
Their proposal closely mirrored the type of work his boss was doing but also could be done independently by Dietz.
"I found out in May after my last final and it was just such a great day," he said. "I was so excited because I had this great project lined up for the summer. I had a stipend to pay for it all, and I knew it would be a great experience."
He said the project lived up to his expectations, but added that it was tough to adjust when things didn't always go as planned.
"During the project, we had a few setbacks, so the project took about 10 weeks, instead of eight, but that's part of learning," he said. "I had a great time and feel really lucky that I got to do this."
He is now completing a summary for the summer project and will present his results at the American Society for Microbiology General Meeting next year.
As part of the award, he also earned a one-year student membership to the society.
After earning his bachelor's degree, Dietz hopes to go on to a combined doctorate and medical program. He recommends students try to get an early start on hands-on research.
"You really need to be published or do research projects to get into some of the better graduate programs, so I would just encourage others to go for things like this," he said. "The fellowships and internships are out there, you just have to look for them."
