Maria Cerezo Named SURE Summer 2015 Scholar at Stonehill College

2015 Apr 9

Maria Cerezo, a member of the Class of 2016 at Stonehill College in Easton, Mass., has been named a Stonehill Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) Summer 2015 Scholar. The SURE program provides students with an opportunity to perform significant, publishable research under the guidance of an experienced faculty researcher at the College.

The research experience will help to provide students with a competitive advantage in graduate and professional school applications and in post-college employment opportunities, as well as to provide assistance to faculty in research activities.

Cerezo will be working with Associate Professor of Chemistry Marilena Hall and one other Stonehill student on "The Effect of Mutations on Protein Production and Phage Propagation in M13 Bacteriophage."

This project examines a mutation in the genome of an engineered version of M13 phage. Previous research has indicated that the mutation causes faster propagation than the non-mutated engineered phage. Over the years, the lab has characterized 14 different mutations and during this summer, aims to learn why the mutations happened and how to make the phage propagate faster.

The students will work on developing an experiment that accurately reflects the amount of protein II by phages in order to determine if the mutant phage produces more than the non-mutant phage, which in turn would explain the faster propagation. The results of this research may be published in future articles.

Cerezo is a Biochemistry major.

About Stonehill College Stonehill is a selective Catholic college located near Boston on a beautiful 384-acre campus in Easton, Massachusetts. With a student-faculty ratio of 13:1, the College engages over 2,500 students in 80+ rigorous academic programs in the liberal arts, sciences, and pre-professional fields. The Stonehill community helps students to develop the knowledge, skills, and character to meet their professional goals and to live lives of purpose and integrity.