OSU Lantern

4/06/06

In Narasimham Parinandi's lab, located at the Davis Heart and Lung Research Institute, 11 undergraduates outnumber graduate students more than three-to-one. Very quickly, as anyone in his lab will say, people learn the meaning of two words: family and fat.

"Dr. Parinandi runs his lab like a family and it's a really great experience," said Bruce Kaufman, a senior in biology and researcher in the laboratory. "I'm from California and I don't have my family close, so I treat the lab as my family," he said.

Kaufman said he encourages anyone curious about research to get involved to take advantage of the benefits.

"It makes a big university like OSU a lot smaller," Kaufman said. "It also helps you go beyond the classroom with your education. You learn life lessons beyond A plus B equals whatever."

Thomas Hagele, a senior in accounting and biology, said the relationships he has built in Parinandi's laboratory become more important as he nears graduation.

"No matter what you want to do, near your senior year, you're going to need people to write your recommendation letters," Hagele said. "Knowing a dozen PhDs is definitely an advantage."

In addition to these relationships, Hagele said, there are other strong benefits.

"Undergraduate research is almost becoming a required part of a med school application," Hagele said. "It's something you need to get involved in to be competitive."

Aside from being a close-knit research family, Kaufman said the laboratory's focus is lipodomics, or the study of fats. Organized into layers, phospholipids make up the "skin" of a living cell and are the first part of the cell to interact with the outside world.

"When something hits a cell, (the membrane) responds first. This is often ignored," Parinandi said.

Although this cell component is one of the most important parts of a cell - indeed, required to begin the formation of life - Pariandi said too little is known about it. Fats that communicate important signals to the rest of the cell, also known as biologically-active lipids, are one of the many mysteries of membrane lipids Parinandi's team is investigating.

"The entire housekeeping of the cell is also regulated by the membrane fats," Parinandi said. These are so important that there is a slogan known among biologists that even textbooks are named after: "Life, as a matter of fat."

In the modern world, Parinandi said people are exposed to all kinds of substances that interact with the cell membrane, some of which are toxic. To map some of these interactions, the research team is investigating phospholipase D, a membrane lipid that acts as a signaling molecule.

"It's important to know how these signaling molecules work," Parinandi said. The messages they produce following an interaction play a major role in disease. If the team maps out the pathway, Parinandi said drugs could be designed to limit toxic effects on the body by inhibiting signaling lipids, such as phospholipase D.

As for his undergraduate researchers, Parinandi said taking students and helping turn them into marketable, successful individuals has made his life more fulfilling.

"Most of these kids come to the lab untrained, with bookish knowledge," Parinandi said. To gain practical knowledge they can use in the real world, Parinandi said they need to "work at the bench."

Parinandi also said the laboratory is successful because of the students' drives to succeed and work through problems.

"I never push any of these guys. They want to do good work and compete in the Denman (Undergraduate Research Forum)," Parinandi said. "They work really hard."

Hagele said he is cramming over a year and a half of work done at Parinandi's laboratory into a small poster and presenting it at the Denman, all in hopes of a cash prize. In addition to showcasing scientific accomplishments, Hagele said the event also accepts entries from undergraduate researchers in all disciplines, including the arts.

"The Denman is an incentive for undergraduates to showcase the work they do and feel proud of it," Parinandi said.