Freshman Research Initiative Students Published in Nature Genetics

December 19, 2014 • by Steven E. Franklin

The groundbreaking Freshman Research Initiative (FRI) program at The University of Texas at Austin helped a pair of students put a coveted feather in their cap quite early in their academic careers: the chance to say they’ve been published in a top-tier scientific journal from the prestigious Nature Publishing Group.


Lee Elam

Lee Elam

At the time Elam joined Alan Lloyd’s FRI stream in her second semester, her future was uncertain. She was pondering multiple options, and her experiences in the lab helped her realize her path.

“I ended up really liking research a lot more than I thought I would, so I wanted to do something where I could continue doing research,” said Elam, who is now attending medical school at The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. “The work got me a lot more interested in genetics because I got hands-on experience with it.”

Elam’s work in the FRI stream inspired her to join Lloyd’s lab as a laboratory assistant for the rest of her undergraduate career.

“She expressed a strong interest in continuing research at the next level,” said Gonzalez.

In addition to other projects, Elam helped with several aspects of the research presented in the paper, including sequencing of the beet genes and genetically altering the beet cells to test different hypotheses.

Austin Hembd

Austin Hembd

Hembd’s experiences in undergraduate research also helped inform his future, redirecting his path to medical school.

“I did other research projects with people in different labs and found that those with MDs who still wanted to do research on the side could do that,” said Hembd, who is currently in medical school at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.

Hembd’s work in the FRI stream led to him working two summers in Lloyd’s lab as an FRI Summer Research Fellow. Among other projects, Hembd contributed to the Nature Genetics paper by running special tests, called yeast two-hybrid assays, which helped identify some of the proteins involved in the making of beet pigments.

The techniques and skills learned in FRI help with research in medical school, too, Elam and Hembd said. Elam has conducted research with the Ob-Gyn department at UTMB Galveston, which won her the 2013 Norma H. Rubin Prize for Excellence in Research. Hembd has done multiple research projects with faculty at UT Southwestern and a summer research fellowship with Vanderbilt University’s urology program.

In the Nature Genetics article, the authors reveal for the first time what is regulating the color in plants that use betalain pigments. Betalain pigments are what make beets, prickly pear cactus, quinoa, and several other species red or yellow, which is unusual because the rest of the plant kingdom uses anthocyanin as a pigment.

The fibrous roots of white Albina Vereduna beets (control plant, left) turn red when they overexpress a particular transcription factor that upregulates red betalain pigment production (right).

The fibrous roots of white Albina Vereduna beets (control plant, left) turn red when they overexpress a particular transcription factor that upregulates red betalain pigment production (right).

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