What began as a summer side project in 2020 grew into a yearslong collaborative study in the Lafontant laboratory. Now, Lafontant, professor of biology, is proud to have his name listed after not one, but four, Grinnell alums on a paper published in Zebrafish.

Clark Lindgren, Keisuke Hasegawa, Pascal Lafontant, Vida Praitis, Josh Sandquist, and Mark Levandoski were awarded the NSF Major Research Instrumentation grant to purchase a laser scanning confocal microscope, a breakthrough in the research capabilities of faculty and students throughout the sciences at Grinnell.

A Major Research Instrumentation Grant awarded by the National Science Foundation and a grant awarded to Professor Andy Mobley by the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust will fund the purchase of a 400MHz Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectrometer, broadening the possibilities of campus research and hands-on learning.

Webster, biological chemistry, has been named a 2022 Hanna H. Gray Fellow by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute for her work studying plant, pathogen, and microbiome interactions.

Introduction to Biological Chemistry (BCM 262) will give you the knowledge and skills you need to succeed as you further your studies in the field.

Not every Grinnell College student will go on to win a Nobel Prize, as Tom Cech ’70 did. But Grinnell is the kind of place where intellectually engaged students like Cech can explore their interests and passions, discovering how they, too, can make a difference and contribute to the common good.

Offered in both the spring and fall, BCM 262: Introduction to Biological Chemistry builds on what students have learned in their previous biology and chemistry courses to give them “a more sophisticated level of understanding."

Emily Mesev ’15, molecular biology Ph.D. student at Princeton University, says that when she first visited Grinnell, “it felt like the best place for me.”

Collin Kramer ’15, a third-year medical student at the University of Iowa, came to Grinnell knowing that he wanted to study medicine. Thanks to the small class sizes, dedicated faculty, and abundant research opportunities offered by Grinnell’s biological chemistry program, Kramer graduated feeling well-prepared for medical school.

Bao Ying Chen ’14, biomedical physics graduate student at UCLA, was drawn to Grinnell by its commitment to diversity, the financial resources offered to students, and the flexibility of its individually advised curriculum. “Without Grinnell’s help, I do not think I would have been able to pursue a higher education degree,” says Chen, a first-generation college student.