Good works in the molecular physiology and biophysics section under the guidance of principal investigator ’86 and postdoctoral fellow Kanchan Gupta. They are synthesizing variants of a toxin found in the venom of the Chinese earth tiger tarantula, and studying how those toxins interact with ion channels. The research aims to provide knowledge about how toxins cause ion channels to close and open, thereby shining light on the channel mechanisms.

Good began his internship in January while on a spring with the (WCSC). When Swartz urged him to think about extending his internship through the summer, Good then applied for and was accepted into the . While this program is competitive, with only about 1,000 applicants accepted from more than 6,300 applications in 2013, NIH scientists select their own interns. Good’s placement through WCSC and his work begun with Swartz in the spring set the stage for his continued research.

Lab work under Harvard-trained neurobiologist

One of Good’s biggest challenges, he says, has been learning about the field of biophysics and the specific biochemical, molecular biological and biophysical techniques used in Swartz’s lab to investigate toxins and ion channels. His principal investigator, Swartz – who double-majored in chemistry and biology at 91����Ƶ and earned his PhD in neurobiology at Harvard University in 1992 – has been working in the field for years, including postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School.

Good explains the basics of his research in layman’s terms: Ion channels are a part of neuron, muscle, and touch sensor cells which can generate electrical signals, allowing cells across the body to communicate. When one ion channel opens, charged ions rush out of the cell, creating an electrical signal. This causes adjacent ion channels to open, making a chain reaction known as the “action potential.”

“The action potential is the fundamental means for communication within our bodies because of the speed at which a signal travels,” explains Good. “For example, if you touch a hot stove, ion channels open in response to this stimulus, sending an electrical signal to your brain. Then your brain sends an electrical signal back to quickly remove your hand.”

The first two months in the lab were arduous, Good says. He’s no stranger to detail-oriented and sometimes frustrating work, having spent the previous summer at North Dakota State University working with a graduate student on biomass carbohydrates. But biophysics is a new field to him.

“There was a lot of failure at the outset,” says Good. “Instruments failed, I made mistakes, and the project did not seem to move forward. Yet the reward was just around the corner.”

Finally, a breakthrough came, and Good progressed from synthesis on to “more interesting experiments.”

“That was also the point when I realized that I wasn’t as bad at lab work as I had begun to imagine,” says Good.

To begin synthesizing the toxin, Good programs instruments to load amino acid cartridges in the proper order, producing an impure toxin in 36 hours. This is just step one of a long process.

“Some mornings, I have experiments that need immediate attention because of their length,” says Good. “For example, one chemical reaction takes four to six hours to complete, followed by a long separation step and freeze-drying, which I set up to run overnight. After work on these days, I’m both physically and mentally exhausted.”

Research guides career exploration

On days that he isn’t tending to chemical reactions or programming lab instruments, Good attends scientific NIH Summer Internship Program presentations, reads literature, plans for future experiments, and writes.

During the spring semester, he tapped into the social side of WCSC, exploring Washington D.C. and spending time at the group house.

“Some of us went to see [singer-songwriter] Andy Grammer, checked out a Wizards game, and rented paddleboats on the Tidal Basin to view the cherry blossoms.”

When his WCSC semester concluded, Good moved into other housing. His internship ends in August, at which point he’ll return to 91����Ƶ for his final year.

In addition to the South Dakota research, Good has worked with chemistry professor to identify noni fruit’s chemical make-up. Adding eight months of research at NIH to his research portfolio has been an invaluable experience, Good says. The internship has given him a better understanding of the process of original research, and piqued his interest in the intersections between chemistry and biology. While Good uses toxins to close ion channels, he is opening doors of possibility as to where a chemistry degree may lead.

Researchers, including 91����Ƶ junior Charles Good, are beginning to address this problem in a new field called “green chemistry,” which, in part, aims to find renewable structural alternatives to petroleum that could be used in common petroleum-based commodities.

Toward this goal, Good spent the summer of 2014 in Fargo, North Dakota, as a student researcher at North Dakota Sate University. His objective was to develop a green synthesis of monomers from biomass. Good presented his work in the Fall Student Research Symposium at 91����Ƶ on Dec. 5, 2014.

Good was part of a 10-week program funded by the called “research experience for undergraduates” or REU. “I wanted to do research outside of 91����Ƶ,” Good said, because “I wanted to know what it would be like to be part of a bigger facility.”

Although Good came up against challenges that made it difficult to get a conclusive outcome (with rueful cheer, he says research is “hitting your head against the wall for 95 percent of the time in order to get a minor result”), the overall experience was extremely valuable for him. He recommends all students pursue such an experience between their sophomore and junior years, because it can have a positive impact on their later studies and opportunities.

“REU was an amazing door opener,” he says, but one he could not have gotten without the support, encouragement and education he received from his 91����Ƶ professors – especially chemistry professors and . “I think the professors are where 91����Ƶ is strongest,” Good says. “They pay attention to students who are interested in research opportunities and work hard to make those opportunities possible.”

Research opportunities for 91����Ƶ students do not necessarily have to be through other institutions, but can be in partnership with an 91����Ƶ professor, like the project that senior Zach Gish worked on over the summer and fall of 2014.

Gish and two biomedicine graduate students worked under biology professor studying ethanol teratology in mice, which translates to how alcohol affects prenatal development. The students were most interested in whether substances called anthocyanins could protect against ethanol-induced prenatal developmental deficiencies.

Over the summer, the three students worked with 36 pregnant female mice who were administered ethanol or saline through intraperitoneal injections injections five to seven days following impregnation. They then daily weighed the mice to document the fetuses’ developmental progression and met with Miller weekly to report their progress. At the end of the summer the students harvested the fetuses, which they spent the fall studying.

Gish shared his results at the fall symposium: Statistical analysis showed that the binge alcohol supplemented with anthocyanins group was protected from gross developmental deficiencies over the binge alcohol (alone) group, when compared to the control group (without alcohol). Gish delivered his report to a packed audience in one of the new Suter Science Center classrooms.

While the summer was about caring for the pregnant mice and tracking their process, the fall semester was all about results and collecting data, Gish told an 91����Ƶ reporter. He explained that over the fall they tried to collect whatever data they could before spring at which time they plan to embed the fetuses with paraffin wax and look at them on a cellular level.

Gish cited this opportunity for one-on-one research as one of the most valuable aspects of his 91����Ƶ education. “The 91����Ƶ program has provided me with numerous opportunities I would not have found elsewhere,” he said. Like Good, these opportunities arose from the relationships he has developed with his professors whose “direction and guidance have been invaluable.”

Gish plans on taking the MCAT in April 2015 and hopes to start medical school in the fall of 2016.

Good intends to go to graduate school for a yet undecided field of chemistry and hopes to eventually finish a PhD in the subject. The Fall Student Research Symposium is part of the year-long Suter Science Seminars series, which resumes after Christmas break on January 12, 2015.

“There’s definitely art in science,” says the third-year major at 91����Ƶ. Advanced lab work depends more on technique than step-by-step instruction. When recrystallizing a substance, “you just have to have the right touch.”

Good honed his scientific touch over the summer of 2014, spending 10 weeks alongside a graduate student at North Dakota State University. Their overall goal was to make organic chemistry more sustainable. Around 96% of current organic chemicals come from a petroleum base.

“That’s becoming a big issue for a number of reasons,” said Good. As sources of fossil fuels dwindle, the environment suffers and politicians clash. Seeking petroleum’s replacement, Good experimented with biomass carbohydrates to make chemical building blocks that could be used in polymers like plastic and nylon.

“The reality of the project, for me, was science doesn’t happen quickly,” said Good. Seven weeks into the program, he still had no results. He and his partner returned to the drawing board, put in 70-hour weeks at the lab, and wrangled a presentation from their data. Good ruefully describes the work as “demoralizing! I have no results, but I have to stay here for another 12 and a half hours!”

While in the short-term unsuccessful, their work represented another step towards revolutionizing organic chemistry. Even given the stress, Good recommends summer research programs for a glimpse into graduate school life and valuable research skills.

Upon returning to 91����Ƶ, Good was invited by chemistry professor to contribute to an interdisciplinary project. In Hawaii, the “noni” fruit is revered as a cure-all for ailments, even cancer. Several recently published papers have started identifying the compounds in noni that may substantiate these claims. The method behind identifying noni’s chemical makeup, called running a standard, is Good’s next endeavor. He will create around 10 of the organic molecules suspected to be in noni and analyze them against the fruit. If the synthesized molecules match those found in noni, then those molecules are verifiably present at that stage of the fruit’s ripeness. Other collaborators, including student Alex Bender and , assistant professor of , will use statistical analysis to predict molecular changes throughout the fruit’s ripening.

As ‘s vice president for marketing, Good also marries creation and analysis in web design. He has worked with the director of student programs, , to modernize how organize and attract members. While he has “dabbled in [visual] design work” with posters and flyers, his primary focus is the online content. Be it helping clubs code websites or creating Facebook pages, Good wants to give the SGA “some way to keep people engaged.”

Playing the tuba is one way Good himself stays engaged. “When I want an escape from science, I go to music,” he says. His flair for originality is present in music, as well: tuba has only been recently recognized as a solo instrument. He is also involved in a newly forming brass quintet on campus.

Good’s myriad talents are the product of imagination as much as practice. “At some level,” he says, “people stop being able to explain what they do in the lab. . . they have their own style.” This style, for him, generates innovative work in test tubes, for the ear, and on the web.

In addition, two incoming students, Hannah Chappell-Dick, a senior at Bluffton High School in Bluffton, Ohio, and Charlie Good, a senior at Warwick High School in Lititz, Pa., were recognized as Yoder Scholars, the highest academic award an incoming student can receive.

“I’m very excited about the number and caliber of students who applied this year,” said Mark Sawin, program director and chair of history at 91����Ƶ. “Hannah and Charlie are both wonderfully creative and curious people with wide-ranging interests and strong leadership abilities. I’m grateful they’ve decided to join us as next year’s Yoder Scholars.”

Honors student candidates are evaluated on academic performance, community and extra-curricular involvement, creativity, clarity of thought and leadership potential. In addition to being in the honors program, candidates submit a portfolio of their high school achievements, write a series of essays and meet with a member of the honors faculty for a one-on-one interview.

“The interaction with faculty mentors and each other in a variety of settings provides an opportunity for highly motivated scholars to develop as thinkers and wrestle with big questions,” says Sawin, a 2008-09 Fulbright Scholar at University of Zagreb in Croatia.

Chappell-Dick is an incoming biochemistry major while Good plans to major in chemistry.

The students accepted into the honors program are:

Alex Bender from Sarasota, Fla., Pine View School

Malachi Bontrager from Westbrookville, N.Y., Iowa Mennonite School

Rachel Bowman from Archbold, Ohio, Archbold High School

Kristoffer Broadley from Wichita, Kan., homeschooled

Anne Brothers from Rockville, Md., Montgomery Blair High School

Ashley Cox from Mountville, Pa., Hempfield High School

Melissa Cox from Mountville, Pa., Hempfield High School

Patty Danaher from South Chesterfield, Va., Matoaca High School

Isaac Driver from Harrisonburg, Va., Eastern Mennonite High School

Amy Feeser from Lancaster, Pa., Penn Manor High School

Rehana Franklin from Modesto, Calif., Modesto High School

Derek Harnish from Strasburg, Pa., Lampeter-Strasburg High School

Kate Harrold from Millersville, Pa., Penn Manor High School

Amanda Helfrich from Bradford, Ohio, Greenville Senior High School

Caitlin Holsapple from Harrisonburg, Va., Eastern Mennonite High School

Melissa Jantzi from Albany, Ore., Eastern Mennonite High School

Brianna Kauffman from Harleysville, Pa., Christopher Dock Mennonite High School

Andrea King from Lititz Pa., Warwick High School

Kari King from Harrisonburg, Va., Harrisonburg High School

Sierra Kiser from Stuarts Draft, Va., Stuarts Draft High School

Jaclyn Kratz from Telford, Pa., Christopher Dock Mennonite High School

Rachelle Kratz from Telford, Pa., Christopher Dock Mennonite High School

Brooke Lacock from Paradise, Pa., Pequea Valley High School

Olivia Mast from Lancaster, Pa., Lancaster Mennonite School

Katie Miller from San Antonio, Tex., Louis D. Brandeis High School

Maddie Miller from Wellman, Ia., Iowa Mennonite School

Elise Mitchell from Elkhart, Ind., Elkhart Central High School

Erin Nafziger from Archbold, Ohio, Archbold High School

Jolee Paden from Saint Joseph, Ill., St. Joseph-Ogden High School

Aaron Patterson from Midlothian, Va., homeschooled

Alicia Poplett from Plymouth, Minn., Wayzata Senior High School

Emilie Raber from Dalton, Ohio, Central Christian High School

Jesse Reist from Lancaster, Pa., JP McCaskey High School East

Jess Rheinheimer from Manheim, Pa., Lancaster Mennonite School

John David Satriale from Gap, Pa., Lancaster Mennonite School

Lauren Sauder from Smoketown, Pa., Lancaster Mennonite School

Michelle Sauder from Linville, Va., Eastern Mennonite High School

Carissa Sherer from Joy, Pa., Donegal High School

Kritika Shrestha from Germantown, Md., Clarksburg High School

Rachel Springer from Minier, Ill., Olympia High School

Seth Stauffer from Lebanon, Pa., Northern Lebanon Jr-Sr High School

Sarah Sutter from Urbana, Ill., University Laboratory High School

Kate Swartz from Spring City, Pa., Christopher Dock Mennonite High School

Sam Swartzendruber from Kalona, Ia., Iowa Mennonite School

Ryan Swartzendruber from Sellersville, Pa., Christopher Dock Mennonite High School

Stephanie Toth from Lake Milton, Ohio, Cardinal Mooney High School

Aaron Wile from Telford, Pa., Christopher Dock Mennonite High School

Alena Yoder from Elkhart, Ind., Bethany Christian High School

Kegan Yoder from Plaine City, Ohio, Jonathan Alder High School

Hannah Chappell-Dick, a senior at Bluffton High School in Bluffton, Ohio, and Charles Good, a senior at Warwick High School in Lititz, Pa., were recognized as Yoder Scholars, the highest academic award an incoming student can receive: a full-ride scholarship for all four years.

“I’m very excited about the number and caliber of students who applied this year,” said Mark Sawin, program director and chair of history at 91����Ƶ. “Hannah and Charlie are both wonderfully creative and curious people with wide-ranging interests and strong leadership abilities. I’m grateful they’ve decided to join us as next year’s Yoder Scholars.”

Honors student candidates are evaluated on academic performance, community and extra-curricular involvement, creativity, clarity of thought and leadership potential. In addition to being in the honors program, candidates submit a portfolio of their high school achievements, write a series of essays and meet with a member of the honors faculty for a one-on-one interview.

“The interaction with faculty mentors and each other on in a variety of settings provides an opportunity for highly motivated scholars to develop as thinkers and wrestle with big questions,” says Sawin, a 2008-09 Fulbright Scholar at University of Zagreb in Croatia.

Chappell-Dick is an incoming biochemistry major while Good plans to major in chemistry.

A full list of honors students will be made available May 1.