Roy Dar

Student Stays in East Tennessee Due to Exciting Genome Science Internship

After spending seven months with the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Science Undergraduate Research Program (SULI) at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Roy Dar decided to stay close to the laboratory for his graduate studies. He will enroll in the University of Tennessee’s (UT) graduate program in the spring of 2006, where he plans to get his Ph.D. in biophysics.

“As a recent undergraduate, SULI gave me the opportunity to experience a real research atmosphere and get a better idea of what scientific research is about before commiting myself to an advanced academic program,” Dar said. “In my time out at the lab I have reaffirmed my motivation and energy towards science.”

But Dar is not interested in just any type of scientific research. His focus lies in experimental biophysics – the modeling and experimentation of stochastic processes (statistical process involving a number of random variables depending on a variable parameter) in bacterial cells. During his internship, Dar studied questions dealing with the stochastic nature of phenotypic selection (the traits in the index are identical to the traits in the breeding objective) within a given genotype (the genetic makeup of an organism or a group of organisms). As he explains, “Understanding this fully is the holy grail to solving diseases and engineering with complex systems.”

Under the supervision of Dr. Michael L. Simpson, prinicipal admistrator of Molecular-Scale Engineering and Nanoscale Technologies (MENT) at ORNL, a typical day for Dar included conducting stochastic simulations of bio-chemical reactions or using confocal microscopy (a means of examining each point of the specimen and measure the amount of light scattered or absorbed by that point) to acquire time-lapse fluorecent images of bacterial cells (E. coli) and discussing the results and next steps with his colleagues.

“It turns out that knowing the underlying code to our existance, genetic code, is only part of understanding what we are and how different functions come about (e.g. disease),” Dar said. “This is why genome science needs to address not only the underlying language or code of genes by mapping out our genome and relating specific genes to a resulting product. But also [genome science needs to address] the mechanisms and processes that participate in making the final product.”

Dar’s studies under Dr. Simpson did not end with the conclusion of his SULI internship. While at UT, Dar will also be working under his mentor, allowing Dar to become part of ORNL’s candidate pool from which to draw from for future employment.

A native of the bay area of California, Dar transferred to Israel where he majored in physics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Having a desire to return to the United States, Dar relocated and soon became part of the SULI program, a program that places students in paid science and engineering internships at a DOE facility.

Dar enjoyed the program so much that after spending the spring and early summer with SULI, he took a leadership role in helping other summer interns plan their activities.

“I strongly recommend this program to any science major before continuing their careers, and think these DOE-funded programs are essential to the next generation of our nation’s leading scientists.”