A defining characteristic of Wesleyan scientists is a genuine interest in undergraduates. Molecular biologist Scott Holmes has worked with eight undergraduates in the two years he has been on the faculty. They have a true interest in what they are doing and participate fully in weekly lab meetings. They've all done an excellent job, and probably two or three will be published. His interest is in gene silencing, a phenomenon that occurs naturally during development to establish different patterns of gene expression in distinct types of cells.
Inappropriate gene silencing can lead to abnormal cell development, including cancers.
That's one of the big advantages of being at Wesleyan. Funding of assistant professors is by no means limited to those interviewed for this article. Others include John Kirn and Sonia Sultan in Biology, Lisa Dierker and Steve Petrill in Psychology, Kristina Beuning in Earth and Environmental Sciences, and Ata Sarajedini in Astronomy.