{"id":45365,"date":"2022-03-10T14:14:18","date_gmt":"2022-03-10T20:14:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/?p=45365"},"modified":"2022-03-10T14:37:32","modified_gmt":"2022-03-10T20:37:32","slug":"bemidji-state-biochemist-unravels-the-mysteries-of-alzheimers-disease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/2022\/03\/10\/bemidji-state-biochemist-unravels-the-mysteries-of-alzheimers-disease\/","title":{"rendered":"Bemidji State Biochemist Looks to Unravel the Mysteries of Alzheimer&#8217;s Disease"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"ratio ratio-16x9 clearfix my-4\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Bemidji State Biochemist Unravels the Mysteries of Alzheimer&rsquo;s Disease\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/686848702?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p class=\"intro\">On March 15, Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ&rsquo;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/directory\/facstaff\/df7646qx\/\"><b>Rachel Hellmann Whitaker<\/b><\/a>, associate professor of chemistry, will continue the Spring 2022 Honors Council Lecture Series with her research on Alzheimer&rsquo;s disease at 6 p.m.<\/p>\n<p>Though first identified in 1906 by Dr. Alois Alzheimer, the pathology and prevalence of the disease in certain populations remains largely a mystery, Hellmann Whitaker said. With research interests that include the structure and function of proteins and nucleic acids, like DNA and RNA, the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ biochemist said she hopes her work can contribute positively to the field.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Many of us know someone who has Alzheimer&rsquo;s and I am no exception,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I really wanted to lend my expertise to the field in any way I could to further the knowledge and research base for the disease.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Since joining Bemidji State in Fall 2021, Hellmann Whitaker has been working with a small team of students to better understand the gene LINC00298 &ndash; a ribonucleic acid (RNA) that turns genetic information into proteins &ndash; that can lead to early-onset Alzheimer&rsquo;s disease in those under the age of 65.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&ldquo;We see it, but we don&rsquo;t know what it does, so that&rsquo;s a really great place for me to start,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;We have a large population that is aging and many of them will develop Alzheimer&rsquo;s disease. It&rsquo;s something that we need to explore more so that we can help people live longer, high quality lives.&rdquo;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The lecture, titled &ldquo;Unraveling the Developmental Mechanisms of Alzheimer&rsquo;s Disease,&rdquo; will be held in-person and is open free to the public.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;It won&rsquo;t be very technical or too science heavy, it will be very relatable to everyone,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Hopefully it will give everyone an idea of what I am doing here with students here at Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<h2>Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Hellman Whitaker<\/h2>\n<p>Hellmann Whitaker received her doctorate from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in biochemistry and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in nucleic acid chemistry. She was the recipient of a Fulbright Scholars Award at Coastal Carolina University in Conway, South Carolina, where she served as the chair of the South Carolina Chapter of the American Chemical Society Executive Committee.<\/p>\n<h2>Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ the Honors Council Lecture Series<\/h2>\n<p>The Honors Council Lecture Series is hosted by the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Honors Council, the advisory group to Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ&rsquo;s honors program. It is composed of 12 faculty members representing each of the university&rsquo;s colleges. Student representatives are also elected to the council by their cohorts for one-year terms. The series provides Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ faculty with a forum to share their expertise and the results of their research with the Bemidji community. All Honors Council lectures are open free to the public.<\/p>\n<h2>Unraveling the Developmental Mechanisms of Alzheimer&rsquo;s Disease<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/calendar.bemidjistate.edu\/honors\/view\/event\/event_id\/145326\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\"><b>March 15<\/b> &ndash; Hagg-Sauer Hall 116, 6 p.m. <i title=\"External link\" class=\"bsu-icon bsu-icon-external-link small ms-1\"><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Contact<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/directory\/facstaff\/fe1553zh\/\">Season Ellison, associate professor of history, Honors and Liberal Education Programs director.<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Links<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/academics\/honors\/\">Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Honors Program<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>2022-B-084<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On March 15, Hellmann Whitaker will present her research surrounding a gene that can lead to Alzheimer&#8217;s disease. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45035,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2,1025,3,1031,999,977,872,950,953,9,681,25,980,20,952],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-about","category-academic-integrity","category-academics","category-biology-academics","category-chemistry","category-faculty-news","category-homepage","category-landing-page","category-mybsu","category-news","category-news-updates","category-people","category-strategic-plan","category-top-story","category-videos"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45365"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45365\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45374,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45365\/revisions\/45374"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}