Release Date: February 20, 2007

MONMOUTH, Ill. — James Godde, chair of the biology department at Monmouth College, and 2005 graduate Amanda Bickerton are the co-authors of a paper that was published in the Journal of Molecular Evolution.

Titled “The Repetitive DNA Elements Called CRISPRs and Their Associated Genes: Evidence of Horizontal Transfer Among Prokaryotes,” the paper describes a class of repetitive DNA that is found exclusively in bacteria and theorizes that this class has become so widespread by being passed between highly divergent bacteria over time. CRISPR stands for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats.

Their work was also cited under “Undergraduate Research Highlights” in the December 2006 edition of CUR Quarterly, the journal of the Council on Undergraduate Research.

Initiated by MC graduate Tom Murphy during a summer program he attended at Virginia Commonwealth University, the research was continued by Bickerton, who brought it to completion as her senior thesis project. Today, Bickerton works in a pharmacy and is taking classes to become a dental hygienist.

“Getting a paper published in science in a peer-reviewed journal is a challenge, and having an undergraduate student as a co-author on such a paper is a huge bonus for our students,” said Godde’s biology colleague at MC, Ken Cramer. “To put this is perspective, in my day, it was rare for students to publish their master’s theses, and many Ph.D. dissertations also languished in the library of the graduating university. Publishing as an undergraduate is a real coup for the student.”

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