Student Profile

Life in the Lab

Genetics research gives sophomore Joe Foley’s career an early boost

Joe Foley has a history of getting a head start. While the CBS sophomore was still in high school, he decided to try his hand at research to see if lab work might be in his future. So while spending the summer in St. Louis, he served as a volunteer technician in a research lab at the Washington University School of Medicine, studying the genetics of the alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.

CBS sophomore Joe Foley
scored 1600 on his SAT
exam.

Then, as a freshman at the University of Minnesota, Foley asked a professor if he knew of anyone doing genetic research who might need an assistant. As fate would have it, he learned that plant biology professor Carolyn Silflow was working on Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, the same organism he had studied in St. Louis, and he was able to start volunteering in her lab in his first year.

In Silflow’s lab, he is working on the positional mapping of the APM1 gene. Finding the position of the gene directly on the genome is the first step of a much larger effort that he says “would characterize the gene and what else it does, and ultimately help figure out exactly what makes the gene resistant to herbicides.” Even though C. reinhardtiiis algae, he notes, it serves as an excellent model for plant study.

In 2004, Foley received a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship from the American Society of Plant Biologists, which funds part of his work. “It’s kind of a coup, I guess,” Foley says. “Dr. Silflow heard about it and thought that I didn’t have anything to lose if I applied.” He has received a number of other scholarships, partly because he achieved a score of 1600 on his SAT exam while at Mounds View High School.

While he obviously appreciates his time in the lab, Foley enjoys other pursuits as well. He is currently a violinist in the U’s Campus Orchestra for nonmajors, and he recently enrolled in his violin teacher’s new music ensemble, which will afford him the chance to perform with professional musicians.

Foley was elected co-chair of the University’s Campus Atheists and Secular Humanists club this year and, although he doesn’t have much time for it, he enjoys “reading for pleasure.” He says, “I would call it that. Other people aren’t so sure because it’s almost all science books. It keeps me busy, but it’s a lot of fun, too.”

Down the road, after graduate school, Foley envisions a career in research, perhaps in human genetics. He’s pleased at the head start that CBS has provided. “I’ve had access to the labs of two of the biggest people in the country [Silflow and plant biology professor Paul Lefebvre] in C. reinhardtii research,” Foley says. “I’ve just been amazed by how easy it’s been to get into the scientific community here…and that’s something I couldn’t have done at other universities that don’t have the same focus on research. So, it says more about the University than about me.”

-- Rick Moor