Allison Falender Finds Her Niche By Tim Kreiner
	Not only did Oberlin prepare Allison Falender academically for her summer research experience, but it also helped--in the person of Wendy Smith Miller, director of the Office of Career Services--her decide to go to Texas. Miller was "wonderful," Falender says, "in encouraging me to take the risk. I think career services is a wonderful resource on this campus." PHOTOGRAPH BY PAULINE SHAPIRO		OCTOBER 14, 1999-- "The best thing about this summer was working with JoAnne. She is a renowned scientist, but still took time in the lab to teach me and other students," says Allison Falender, a senior from Nashville, Tennessee. Falender participated this summer in the Summer Medical and Research Training (SMART) program at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. SMART students spend their summer working in a Baylor laboratory under the direction of the principle investigator of a project. The program aims to deepen students‚ interest in biomedical scientific research and prepare them for graduate science programs. At Baylor Falender worked with JoAnne Richards '67, a professor of molecular and cellular biology who has won national awards for her research and teaching, and is an editor of Molecular Endocrinology. Falender first met Richards at a lecture Richards gave at Oberlin last fall. She found herself enthralled by Richards and her research. "It's fascinating to see how, whenever the body does anything, different genes turn on and off," she says. "Also, I was trying to bridge my interests in women's studies and biology. The study of the ovary provided me with that opportunity." In March Falender was admitted to the SMART program. While she was excited to go, Falender felt, she says, apprehensive about spending the summer in Texas. "I e-mailed JoAnne," says Falender, "and said, 'You probably don't remember me, but I just got into SMART. As an Oberlin graduate, you know we are a little unconventional, and I was wondering if you think I will have a problem fitting in at Houston.' " Richards e-mailed Falender back almost immediately, saying, "I have been in Houston for 18 years and find the atmosphere very friendly. The faculty and students here thoroughly enjoy research and want to share it with others." She added that she would find a project that matched Falender's interests. That project ended up being Richards's own. While viewing the scientist's web site, Falender had discovered that Richards's research involved recombinant DNA technology, which she happened to be studying that semester in her molecular genetics class. Drawn now to the specifics of Richards's research as well as Richards's enthusiasm, Falender requested the match, and received it. "JoAnne went out of her way to make me feel comfortable," says Falender, who recalls that the first day she was in Houston, Richards took her out to lunch and invited her home for an evening swim. Falender describes the transition from the liberal atmosphere of Oberlin to the more conservative area of Texas as "a growing experience." "I found that, in a way, I had become closed-minded at Oberlin because we aren't really exposed to the conservative side of issues. I realized that I needed to respect those concerns, too," she says. In December Falender will present her Baylor research at Oberlin--something she is anxious to do because she thinks Oberlin students can always use more exposure to actual research. "It is so exciting to look at a slide under a microscope and see something no one has ever seen before, and I want to bring that back to Oberlin students," she says. Falender says the SMART program has inspired her to continue working in the field after graduation. "It was wonderful to do something and realize this is what I want to do with my life." This semester Falender is building in an unexpected way on the excitement she caught this summer. In the spring she had queried Robin Treichel, Oberlin associate professor of biology, about working in her laboratory this fall--without knowing the details of Treichel's work and before being assigned to Richards in the SMART program. As it has turned out, what Falender learned at Baylor is "absolutely essential," she says, in preparing her for the honors work she is doing now with Treichel. Treichel's research involves determining the rates of apoptosis (cell death) in two leukemia cell lines. Central to the work is Falender's now pet subject: signal transduction.
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