Pingry biology teacher Dr. Morgan Thompson, a resident of Bridgewater, recently had a research paper published online in the scientific journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology in December 2012. The journal, among the most prestigious in the biology field, publishes articles about protein structures and how proteins function inside cells.

The articles topic stemmed from the larger question of how cells move around inside the body. Dr. Thompsons work focused on examining the structure of two proteins and their interaction with each other at an atomic level: actin, which forms long polymers that act like a skeleton to give cells their structure, and a class of proteins called formins, which interact with actin and help regulate polymer assembly. Solving the structure of these proteins led her to develop two molecular models that illustrate this interaction. Determining the relationship between actin and formins could lead to a better understanding of a wide range of diseases from muscle disease to cancer.

Dr. Thompson, who earned a Ph.D. at Dartmouth College in the fall of 2012, has been presenting this research at conferences for about five years, and her paper was a chapter in her thesis for the Ph.D. She conducted lab research under the guidance of Dartmouth biochemist Dr. Henry Higgs and Dartmouth chemistry professor Dr. Jon Kull.

Her experiences in graduate school serve Dr. Thompson well at Pingry, since she uses her molecular biology skills from Dartmouth in a molecular biology research class she teaches and in introductory biology labs. New to Pingry this school year, she said, I came to Pingry because of the advanced level of its research program and science curriculum compared to other high schools. I have been really impressed with what Pingry offers its students.

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Pingry biology teacher publishes research paper in online journal