It’s a small, Whitworth world! Melissa Hinman ’06, scientist at InVivo Biosystems in Oregon, received a fun surprise this summer when she realized she was leading a company project for client Aaron Putzke, Whitworth professor of biology. InVivo Biosystems is currently making a transgenic line of zebrafish that will express a fluorescent version of the protein that is studied in the Putzke Lab at Whitworth.
“I initially didn’t recognize Dr. Putzke’s name because he started at Whitworth after my time there,” Hinman says. “However, when I looked at our client information page, his Whitworth email, 777 contact number, and 300 W. Hawthorne Road address immediately popped out at me. I was thrilled to see that advanced research is happening at Whitworth, and very excited to be able to contribute to it in some small way.”
Hinman graduated from Whitworth with degrees in biology and Spanish and went on to earn her Ph.D. in genetics and genome sciences at Case Western Reserve University. She then completed postdoctoral research in the Institute of Molecular Biology at the University of Oregon, the birthplace of zebrafish research, before beginning at nearby InVivo Biosystems. Her primary job there is designing and building zebrafish genetic models.
“This project [for Dr. Putzke] involved designing and testing reagents for adding special genetic tags to the end of the zebrafish fer gene, which Dr. Putzke and his students will use to better understand its function,” Hinman says. “It has been a technically challenging project, and I am really hoping that Dr. Putzke will be able to establish new zebrafish lines using our reagents and use them to further the education of Whitworth students. Throughout this project, I was frequently reminded of a lab class I took from Dr. [Finn] Pond, in which I made my very first attempt at genetic engineering in bacteria.”
Hinman says her rigorous Whitworth education equipped her well for graduate school and her vocation.
“I was very well prepared to handle the coursework in graduate school, and I still use skills learned from each of the biology professors at Whitworth in my current job developing and characterizing animal genetic models at InVivo Biosystems,” Hinman says. “Dr. [Craig] Tsuchida got me excited about animal biology during my first semester at Whitworth, Dr. Pond gave me my first real lab experience in molecular biology, Dr. [Frank] Caccavo taught me how to read and understand primary scientific literature, Dr. [Lee Anne] Chaney introduced me to genetics, and Dr. Mike [Sardinia ’87] made animal physiology lessons stick in my mind forever by taking us on field trips to work with horses on his farm. In addition to teaching me science, the Whitworth professors also taught me to always look for ways to do work that improves the world as a whole.”
Worth a Look 