{"id":67035,"date":"2006-05-09T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-05-09T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/west-greenwich-resident-to-graduate-from-uri-as-top-microbiology-student\/"},"modified":"2006-05-09T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2006-05-09T00:00:00","slug":"west-greenwich-resident-to-graduate-from-uri-as-top-microbiology-student","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2006\/05\/west-greenwich-resident-to-graduate-from-uri-as-top-microbiology-student\/","title":{"rendered":"West Greenwich resident to graduate from URI as top microbiology student"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tKINGSTON, R.I. — May 9, 2006 — When West Greenwich resident Marc Chatenay-Lapointe graduates from the University of Rhode Island on May 21, he will receive the President\u2019s Excellence Award as the top student in URI\u2019s microbiology program. While he gives his professors a great deal of the credit for his success, they insist that he deserves all the accolades.<\/p>\n


\n\tAccording to one professor, John Mottinger, Chatenay-Lapointe is probably the most intelligent person that he has taught in his 38 years at URI.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cDr. Mottinger was the one who got me interested in genetics in the first place when I took his introductory genetics course,\u201d said Chatenay-Lapointe, who earned a Centennial Scholarship to URI and was awarded the University\u2019s Norris Wood Award for Research. \u201cIt was a difficult course, but it was primarily experiment based \u2013 not just facts \u2013 and he taught the techniques and methodologies you need to answer important questions in science.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tThat spark of interest in molecular biology turned into a passion for the modest URI student, who later taught himself genomics, proteomics and transgenics, though he only admits to doing \u201ca lot of independent reading.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cI like problem-based research,\u201d he said, \u201c because it allows you to be creative, and yet it still is in the framework of a logical objective reality. At the end of the day, there\u2019s a right answer and a wrong answer, so while you can be original and approach things your own way, you still have to be methodical and precise.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tOne problem Chatenay-Lapointe played an important role in tackling while at URI is the genetic mapping of a Bt toxin-resistance gene, working with biology professor Marian Goldsmith.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cBt is an insecticide, and millions of acres of transgenic crops are planted every year that express this agent,\u201d he explained. \u201cIf insects develop a resistance to this toxin, they could do heavy damage to crops and the insecticide wouldn\u2019t be useful any more. It could be a major blow to both farmers and biotech companies.\u201d <\/p>\n


\n\tAfter graduation from URI, Chatenay-Lapointe will enroll at Yale University to earn a doctorate in genetics. \u201cYale has a great reputation, it has great laboratories, great researchers and a strong genetics program.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tAnd after that? \u201cI\u2019m not sure,\u201d he admits. \u201cI haven\u2019t decided whether I want to work in industry or academia. I might want to become a professor, but I\u2019d also like to start my own biotech company some day.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nURI News Bureau photo by Michael Salerno Photography.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. — May 9, 2006 — When West Greenwich resident Marc Chatenay-Lapointe graduates from the University of Rhode Island on May 21, he will receive the President\u2019s Excellence Award as the top student in URI\u2019s microbiology program. While he gives his professors a great deal of the credit for his success, they insist that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67037,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}