Undergraduate student researchers play a large role in The Oliveira Lab at Yeshiva University. Led by Dr. Anderson Oliveira, professor of chemistry at Stern College, and funded in part by the National Science Foundation (NSF), research in the Lab focuses on the molecular basis of bioluminescence, with an emphasis on, as he explains, “discovering and characterizing novel luciferases and photoproteins from luminous marine and terrestrial organisms.” For the rest of us, that means the students are studying light-emitting organisms, with the goal to better understand, at the molecular level, how these organisms produce light and how they control brightness, color, and stability.
His important research and the students’ participation could lead to significant biotechnology applications, including improved detection and imaging for biomedical purposes and diagnostic testing.
The students participating include Eliana Samuels ‘27SCW, Maya Menashe ‘27SCW, Emma Shields ‘26SCW, Elana Kavesh ‘27SCW, Allison Nagel ‘26SCW, Atara Razi ‘26SCW and Tiferet Aharon ‘27SCW. Their work involves isolating and purifying light-emitting proteins from biological samples and cloning the genes that encode these proteins to produce them reliably in the lab. The students then run experiments that measure how much light is produced and how the signal changes under different conditions, which helps to understand why some systems are brighter or more stable than others. They also contribute to protein engineering efforts, introducing targeted mutations to test how specific changes in the protein’s sequence can improve performance, as Dr. Oliveira explains, to increase brightness, stability, or shifting the color of the emitted light.
“Our undergraduate researchers are helping us uncover how nature makes light,” added Dr. Oliveira. “Their work directly supports our efforts to understand why some systems are brighter or more stable, and to engineer improved light-emitting proteins for biotechnology, including faster and more sensitive diagnostic assays, bioluminescent reporter tags for tracking biological processes, and next-generation imaging and sensing tools.”
