Holy Cross Professor Receives National Science Foundation Grant Supporting Promising Young Teacher-Scholars

WORCESTER, Mass. – Kenneth V. Mills, assistant professor of chemistry at the College of the Holy Cross, has received a five-year, $795,000 grant from the National Science Foundation’s Faculty Early Career Development program. The program supports early career-development activities of teacher-scholars who are most likely to become the academic leaders of the 21st century, according to the NSF.

The grant will support Mills’ ambitious project titled "CAREER: Alternative Mechanisms of HINT Domain Autoprocessing: An Integrated Undergraduate Research and Education Program." The research component explores unanswered questions about the chemical mechanism of two related proteins, hedgehog proteins and inteins, which share a HINT domain. Inteins are protein segments that both excise themselves from, as well as tie together, flanking protein segments. The project will broaden the understanding of inteins in particular and biochemical catalysis in general. This knowledge can be applied to hedgehog proteins, which play vital roles in development and whose mutation can result in the development of certain cancers.

In addition, Professor Mills, 30, of Charlton, Mass., will make significant educational contributions to both introductory and upper-level courses at Holy Cross and the biochemistry concentration, which focuses on the chemistry underlying biological structure and function.

One component will be the design and implementation of new labs for the Discovery Chemistry curriculum, which introduces students to science through the lab rather than through textbooks and lectures alone. Since 1989, Holy Cross has experimented with laboratory-based, process-oriented curriculum - becoming a pioneer in the pedagogy of the chemistry discovery process.

"A major issue is to ensure that our students are exposed to a research environment by having labs that rival those in research institutions," said Mills. "These grants allow us to move closer to that goal and allow our students to have close contact with faculty and do research at the highest level possible.

"At the early stages of their education at Holy Cross, the Discovery Chemistry program can make science come alive for our students and hook them into science, encouraging them to experience careers in the sciences and medicine."

New programs will be introduced to increase the vitality of the biochemistry concentration to better prepare students for graduate studies, including a journal club, a new seminar series, and travel to local and national meetings and symposia.

The grant will allow research to be conducted by three students each summer over the next five years. They will be working to fulfill the research aims of the project while gaining valuable experience in the lab and preparation for their future education and careers. Their projects are intended to lead to publications in leading research journals and presentations at national meetings.

Nationally recognized for excellence, the Holy Cross department of chemistry is among the nation’s top producers of chemistry graduates certified by the American Chemical Society.

Mills, who has been a professor at the College since 2001, also received a $250,000 grant from the NSF in 2003 as the co-principal investigator with Robert Bellin, assistant professor of biology at Holy Cross. The grant was used to establish a protein purification core facility at the College, which is currently used by both faculty and students in research and teaching labs. Mills’ research has also been funded by the Research Corporation and by the Donors of the Petroleum Research Fund, as administered by the American Chemical Society.