Graduate Research
in the Couch Lab
Graduate student opportunites are available in the Couch lab,
relating to research areas described
.
Priority is given to students that are Chemistry/Biochemistry
majors and those interested in pursuing a PhD degree.
Whether you intend to work in academia, industry, or for the
government after graduating, your future employer will be keenly
interested in your hands-on experience with research-related
techniques and instrumentation. Exposure and experience
obtained in an undergraduate teaching lab is typically insufficient
for most employers seeking personnel with expertise in the use
and troubleshooting of modern research tools and techniques.
Hence, it is imperative for you to develop your expertise through
experience acquired during your graduate program. Depending
on the specific aims of their research project, graduate students
in the Couch lab will gain hands on experience with techniques in
areas of protein chemistry (protein expression, protein
purification, protein characterization, enzymology, protein
crystallography), drug discovery (structure-activity relationships,
molecular modeling, structure determination, inhibitor
screening), molecular biology (PCR, qPCR, DNA/RNA isolation,
electrophoresis, cloning, etc), bacterial and mammalian cell
culture, metabolomics (gas and liquid chromatography, sample
preservation and processing, data processing, biomarker
identification), all while using a wide array of modern
state-of-the-art equipment. For some students, aspects of the
thesis project can be performed on-location with our
collaborators, creating network opportunities and connections
to potential employers.
Contact Dr. Robin Couch for more information and to discuss
current opportunities.
