Students' research leads to personal growth and opportunities

By Jennifer Richter, College of Saint Benedict, 2010

Donovan and Amy Olson, Ph.D., professor of nutrition and her advisor and co-investigator, in the lab

Precocious. It is how many would describe Liz Donovan, a recent graduate of The College of Saint Benedict with a biology and nutrition science double major from Morris, Minn., who recently completed a compelling research project for her honors thesis.

In fact, because Donovan took on such research as an undergraduate, an article about her research highlighted her precociousness. In case you are wondering, Merriam-Webster Online defines precocious as “exceptionally early in development or occurrence” or “exhibiting mature qualities at an unusually early age.”

By describing Donovan as a precocious student, she was receiving quite a compliment, and it goes to show how unique such intensive research is for an undergraduate student.

“Even though she’s an undergraduate, she has done something pretty amazing,” said Amy Olson, Ph.D., professor of nutrition and Donovan’s advisor and co-investigator in the research.

Donovan’s research looked at the relationship between C-reactive protein (CRP), a blood marker for inflammation that can increase the risk for heart disease, and alcohol consumption in college students.

“I noticed that research hadn’t looked at alcohol and CRP in the young adult population,” she said.
 
However, the path from deciding on this topic to actually having results has been long.

“In the nutrition department, we have a two-semester seminar series to explain the steps of doing research, so Liz was actually starting this in the spring of her junior year,” said Olson. “Then she worked most of the summer getting the background and the experimental design.”

Donovan spent countless hours reading everything she could find on C-reactive protein to help her prepare for her experiment.

“It was a lot of work, but it was really interesting,” she said. “I really liked the topic, and it was a lot of fun to do. It wasn’t really homework.”

Subjects completed screening and comprehensive surveys as forms of data collection, then Donovan measured her subjects’ CRP levels, height, weight, and waist circumference.

She placed her subjects in three different groups based on their alcohol consumption patterns: non-drinkers, who consumed one or less drinks one day a week; moderate drinkers, who consumed two to five drinks of alcohol on a typical drinking day, one to two days a week; and heavy drinkers, who consumed three or more drinks in one sitting at least two or more days a week.

After her analysis of the relationship between alcohol usage and CRP levels, Donovan came to the conclusion that students who drank more heavily had higher levels of C-reactive protein.

“Different ranges of CRP levels are associated with risks for cardiovascular disease,” she said. “Anything below one milligram per liter is associated with low risk. One to three is moderate risk. And above three is high risk. The people who consumed heavy amounts of alcohol had CRP levels that are associated with moderate risk.”
 
And that leads to the startling conclusion that even a young healthy population can increase their risk for heart disease with heavy drinking.

“These students may be setting themselves up for future cardiovascular disease if CRP levels during young adulthood are predictive of future risk as some believe,” she said.

Such findings have caused Donovan’s research to receive a great deal of media attention. Media outlets across the nation and the world have devoted stories to her results, which has surprised Donovan.

“It was really unexpected, but it’s been really fun talking to the reporters and seeing what they come up with for articles,” she said.

“I think I’ve been surprised at the amount of attention that it has gotten, but it actually is significant work, and she’s done something that nobody else has done,” Olson said.

After conducting her research, Donovan has learned a great deal, not only about C-reactive protein and alcohol consumption, but about herself.

“It really made me more confident in my education,” she said. “When I look back at what I think I was capable of as a first-year student and what I have completed in my four years here, I’m proud of what I’ve done. I think it has been a great four years for me educationally.”
 
Donovan even had the opportunity to present her research at the Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology of American Heart Association Annual Conference 2007, a two-and-a-half-day meeting that focused on new developing research opportunities in these areas.

“I brought my poster and did a presentation,” she said. “People at the conference walked around and stopped to talk with me about my research.”

And such opportunities made the conference an excellent educational experience.

“I learned a lot,” Donovan said. “People took interest in my research, which I thought was exciting. I got to network and talk with people from 10 to 15 countries and lots of Ph.D.’s.”

One of the most unique parts of the conference for Donovan was the fact that she was perhaps the only undergraduate there out of around 400 presenters.

“I thought I was at least five years younger than the youngest people I saw there,” she said. “It was kind of intimidating, but I thought it was really fun. It didn’t bother me that I was an undergraduate.”

Donovan plans to attend medical school in Duluth.

It is evident that Donovan is most definitely precocious as few undergraduates have conducted such research as her and been able to make an impact on the world of research as she has already done.