Profiles

Armanda Roco

Armanda Roco was chosen for a summer internship at Los Alamos National Laboratory where she is putting her classroom studies to use by conducting biological research during her internship here.

The Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internships (SULI) program places students in paid internships in science and engineering at participating Department of Energy facilities. The participants in the program must be pursuing a degree in science or engineering. Students work with scientists or engineers on projects related to the laboratories' research programs.

Each laboratory offers different research opportunities. Summer appointments at LANL range from eight to 10 weeks. Each student is expected to complete the full program, submit a research paper or PowerPoint presentation, submit an abstract of their research, and be involved in enrichment activities, including career guidance, lectures, tours, and group activities.

Twelve students were selected to intern at LANL as part of the SULI program. Armanda Roco participated during the summer of 2006 and hopes to return to the Lab next summer.

Armanda was raised in northern Virginia near Washington, D.C. A sophomore at the University of Virginia, she declared biology as her major. She found out about the SULI program while attending a conference with her dad at the University of Pennsylvania last year, where she met her current mentor. Armanda was also accepted for a summer internship at Cornell, New York, in the Research for Undergraduate Students program.

She had several reasons for choosing New Mexico: she enjoys the outdoors, she thought the high number of students at LANL during the summer was a plus, she had never been to the Southwest, and she liked the research aspect of the SULI program.

Armanda's future depends on what aspect of biology she chooses to follow. She is interested in molecular biology, genetics, marine biology, ecology, and evolutionary. One of the main things she enjoyed about the summer was that she put to practical use much of what she learned last year in the classroom. She is grateful for the help of her mentors, Gabriel Montaño and Andrew Dattelbaum. They stressed the safety aspects of her work while guiding her through her research and have encouraged her to find alternate solutions when she ran into problems.

Armanda's research involves working with the controlled assembly of protein-mediated lipid multi-layers. A myelin sheath is a multi-bilayered structure that wraps around nerve fibers and insulates them for efficient nerve impulse conduction and transmission of electrical signals to provide muscular movements. The breakdown of myelin, from either diseases such as multiple sclerosis or trauma from nerve injury, can prevent people from properly performing basic motor functions. Armanda is creating these synthetic multi-layered structures in a lab setting and experimenting on the multi-layer's fluidity to determine what could cause their deterioration resulting in the loss of basic motor functions.

Armanda's advice to other students: "Take advantage of your research project and get all the experience you can here at LANL. Be open, don't hold back. Get out and meet people, and take advantage of all the opportunities you can. Stay active." Her advice certainly doesn't apply just to the Lab. This past summer Armanda went rock climbing, camping, tubing down the Chama River, cliff jumping, ran in the 5K at the YMCA, attended a kayaking class, volunteered at the "Pancakes on the Plaza" in Santa Fe on July 4, and climbed the state's highest mountain, Wheeler Peak.

The SULI program is coordinated at LANL through the Education and Postdoc Office in the Science and Technology Base Programs Office in partnership with the DOE's Office of Science. The DOE Office of Science helps fund the program. More info about the SULI program can be found at http://www.scied.science.doe.gov/scied/erulf/about.html.