By Allison Frederick, Health Science Relations
Research took her from coast to coast, but a career in the Midwest was a move that biochemistry professor Madeline Shea didn’t see coming.
A native of Washington D.C., Shea earned a B.S. in chemistry from the California Institute of Technology during a time when such schools were just beginning to admit women as undergraduates. She went on to earn a Ph.D. in biophysics from Johns Hopkins University, where she continued with postdoctoral work and later joined the research faculty.
Upon recovering from what she calls her "bi-coastal disorder," Shea found her place at the University of Iowa.
" Comparing several job offers, the teamwork atmosphere, the quality of my prospective colleagues and their high-caliber research won me over to moving to Iowa," she said emphatically.
In 1989, Shea began a research program at the UI to study the biophysical chemistry of regulatory proteins. Her work was initially funded by a National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award and, now in its 15th year of operation, is currently funded by National Institutes of Health and the American Heart Association. Her research program focuses specifically on how calmodulin, an essential calcium-binding protein, regulates myriad signal transduction pathways.
" I am interested in the molecular mechanisms of physiological processes," Shea said. "Because we focus on the behavior of the complexes of a few proteins at a time, we hear parts of the symphony. We collaborate with others to make a whole orchestra."
Shea’s laboratory has welcomed students at many levels, ranging from high school, undergraduate, graduate and medical school, to secondary teachers and visiting college faculty. Shea serves as the director of the program, which has close to 100 majors. She supervises as many as five students at a time who are doing independent research projects in her laboratory. She delights in "converting students into scientists," and is reminded daily that students can make significant impacts in the scientific field.
" As a professor, it’s fun to share their joy of creating new knowledge and understanding, and to help students appreciate the fact that by pooling our efforts, we come up with new concepts. The whole team is greater than the sum of the individuals in a laboratory. Part of the satisfaction of running a laboratory is living vicariously through my students, and seeing them grow in independence."
Shea’s students nominated her for a mentoring award from the UI Graduate College in appreciation for her effort. She received the honor, named the Award of Special Recognition for Mentoring, at a ceremony in September 2003.
" I was tickled pink that they would take the initiative to do that, and to receive a special recognition award for mentoring my own students and others whose thesis committees I have chaired," she said.
For the second consecutive year, a Ph.D. student from Shea’s lab was selected to receive a Student Research Achievement Award at the Annual Meeting of the Biophysical Society in February 2004. The honored work focused on the role of calmodulin regulating the NMDA (glutamate) receptor, studies which are important for understanding stroke and trauma. It was done in collaboration with the laboratory of Johannes Hell, Ph.D., UI associate professor of pharmacology.
" I enjoy discovering new things and working on puzzles that require wrestling with a variety of outcomes," Shea said. "The problems are humbling. They force us to be intellectually honest and understand that research makes successive approximations to the truth. Interacting with colleagues throughout the University, especially in the Center for Biocatalysis and Bioprocessing, has broadened our outlook on many issues."
With society’s constant changes and technological advancements, Shea said finding the answers to questions continuously reveals more questions. "It’s like daffodils coming up in the spring. There is always renewal and something to look forward to," she said.
When she is not in her laboratory, Shea enjoys gardening, reading, and guiding her 7- and 12-year-old boys as they grow up as Iowans who cannot imagine living anywhere else.