University of Richmond Chemistry Professor Awarded $400,000 Grant from National Science Foundation

February 13, 2003

Dr. Michelle Hamm, assistant professor of chemistry at the University of Richmond, has been awarded a National Science Foundation Early Career Development (CAREER) award. The five-year, $404,324 grant will support Hamm's teaching and research into a specific DNA lesion that has been linked to aging and cancer.

The CAREER program offers the foundation's most prestigious awards for new faculty, according to the NSF Web site. It recognizes and supports the early careers of teacher-scholars most likely to become academic leaders of the 21st century.

CAREER awardees are selected "on the basis of creative, career-development plans," the Web site says, that "build a firm foundation for a lifetime of integrated contributions to research and education."

Since 2001, Hamm and her research group, which includes Richmond undergraduate students, have been investigating 8-oxo-2'-deoxyguanosine (OdG) lesions, one of the most abundant lesions in mammalian cells. OdG lesions are caused by chemical carcinogens and radiation and can occur even during normal metabolism.

Hamm hopes to better understand not only how the lesions lead to DNA mutations and possibly disease and aging, but also how cells work to prevent and remove the lesions.

Hamm also has received grants from the Thomas F. and Kate Miller Jeffress Memorial Trust, the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation and Research Corporation for her work.