Bryn Athyn College Alumni Magazine Spring/Summer 2017 | Page 25

FACULTY
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RESEARCH
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Stella and Michael met at
Bryn Athyn College and were
married August 23, 1997.
hen Stella Rose (BA ’99) arrived on the College
campus in the fall of 1995, she had no idea that
she would soon meet, fall in love with, and mar-
ry Michael Evans (who attended the College from 1994 to
1996). Neither did she know that she would become enam-
ored with biology — the field to which she would devote
thousands of hours of study and make exciting new con-
tributions.
Early Inspiration
Stella’s love of scientific study became clear during her ju-
nior year at Bryn Athyn College. While sitting in a biology
course with professor Justin Allen, Stella thought to her-
self, “I love this stuff! I want to go to grad school in this
field.” Sure enough, after graduating from the College with
a bachelor’s degree in the biological and chemical sciences,
the young newlywed worked for the College in the Bena-
de Hall science lab (on the Academy of the New Church
Secondary Schools’ campus) while applying to graduate
schools. All her diligence proved worthwhile; Stella soon re-
ceived offers from multiple doctoral programs. After some
consideration, Stella chose Thomas Jefferson University.
Focus on the Eye Begins
While at Jefferson, Stella’s advisor suggested working with
another scientist who was seeking to clone a particular gene
found in salamander eyes. Calcium-activated chloride cur-
rents are prominent in the light-sensing cells of the eye; the
gene responsible for the protein that conducts the current
had never been cloned, so scientists knew little about its
function. If Stella’s team could clone the gene, they could
manipulate its DNA in the lab and see how the protein it
encodes behaves by expressing it in other cell types. Their
findings would add one more piece to the scientific com-
munity’s understanding of the fascinating organ on which
salamanders, humans, and so many other beings rely. Stel-
la loved the research. She said, “It was fascinating. Here’s
something that’s happening physiologically, and we don’t
know which proteins are responsible for it. So it was kind
of like a fun detective game.”
Although the team did not find success in cloning the
gene, their study of the eye led to new possibilities. Stella
explained, “We turned our attention to another mostly un-
studied protein family, known as CLCA, that regulates cal-
cium-activated chloride channels.” With that focus, Stella
ended up cloning two new mouse genes in that family, al-
lowing scient ists worldwide to learn more about the roles
of CLCA proteins.
By Sasha Silverman
B RY N AT H Y N A LU M N I M AG A Z I N E
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