Professor of Chemistry and Fellow Scientists Publish Research

Professor of Chemistry David Horgen, Ph.D., and research colleagues from the University of Massachusetts and The Queen’s Medical Center authored a paper that will be published in the journal Cell Calcium, Vol 87, May 2020. The research on mouse eggs, led by University of Massachusetts’ Professor Rafael A. Fissore, Ph.D., delineated the role of the TRPM7 protein on the surface of egg cells as providing a way for calcium and essential minerals to enter maturing eggs, which prepares them for fertilization. Waixenicin A, a drug-like compound from a soft coral found only in Hawai‘i, was used in key experiments testing hypotheses in this study. The new knowledge created by this work may lead to new ways to enhance assisted reproduction technologies. 

Horgen is head of HPU’s Shared Instrumentation Facility, which has been funded by the National Institute of Health since 2002. The biomedical research laboratories in the facility also provide undergraduate and graduate student research opportunities and support instructional lab courses.