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Big plans from Luzerne County’s big three colleges

WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Dr. Del Lucent raves about science.For the 37-year-old Wilkes University professor, the enthusiasm appears to flow naturally. It&#8217;s the same passion that took him from Pittston Area High School to Palo Alto, Calif., where he earned his doctorate at Stanford. A three-year stint conducting research in Australia followed, but despite the lure of the Land Down Under, Lucent longed to return to Northeastern Pennsylvania.His work in computational biology, the broad term used to describe how computers are used to simulate biological systems and analyze biological data, solves problems difficult to crack through other means. Such techniques help spur breakthroughs in science, including the ability to cure diseases.Now in his fifth year as an assistant professor of physics and bioengineering at Wilkes, Lucent recently sat down with the Times Leader in a question-and-answer session to discuss his passion, his career path, and what brought him home.Some of Lucent&#8217;s comments have been edited for brevity.Q: What education and background do you have?A: I&#8217;m a local boy; I lived in Inkerman and spent a tremendous amount of my time with my grandparents, who lived in Duryea. I&#8217;m also a first-generation college student and Pittston Area graduate. I went to Wilkes thinking I wanted to be a doctor.Fortunately, my first year at Wilkes I had a number of startling revelations. Key among them was my love for science and scientific research. I had the opportunity to work with my professors in their research labs as early as my second semester, and this really went a long way to set me on my path. I double majored in biology and physics, mostly because I couldn&#8217;t decide which one I liked more. While at Wilkes, I was able to earn decent grades and do quite a bit of research.With the support of my professors, I was able to earn an undergraduate research fellowship, which afforded me the chance to do my first fledgling &#8220;biophysical&#8221; experiments as an undergraduate and to present the results at national meetings. All of this made me a good candidate for some very competitive graduate programs, and when the time came to choose between biology or physics, I learned I can do both by getting my Ph.D. in biophysics.So I went to Stanford University in 2004 to get my Ph.D. I transitioned from biophysicist to bioengineer, where I used my understanding of protein folding and dynamics to design enzymes for use in bioremediation. After working in Australia for almost three years, I began to miss my home and family.Eventually, I discovered an opportunity to go back to Wilkes University to help re-institute our undergraduate physics program as well as to help start a master&#8217;s program in bioengineering. I jumped at the opportunity to work in my hometown alongside my mentors at my alma mater.Q: What made you want to return to the region?A: Wilkes-Barre is a really wonderful and special place, where we are surrounded by deep, rich history and tremendous natural beauty. There is a sort of genuineness and authenticity that I really missed. Living away from home also taught me some very valuable lessons that I felt would be of great use to others like myself growing up in the area.Among these are the tremendous diversity of both people and ideas the world has to offer, and the value of having the courage to consider ways of life and ideas vastly different from that which is most familiar and comfortable. I really liked the idea of coming back home and sharing my experiences with young minds.Q: What are the benefits of computational biology?A: The techniques employed allow us to solve problems of incredible complexity and massive scale, and this information can lead to important breakthroughs in science, both in terms of our basic understanding of biology as well as our ability to cure diseases. Here are two examples:Our ability to sequence the genomes of organisms has been ever-growing to the point where it&#8217;s now a standard practice. However, understanding all of that information requires sophisticated computer algorithms. Whether the task is aligning gene sequences, detecting genes from other portions of DNA, inferring evolutionary relationships, or even building medical diagnostic tests and screenings from sequence data, all of this is done with sophisticated and high-performance computer algorithms built by computational biologists.A second example is one closer to my work: protein folding. Proteins are the basic building blocks of all life. Myself and my colleagues use computer simulations to figure out the physics behind how proteins fold. This is important not only because protein folding is an essential part of life, but also when it messes up, we end up with all sorts of terrible diseases such as Alzheimer&#8217;s, cystic fibrosis, Huntington&#8217;s, Mad Cow, and many others.Q: Describe your research on the topic. What have you found?A: The particular part of protein folding I study involves answering the question of how proteins fold inside of our cells, as opposed to how they may fold in a test tube.We typically simulate protein folding in a test tube, where the protein is in a diluted environment and able to just hang out on its own and fold. We do this because we want to be able to directly compare our simulations with experiments. The problem though is that our cells are quite different from test tubes; in particular they are heterogeneous and crowded.It&#8217;s like how you might take off your jacket if you were walking in the park versus moving through a crowded subway car. My work has helped figure out how cells have evolved different mechanisms to allow proteins to fold happily despite this crowding.Q: Where does Wilkes rank in computational biology?A: Most of the local universities have a few really good people working on some aspect of computational biology, or computational chemistry. We occasionally get together and talk about our research and try to write grants together and things like that, and I am very happy to have such talented colleagues so close by.With that being said, I do feel that Wilkes has a special capacity for this field that sets us apart from our competitors. I am one of a few professors with considerable and overlapping experience in this field, and all of us maintain strong connections to our collaborators around the country and the world.Q: What advice do you have for others considering a career in the sciences?A: I would advise any young mind considering such a career to embrace it fully and not to be discouraged by how difficult it may at first seem. We need more young people to choose a career in science, and we also need more individuals among under-represented groups to choose careers in science. This diversity is essential since careers in science aren&#8217;t just for scientists and engineers; they are for doctors, journalists, teachers and politicians as well.Also, science is fun! It&#8217;s creative, iterative, and allows us to interact with our world in a very special and meaningful way.<style>
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<div class="neCaption">Dr. Del Lucent, assistant professor of bioengineering and physics at Wilkes University, uses a PowerPoint to teach a class about protein folding at the university&#8217;s Stark Learning Center in Wilkes-Barre. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/web1_TTL043017lucent1-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Dr. Del Lucent, assistant professor of bioengineering and physics at Wilkes University, uses a PowerPoint to teach a class about protein folding at the university&#8217;s Stark Learning Center in Wilkes-Barre. </caption0><photoCredit0>Sean McKeag | Times Leader </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By Joe Dolinskyjdolinsky@www.timesleader.com</bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Reach Joe Dolinsky at 570-991-6110 or on Twitter @JoeDolinskyTL</shirttailMeta></div>

Wilkes professor Dr. Del Lucent pursues his passion