Learning to be “a better doctor, a better scientist”

Juliana Anquandah is “very focused,” says Mark Snider, assistant professor of chemistry. “She’s someone who really loves to ask questions and figure things out. ”

The senior biochemistry and molecular biology major has had plenty of opportunities to do both at Wooster. She has sought out research opportunities throughout her four years, including a 10-week stint last summer at Case Western Reserve University studying a protein associated with cardiovascular disease.

For her senior Independent Study, Anquandah is studying a family of enzymes that play a critical role in storing and releasing energy in the muscles. In humans, these enzymes are more structurally complex than those that perform the same function in animals. Anquandah wanted to understand why.

“We found the answer through Juliana’s work,” says Snider, her I.S. adviser. The more complex structures help facilitate the process more efficiently, “something no one else has shown before.”

Anquandah and Snider are co-authoring a paper on her discovery, along with another Wooster student and a researcher at Case, for publication in a scientific journal.

Anquandah came to Wooster from Ghana, by way of Columbus, Ohio, where her parents and two siblings now live. A teacher at Olentangy High School, whose son attended the college, drove her up to visit campus. As she walked into the office of Jon Edwards, associate director of admissions, she saw a banner from Wesley Girls High School in Ghana, where she had studied for two years.

“I could see that he had some idea where I was coming from,” she recalls.

As for where she’s going, “I’ve always wanted to be a doctor, but at Wooster I’ve also developed an interest in research.” Majoring in biochemistry and molecular biology has proved the perfect match for her mix of interests. She plans to spend next year working in a university research lab before heading off to medical school.

Anquandah also has developed an interest in the study of other cultures, an interest that prompted her to add an anthropology minor to her studies at Wooster, and spend part of last summer working at a hospital in India.

“Understanding other people, other cultures can help you be a better doctor, a better scientist,” she says.