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By John Althardt and Jayne Spencer
For the second consecutive year, IU dental student Russell McCabe has received national recognition for his research involving cancerous bone.
A fourth-year student in the dental program at IUPUI, McCabe placed second in the American Dental Association Dentsply Student Clinician Program held last semester in Orlando, Fla. He received the basic science and research award. Last year he received third-place honors in the competition.
His accomplishments come as no surprise to Professor Joseph Bidwell, who has been collaborating on bone cancer research with McCabe for three years.
A Chesterton native, McCabe has received numerous state and international prizes for his research projects which are options students have in addition to required courses.
The focus of McCabe and Bidwell's efforts have been to break down nuclear matrix proteins, which serve as markers for disease and can be therapeutic targets for treatment. By further identifying nuclear matrix proteins, new markers can be targeted and treatments can be enhanced. They conduct their studies in the molecular biology lab at the School of Dentistry.
"I enjoy working with students in research because it is one of the purest ways of learning for both the student and the mentor," said Bidwell. "The laboratory and the library are the best classrooms and nobody gets bored. I've never put a graduate student to sleep during a research meeting or while we're analyzing results from an experiment."
McCabe has done an outstanding job as a research student, Bidwell said. "The experience has given him insight into how science works and skills in critical thinking. If more people had some experience with real science, then shows like The X-Files would be considered situation comedies."