Socrates Fellows Who We Are 2009-2010 John Yamauchi
John Yamauchi is a 3rd year graduate student in the Biomedical Sciences program at UC San Diego specializing in Molecular Pharmacology under Dr. Palmer Taylor.
John's motivation for obtaining an advanced degree in research is to educate/inspire tomorrow's scientists and also to advance the field of innovative therapeutics. About Socrates"The Socrates program has opened new doors for my professional career, most importantly I have developed the ability to effectively communicate science to audiences with diverse backgrounds. In addition to my own professional development, I also have benefited by experiencing the difference I make in the lives of high school students everyday; this in particular, has been tremendously rewarding."His research focuses on obtaining structural and pharmacological information on the alpha4beta2 neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR), which is thought to be significantly involved in nicotine addiction. His lab has approached this goal by utilizing a technique known as "Freeze Frame Click Chemistry" to generate a library of compounds that are synthesized with a receptor as a target template. These compounds have then been screened across a few nAChRs as well as other related receptors to identify their binding profiles with a fluorescent assay. For compounds that contain high affinity and specifities, crystallographic techniques will be used to identify their structural determinants.
In addition to his graduate studies, John has been very active in interacting with various local San Diego organizations to help achieve their objectives. Just recently, John was the CEO for the UC San Diego Entrepreneur Challenge during the 2007-2008 academic year. This group is a UCSD student organization aimed at encouraging young innovators to commercialize their technologies by providing significant funding incentives through a business plan competition. By June of 2008 the UC San Diego Entrepreneur Challenge had existed for two years and awarded over $100,000 in cash to nine teams of engineers, scientists, and business minded individuals to assist them in incorporating. John also is a participating member in a number of additional organizations such as; ScienceBridge, The San Diego Science Festival, MySDscience, the Allegro Associates of the La Jolla Music Society, ScholarNexus LLC, CONNECT, CommNexus, and the San Diego Venture Group.
