Kenta Nakamura, the first member of his family to go to college, has been honored nationally for his research on a protein that plays an important role in heart disease. Nakamura, a junior in the UCLA College, is researching this protein full time this summer.

Nakamura was the only undergraduate from UCLA or any University of California campus to be selected nationally by the Council on Undergraduate Research to present original research on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., in April. He was named a Beckman Research Scholar this year, an award and scholarship based on his promise as a superb undergraduate researcher and commitment to a science-based career. He has worked for more than a year in the laboratory of Srinivasa Reddy, associate professor of medicine and molecular and medical pharmacology in UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine, who conducts research on the role of lipoproteins (HDL and LDL) in cardiovascular diseases.

Nakamura is studying a family of HDL-associated proteins called paraoxonases, which Reddy believes inactivate harmful oxidizing lipids in LDL. Little is known about the physiological function of the paraoxonases, but Reddy believes paraoxonases may have anti-oxidant properties. Nakamura is trying to understand the biochemical properties of paraoxonases in order to determine how they work in our bodies. This research may lead to the development of novel targets for the prevention of cardiovascular diseases. Coronary heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States.

Reddy, Nakamura's faculty mentor, said, "Kenta is quite focused, energetic, hard-working, caring, and unafraid to try complicated techniques. I believe that he will make an excellent physician-scientist."

Nakamura returns the praise, and speaks highly of his experiences in the laboratory.

"From the very beginning, Dr. Reddy and his research group made me feel like I was part of a team and nurtured me," Nakamura said. "I see Dr. Reddy on a daily basis and he has been very influential. He's always interested in how my experiments are progressing, encouraging me like a coach. I have also worked closely with postdoctoral fellow Julie Nguyen, who trained me from a student with no prior bench experience. She's a great scientist, yet so down-to-earth.

"When you join a lab and take ownership of a project, it's very rewarding, and the time in lab really flies. I came to UCLA thinking that I would practice medicine, and if it weren't for such influential people in my life as Dr. Reddy, Dr. (Mohamad) Navab (under whom Nakamura first worked), and Julie, I would have stayed on that purely clinical track."

Instead, after he graduates next year, Nakamura will enter a combined M.D.-Ph.D. program. His first choices are UCLA and UC San Francisco. He plans to become a physician-scientist at a research university medical center, conducting cardiology research, and seeing patients.

A microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics major, Nakamura has a 3.9 grade-point average, while working 15-20 hours in Reddy's laboratory, and volunteering for a community service project, where he is a director. The project, the Asian Pacific Health Corps, advocates combating cardiovascular disease risk factors through screenings and education of people who otherwise would not have access to preventive services.

Through the Council on Undergraduate Research trip to D.C., he met Sen. Barbara Boxer, legislative aides, officials from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, and he presented a poster summarizing his research at a session attended by senators, representatives and their staff, as well as funding officers from federal agencies. The council is an independent national association that supports undergraduate student-faculty collaborative research at nearly 1,000 academic institutions.

If Nakamura's accomplishments sound impressive, he prefers to give credit and thanks to others.

"People at UCLA are wonderful in their support of undergraduate research; I've been so lucky to be here," Nakamura said. "Dr. Audrey Cramer at the Undergraduate Research Center/Center for Academic and Research Excellence, College Honors and my department have all been incredible. The professors are world-class, and the upper division classes really force you to think. Dr. Sherie Morrison, Dr. Robert Simons, and my other professors are brilliant and care so much about their students. I leave my classes having learned things I know I will remember and use later on. Dr. (Aldons J.) Lusis co-sponsors my work, and has been a great help to my research. The Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation, the Asian American Studies Center, and the UCLA Alumni Association have all provided significant support. UCLA is amazing.

"The programs that UCLA offers, the support that we have, the faculty who welcome undergraduates into their labs, and the opportunities here are unrivaled. It's remarkable that even with the talk about budget cuts, UCLA is still so generous and supportive of undergraduateresearch. When I applied here, I knew UCLA has a strong connection between basic science and medicine, but I didn't know that undergraduate research is such a huge priority. It's hard to go to a lab without seeing undergraduates."

"Our goal is to make UCLA the leading research university in the nation for undergraduate research," said Judith L. Smith, acting executive dean of the UCLA College.

"My family has also given me great support, and my girlfriend, Daisy, who graduated from UCLA last quarter and will pursue her Ph.D., is phenomenally supportive," Nakamura said.

Nakamura's parents lived in Japan, and moved to the United States before he was born. They now run a restaurant in Northern California.

Nakamura loved science, and became interested in medicine as a high school student in Orinda (near Berkeley) while volunteering in hospitals. At UCLA, he found that research was his true calling.

"Scientific research is creative," he said. "You apply concepts and do things that no one else has ever done. We have the tools now to broaden our body of knowledge and translate that quickly into benefits we all will appreciate. It's a very exciting time in science."