St. Bonaventure University senior Anna Hu is one of only 31 students nationwide who have been accepted into the competitive American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) Honor Society for 2021.

The biochemistry major from Latrobe, Pennsylvania, began taking advantage of campus research opportunities her freshman year, and has delivered research posters and presentations at a number of regional and national conferences throughout her college career.

Rich and diverse involvement in authentic research is a hallmark of St. Bonaventure’s biochemistry program.

On campus, Hu has worked with Dr. Xiao-Ning Zhang, director of the biochemistry program, in investigating the role of the apoptosis-and-splicing associated protein (ASAP) complex in Arabidopsis, a model organism in the plant kingdom. During the summer of 2018 and 2019 Hu was selected as a research intern at Kyoto University in Kyoto, Japan, where she was part of Dr. Hirofumi Akari’s Laboratory in the Institute for Frontier Life and Medical Sciences with focuses on human immunodeficiency virus and human/simian T-lymphotropic virus type 1.

“She not only excels in classroom learning, but most importantly Anna has turned her inherent curiosities into affirmative actions to discover how the world works,” said Zhang. “Over the past four years, Anna has grown into a talented and dedicated researcher via her extensive research endeavors and co-authorships on peer-reviewed publications.”

Zhang said Hu’s leadership, organization and communication skills are evident through her role in spearheading a creative STEM outreach program in the ASBMB Student Chapter at the university during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“All of these high qualities and achievements are what the society is looking for. I am proud of Anna and wholeheartedly cheer for her personal and professional successes,” added Zhang.

Hu has played an active role in the university’s ASBMB Student Chapter as a founding member (2018-2019), secretary (2019-2020), and president (2020-2021). Through ASBMB Student Chapter, she has learned the importance of communication, especially in science. Paired with her role as the assistant chief of the campus Medical Emergency Response Team (MERT), Hu has applied this concept by encouraging members of both organizations to be public health advocates. For example, she has worked with MERT to emphasize the importance of members setting good examples and reinforcing proper COVID-19 guidelines. Working with other members in the ASBMB Student Chapter, several tutorials and videos about COVID guidelines were created and shared on social media.

Hu has also been active with Asian Students in Action and served as the secretary of her class all four years.

After graduation, Hu plans to attend George Washington University School of Medical and Health Sciences and hopes to continue to make impactful contributions to individual-level patient care, community-level education, and population-level research.

“One of the benefits of the close-knit Bonaventure community is the strong relationships students can form with their professors,” Hu said. “Through conversations with my professors in different subject areas, I have been able to conduct cross-departmental research. This was really exciting to me because I got to see how concepts from different fields can intertwine to help us answer questions we still have about the natural world.”

Acceptance by the ASBMB Honor Society is a competitive process and nominees must be ASBMB Student Chapter members who have demonstrated exceptional achievement in academics, undergraduate research and science outreach.

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About the University: The nation’s first Franciscan university, St. Bonaventure University is a community committed to transforming the lives of our students inside and outside the classroom, inspiring in them a lifelong commitment to service and citizenship. In 2020, St. Bonaventure was named the #2 regional university value in New York and #3 in the North by U.S. News and World Report.