However, not all seniors who are doing research this semester for a thesis are planning to go into research.

Van L. Cheng '98 is currently applying to medical school.

Cheng, who is studying a specific enzyme, endothelial nitric oxide synthase, says the enzyme is being studied nationwide.

"It's a sexy enzyme. Everyone is working on it in labs across the country," she says.

The protein, which Cheng calls "eNOS" for short, has an enzyme which plays an important role in constricting and dilating blood vessels.

Cheng says she started her research last January when a lab in California sent her some DNA for study. She says that most of her time in the lab is spent working with tissue cultures and proteins.

"I don't do microscope work, thank God," she says.

But Cheng says the work she does do in lab keeps her there for 25 to 30 hours and makes it hard to drag herself away.

"One thing leads to another and I just can't leave," she says.

And Felix E. Diehn '98, a biochem concentrator who is also applying to medical school, says he is doing hands-on research. The 20 to 25 hours he spends a week in the lab are spent "all at the bench."

Diehn's research which involves RNA-ribonucleic acid-capping, was recently published in Cell, a biochemical journal.

Diehn is studying the proteins to see what amino acids are important in order to eventually determine the differences in RNA capping in humans and other species.

Diehn is part of a team of mostly graduate students. "[The graduate students] all look up to me," he quips.