Dr. Leah Chase, associate professor of biology and chemistry at Hope College, has
been appointed to a three-year term as a trustee of the Kenneth H. Campbell Foundation
for Neurological Research.
The Grand Rapids-based foundation supports biomedical/medical research on neurological
disorders, with an emphasis on Parkinson's disease. Chase's three-year term as a trustee
began in September and will continue through 2014.
Chase has been a member of the Hope faculty since 2000. She led the development of
the college's neuroscience program, which became a minor in 2004, and serves as the
program's director.
She teaches courses in neuroscience, biochemistry, and introductory biology and chemistry.
Her research focuses on the ways that neurons (including those involved in Parkinson's
disease) are susceptible to damage resulting from oxidative stress.
Prior to joining the Hope faculty, she conducted postdoctoral training at the University
of Minnesota, where she had completed her doctorate in biochemistry in 1999.
Chase has received a variety of external grants in support of her research and development
of the neuroscience program. She has received funding from the Campbell Foundation
for 10 consecutive years, and is currently in the third year of a three-year, $466,724
grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) in support of her research. Her previous
support through the years includes grants from the NSF in 2002 and 2006 to create
the college's laboratory course in neuroscience and to obtain instrumentation to support
her research program, respectively.
Hope named her a Towsley Research Scholar, a four-year award, in 2003. Among other
professional activity, she is a member of the Society for Neuroscience, the American
Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, the American Association for the Advancement
of Science and Sigma Xi, and is a past member of the governing board of the Faculty
for Undergraduate Neuroscience (FUN).
Prior to joining the Hope faculty, Chase conducted postdoctoral training at the University
of Minnesota, where she had completed her doctorate in biochemistry in 1999. She completed
her Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Michigan-Flint in 1993.