Team

The Lane Lab’s mission is to equip undergraduate researchers with the foundation to become future STEM leaders by making discoveries that advance the frontiers of natural product chemical biology.

About Dr. Lane

Dr. Amy L. Lane is a Professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. Prior to her move to Rose-Hulman in 2024, she was a faculty member in Chemistry & Biochemistry at University of North Florida (UNF) for 14 years. At UNF, she progressed through the ranks from Assistant Professor to endowed Terry Presidential Professor and Director for the Advancement of Women in Natural Sciences.

Dr. Lane is passionate about undergraduate education and mentorship through both classroom instruction and the engagement of students in cutting-edge chemical biology research. She mentors undergraduate research projects at Rose-Hulman that unveil and engineer Nature’s machinery for the assembly of new druglike molecules (known as natural products). Her undergraduate research program has been supported by grant awards from agencies including NSF, Dreyfus Foundation, and Research Corporation. Her mentees have been primary authors for research articles in journals that include Nature Communications, ACS Synthetic Biology, and ChemBioChem. Dr. Lane is also an accomplished education content creator for general chemistry, organic chemistry, and biochemistry, with a demonstrated track record of effective course development for face-to-face, distance learning, and hybrid formats.


Areas of interest, expertise, collaboration, and consulting: Natural product chemistry; Biosynthesis; Drug discovery; Chemical biology; Chemistry education; Biochemistry; Organic chemistry; Scientific grant writing

Current Team

  • Katelyn Calderon

    Rose Summer Sustainability Scholar
    Biomedical Engineering Major

  • Jacob Payne

    Research Assistant
    Chemistry Major

  • Owen Pike

    RSURF Fellow
    Chemistry Major

  • Delia Rodríguez

    IASTE Fellow

Join the team

Are you ready to try your hand at research? Are you excited about natural products and discovery? You’ve come to the right place!

Are you interested in developing your technical skill set, making discoveries, sharing your discoveries with the community, and preparing for your career in STEM?

Undergraduate research provides all of these opportunities and more! Rose-Hulman offers numerous opportunities during the school year and summer to get involved in research in the Lane Lab and others. If you’re interested in joining the Lane research team or just generally curious about research, then get in touch! 

FAQs About Undergraduate Research

Do I have to be a specific major to join the Lane Lab?

No! The only absolute requirements are time to consistently commit to research (at least 5 hours/week) AND a genuine interest in and curiosity for natural product science and learning about the challenging and rewarding (and sometimes frustrating!) process of scientific research.

 

Why should I do undergraduate research?

Undergraduate research is an opportunity to advance your technical skillset beyond what’s possible in typical laboratory courses, a way to explore research as a potential career path, a chance to develop your presentation skills, and a stellar means to build your resume for landing your first job or gaining admissions to graduate school. In fact, undergraduate research is increasingly becoming an informal prerequisite for admission to top-tier graduate programs in science. Undergraduate research is also a chance to make impactful discoveries, since you’ll work on the edge of scientific knowledge to advance your area of study. (FYI: It’s pretty fun to do something that has never been done and to share your advancements with the world.) Research will challenge your persistence, your patience, your critical thinking skills, and more. Through this, you will emerge better prepared to tackle future challenges as a STEM professional.

 

What expectations are there for student researchers in the Lane lab?

As a member of the Lane lab team, you will be guided by Dr. Lane to execute experiments using safe practices, collect and analyze data with rigor and integrity, maintain an accurate and up-to-date lab notebook, and ultimately present your results at conferences and/or in research publications. You are expected to commit to each of these good practices. As a member of the team, you are also expected to contribute toward a lab environment of collaboration, cooperation, and collegiality, to pursue research consistently (5+ hours/week during the term), to help new labmates develop their skillsets, and to contribute your unique life experiences and skills toward solving challenges in the natural product field.