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By Sherry F. Pruitt

JONESBORO -- Chemist Dr. Robyn Hannigan is making a name for herself, as well as the Arkansas State University Biosciences Institute. And that name is gaining recognition with audiences locally, across the country and on the World Wide Web.

Work that Hannigan is doing at the Arkansas State University Biosciences Institute is so impressive that an NBC news planning producer scouting the Internet for science stories has expressed interest in her work.

Hannigan said NBC wants to talk with her and some of her graduate students about research internships related to science in the environment, a summer program.

Meanwhile, Hannigan is moving forward with other research at the institute.

One of the factors that makes Hannigan's research and that of others in the highly secured building unique is the openness of the laboratories and the student areas.

Hannigan, a Rhode Island native, said she completed her post doctoral work at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va. She was in the ASU Biosciences Building from 2002 to 2004 when she relocated to the ABI.

As a chemist, Hannigan did not know what Dr. Roger Buchanan did, and Buchanan, a neuroscientist at ASU, did not know what Hannigan did -- even though their work was housed in the same Biosciences Building.

Buchanan, who has been working with nicotine for several years, said he was looking for a better way to measure nicotine in the blood of rats.

How much nicotine is measured and how can that amount be measured if a human had a proportional amount? Buchanan asked. He said his students deal with the biological question when measuring the effects of nicotine and smoke on the brain, but there is also an analytical chemistry question.

"You need both to get both answers," said Buchanan.

Now, their laboratories in the institute are adjacent.

"If I didn't have a chemist living next door, we never would have talked about this," Buchanan said.

"Roger and I are one of the tightest research collaborations we have at ASU. Without ABI, that would not have happened," said Hannigan.

The two are collaborating on a proposal that would detect crystal methamphetamine in humans. The "methalyzer" is like a breathalyzer, but it detects meth, Hannigan explained.

The contraption is too big to move around now, but eventually, it will be handheld, she said.

Hannigan said they will know in a few weeks whether a Native American group with teen-ager meth problems is willing to fund their proposal.

"It's a crazy idea that Roger and I came up with," the chemist said.

Buchanan was on a committee to design the ABI facility. He pointed out that it "was purposefully designed" to promote cross-disciplinary action for students and faculty because of the need for scientists with different expertises.

As a doctoral student at the University of Rochester in New York, all the graduate student offices were inside their research labs, which were isolated, as were the faculty quarters, Hannigan explained. It was an effort to see other graduate students or faculty.

"We had no clear idea of what the others were doing," she said.

When Hannigan was working on her doctoral degree along with a couple dozen other graduate students, she was aware of the projects three or four were researching and how their research was conducted.

Scientists' labs are adjacent, and computer and visiting spaces are designed to promote communication, Buchanan and Hannigan said.

"The open concept helps with communication and to develop collaborative research efforts," she said. It starts with students and "bubbles up to the faculty. They wander in and out of other labs."

That kind of cross talk helps with retention and making sure the students are successful, Hannigan said.

"It enhances training, the things that students know how to do and their market value in the workplace," Buchanan said. "They develop new ways of looking at things and new ways of doing things."

Five, 10, 15 years ago, ASU students would have collected a specimen and sent samples off to a lab in another city or state for analysis. Now, those specimens are being analyzed at ABI, Buchanan said.

"It gets better than that," he said, pointing out that because they are involved in the entire process, they can think of better, less expensive ways of doing things in a shorter amount of time.

In addition, the cross-discipline aspect allows scientists to apply to federal funding agencies for grants that supports the kind of research under way at ABI.

Hannigan said she accepted a faculty position at Arkansas State because the faculty she met on her interview attracted her to the Jonesboro campus. And perhaps she will succeed in attracting and retaining student scientists.

"I figured every day would be fun."

sherry@jonesborosun.com