Dr. Marky earns Outstanding Mentor of Graduate Faculty Award

Luis Marky, Ph.D., explains the workings of a piece of research equipment to postdoctoral student Irine Khutsishvili, Ph.D., left, and graduate student Hui-Ting Lee.

For Luis Marky, Ph.D., being a mentor is a lot like being a parent: You need to know when to push them to do better work, and you need to know when to have a little fun.

“To interact with the students almost at the parent level – to care for them – that is very important,” said Dr. Marky, a professor of pharmaceutical sciences in the College of Pharmacy. “At the same time, you’ve got to be tough.”

Dr. Marky’s firm-yet-caring approach to teaching his students has earned him a reputation as one of the best faculty mentors on campus. On Tuesday, he’ll be formally recognized as such, when he receives the UNMC Outstanding Mentor of Graduate Students Award at the Annual Faculty Meeting. The meeting will begin at 4 p.m. in the Durham Research Center auditorium.

Chris Olsen, one of several current or former graduate students who nominated Dr. Marky, said he is demanding, yet always willing to provide additional help outside of class.

“In fact, we are his first priority. He sets aside whatever paper, review, grant or project he might be working on, and answers any questions we might have,” Olsen said. “His door is always open for anyone who needs help. He gives advice on anything which he feels knowledgeable about, and has helped many students, graduate students, and post-docs with salary problems, letters of recommendation, travel arrangements, housing issues and job opportunities, as well as personal issues.”

Luis Marky, Ph.D. Professor of pharmaceutical sciences, UNMC College of Pharmacy. Native of Peru Doctorate in chemistry in 1981 from Rutgers University Former Fulbright Scholar (1998).

A native of Peru, Dr. Marky was enrolled in medical school when he discovered that he liked laboratory work better than caring for patients. A visiting professor from Rutgers University encouraged Dr. Marky to pursue research interests in the United States in the area of physical chemistry, and Dr. Marky graduated with his doctorate in chemistry in 1981 from Rutgers. He completed his postdoctoral work at Rutgers and was a faculty member there until 1987, when he took a research associate professor position at New York University. He was elevated to full professor in 1994, and he took his current position as a tenured professor at UNMC in 1997.

On most days, Dr. Marky arrives at the office around 10 a.m. and stays at least until 7 p.m. Often, he gets home in time for the late-night news, only to complete a couple more hours’ worth of work before going to bed.

“I like to teach, so I try to spend some time with each student every day,” Dr. Marky said. “I’m pretty much in charge of what’s going on in the lab. Each of the students has papers to submit, and I stay on top of that. If they’re going to go on to meaningful research careers, they’ve got to submit good research papers while they’re here.”

Typically, Dr. Marky has two post-docs and three graduate students in his lab. There, the students run experiments and assist Dr. Marky with his research work, which centers around the molecular forces that control the conformational stability and flexibility of nucleic acids, including triplexes, G-quadruplexes, cytosine i-motifs, Okazaki fragments and three- & four-arm DNA junctions and their interaction with drugs.

“We want to optimize the cellular delivery of oligonucleotides, used in antigene and antisense strategies, for the control of gene expression,” Dr. Marky said. His research group also is investigating the role of water on the conformational stability of biomolecules by examining sequence hydration effects in nucleic acids, drug-nucleic acid complexes, DNA covalent adducts and protein-DNA interactions.

But Dr. Marky’s impact goes beyond the laboratory. He lectures in medicinal chemistry I where he is course coordinator and medicinal chemistry II. At the graduate level, Dr. Marky is course coordinator for quantitative pharmaceutical analysis and biophysical chemistry, he also lectures in macromolecular structure and function, advanced medicinal chemistry and physical pharmacy. He is a former Fulbright Scholar (1998).

In his free time, Dr. Marky likes traveling, doing yard work, cooking and dancing.