08-04-2025
Perry wins Olson Award at UTPB
Apr. 8—University of Texas Permian Basin biology lecturer Irene Perry has been recognized with the Olson Award.
The laurel is given to a faculty member exemplifying the highest standards of teaching and service.
According to the university website, Perry has been instrumental in mentoring students, coordinating research initiatives, and engaging with the STEM Academy.
She is honored to receive an award named for James Olson, a founding faculty member of UTPB. Perry said he was the dean when she was hired full-time for the position she now holds.
"I was surprised. I did not expect it when I went to the ceremony," Perry said.
Perry works with a group of biology majors — Atlanta Williams, Laura Perez and Sui Tial-Khenglawt — on their undergraduate research. They are studying plants native to West Texas to see if they can protect red blood cells from breaking down.
They came across three plants — one was on campus; one was in Perry's back yard and one was from Amazon, Williams said.
The bacteria they used was Streptococcus pyogenes, which is most known for strep throat.
"... The main thing we went with that is that a lot of people get strep. They can be carriers of strep throat, and when you're a child and you, like, get it back-to-back, usually they send you to ... get your tonsils removed. We think that if we can find a plant that can help with this bacteria, that can keep it from destroying red blood cells, possibly. That can be a new new option for people to take, instead of just going to get surgery, especially at a young age," Williams said.
Perry said the idea is if you can find a plant to put in tea, or have in a tincture, that will be "less dramatic" than taking antibiotics, for example.
Some people can become antibiotic resistant so they sometimes don't work or stop working.
"Just one more tool in the toolbox," Perry said.
The project will continue through April, she said.
Undergraduate research day is all day April 25 in the library. Along with Williams, Perez and Tial-Khenglawt, will be presenting.
Other students will also give presentations, Perry said.
Tial-Khenglawt said the thing that's most interesting to her is how native plants can actually make a difference in health care.
She added that she always thought that plants were very helpful when it came to medicine, but she didn't know they would find some here.
Tial-Khenglawt is in her 11th year of living in West Texas, but has lived in Burma and Malaysia.
Williams said she knew growing up that pants could have pharmaceutical properties.
"... We live in close proximity with plants and we need plants to survive, so I wasn't surprised that we could find something in it, but just how quick it was and starting the research I didn't expect it" to have an effect, Williams said.
Once she saw that it was protecting the red blood cells, she thought they just helped save the world.
"That's how it starts," Perry said.
Perry said they have presented their findings to the Texas Academy of Science meetings and their work will also be presented in the Undergraduate Research Journal at UTPB, which is online.
Tial-Khenglawt and Williams were selected to represent UTPB at Undergraduate Research Day April 10 at the state Capitol, Perry said.
She added that the students got money from UTPB to help them with research supplies.
Perry said botanical pharmaceutical work is ongoing and many drugs have plant origins.
"In general, the number's around 25 percent," she added. "There's a lot of things we don't know and there's a lot of things that we need to find out."
Perez said Perry has been super helpful on the botanical project and always given her opportunities to learn beyond the project they are working.
Tial-Khenglawt met Perry before she came to UTPB when she attended Falcon Day and got to talk to her.
"She was always really nice ... She was also my advisor and she always helped me with everything," Tial-Khenglawt said.
She gave Tial-Khenglawt a good recommendation letter and told her about scholarship opportunities.
"She's always there to help anyone and is very deserving of the Olson Award," Tial-Khenglawt said.
Williams said she has had Perry for a couple of classes.
"Her teaching style has never changed. She's always passionate about what she does. She makes you love whatever you're doing and like Laura said you only hear good things about Miss Perry ... She's always bright and optimistic ... If you're having a rough day, you're probably going to leave smiling because she's going to probably tell a joke," Williams said.
