Weeks Lab Update 2019

The funding received from BIOSINQ in 2019 led to the purchase of a micropipette starter kit, vortex mixer, and Erlenmeyer flasks that were used by Heidi and Emily for multiple projects. These supplies were used in DNA extractions and quantitative polymerase chain reactions during summer SIPBR research where Heidi and Emily surveyed the canyons of western Colorado for a deadly amphibian disease. Previously, the status of this disease was unknown for western Colorado, but thanks to this summer project, students helped local agencies determine that it is present in Mesa County. This information will be important for development of future management plans for native amphibians habitat. The findings of this research have been presented orally at the SIPBR annual symposium and in a report to BLM and USGS.

Additionally, both of these students carried out independent projects in lab in which they used this equipment to maintain cultures of our focal study organism, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), and execute microbiological experiments. Both of these projects aimed to determine if a common bacteria can inhibit growth of Bd, which is a pathogenic fungus of amphibian skin. Data from these projects will be presented as posters at Student Showcase in 2020.

This equipment will continue to facilitate research undergraduate experiences for years to come.

The Weeks lab would like to thank the donors for their support!

 

Hansen Lab Update 2019 

To study the effects of a gizzard shad introduction in Highline Reservoir BIOSINQ funds were used to purchase equipment to collected and process phytoplankton samples, a fluorometer to measure chlorophyll a from the phytoplankton samples, and to purchase a net for collecting zooplankton.  Deme McDowell has been using this equipment in the research.  She has been working in both the field collecting samples (Figure 1A-B) and the lab analyzing samples (Figure 1C-D).

Figure 1. Research student Deme McDowell collecting phytoplankton (A), concentrating zooplankton (B), filtering phytoplankton (C), and reading chlorophyll a using the fluorometer (D).

Varner Lab 2019 Update: BIOSINQ Project Travel funding for students to attend a national conference.

 

Last year, I received funds from BIOSINQ to support two students (Tabitha McFarland and Brooklyn Waterhouse) to attend the American Society of Mammalogists conference in Washington, DC. These two students each presented a poster about their research on pika behavior, ecology, and physiology to a national audience. The conference also served as an important opportunity for them to network with potential graduate mentors. Both students received many positive comments from meeting attendees about their work and took advantage of opportunities to connect with other students, network with professionals, and tour the nation’s capital. Tabitha arranged a special tour of the collections at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History and has been in touch with a potential graduate mentor there. She is applying for graduate school this spring. Brooke presented a behavior study on which she is a coauthor. That study has currently been accepted for publication at Western North American Naturalist.

 

Below are several photos of these students at the conference.

 

We are profoundly thankful for all donations to this account!