Weeks Lab Update 2020

Boreal Toads, an endangered high elevation species, and a CMU student were benefited by the BIOSINQ award in 2020. My lab received funds for a mini centrifuge, parafilm, and a DNA extraction kit. These supplies were requested to support project opportunities for students working with a deadly fungal pathogen, the chytrid fungus, that affects the skin of amphibians. Boreal Toad populations have suffered greatly in Colorado from this pathogen and they are now locally endangered with only one known remaining breeding population left in the Grand Mesa National Forest. In early 2020, dozens of Boreal toads emerged from hibernation in a captive breeding facility with this fungal infection and needed treatment. In collaboration with Colorado Parks & Wildlife, they were brought to CMU to be monitored and treated using an anti-fungal bath regiment. To ensure that the treatment worked, the skin of the toads needed to be swabbed and analyzed in the lab. The supplies provided by this BIOSINQ award allowed a CMU student to be a part of this process. During this time, she was prepared for a summer internship program in biological research (SIPBR) by learning husbandry & handling of the animals, how to collect swab samples, and how to analyze the data. These toads were cured of the fungus and 73 of them were released into the wild. 

The BIOSINQ financial support for the supplies helped to create the opportunity for student enrichment and saving the lives of sick animals. 

Thank you to the donors who made this possible!