Becktell Lab 2021

BIOSINQ 2021 funds helped pay for supplies to sequence fungi that are found on desiccated cadavers in the late stages of decomposition.  The cadavers are held at the CMU Forensic Investigation Research Station (FIRS).  The goal is to determine what role fungi may play in the late stages of decomposition in an arid environment.  Two students have worked on this project over the past two years, Selina Tucker and Morgan Badgley.  In 2020 Selina successfully sequenced fungal DNA from pure cultures to help us identify the fungal species present on the skin and bones of cadavers. This year Morgan has been working to determine whether we can detect the fungi directly from skin samples rather than having to culture the fungi first.   

Thank you to all of our donors for their support!

Fungi on skin (left), mixed fungal culture (right),
PCR of fungal DNA (bottom)

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!

 

Connors Lab Update 2020

As a new faculty member at CMU, the funds from last year’s BIOSINQ helped lay the foundation of my undergraduate research program here in the Biology Department. Broadly, my research lab is investigating the ecological physiology of small mammalian herbivores. Specifically, I am testing the commonality of temperature-dependent toxicity, or the phenomenon whereby warmer ambient temperatures increase the potency of plant toxins ingested by woodrats or packrats.  BIOSINQ funds were used to purchase consumable supplies for field work and remote HOBO temperature dataloggers.  These supplies were used by my research students, Jacob Kernc and Jada Mulford, to profile environmental temperatures in biologically relevant microhabitats of local woodrats.  My previous research suggests that access to cooler microclimates could mitigate negative physiological effects of increased plant toxicity.  Therefore, these BIOSINQ funds were instrumental to successfully start a long-term ecological study while also providing field-work experience to multiple undergraduate students.

Thank you, donors, for supporting authentic research experiences for students and basic research activities in biology here at CMU!

 

Becktell Lab Update 2020: Supplies to help determine the bioactivity and mode of action of petunia sucrose esters against the late blight pathogen Phytophthora infestans

The BIOSINQ funding that I received for the 2019-2020 academic year ($795) was used to help pay for a vacuum manifold for solid phase extraction of multiple SPE columns at one time (see picture below).  The vacuum manifold allows us to process 12 columns at one time and was only used one time in the spring of 2020 (before we were shut down due to COVID-19).  However, this equipment will continue to be used to purify extracts from petunias and will make our extraction efforts much more efficient! We are working to understand the mechanism of action of lytic compounds in the petunia extracts that result in the lysis of zoospores of the plant pathogen Phytophthora infestans. 

 

Thank you to our donors!

 

Dr. Margot Becktell

Varner Lab Update 2020: Supplies to Measure Stress Hormones in Pikas

 Last year, we received funds from BIOSINQ originally to support two students to attend the American Society of Mammalogists conference in Boulder, CO. Since that conference was COVIDerailed, I used the funds instead to purchase a kit of stress hormone assays for one student (Troy Muzzio) to learn how to extract stress hormones from pika scat in the lab and to analyze samples collected in 2020 from the La Sal mountains and from a collaborator in Alaska. The remaining funds were used to purchase temperature sensors that will be deployed in the La Sals next summer.

 

Below is a photo of Troy in the lab conducting this research.

 

We are profoundly thankful for all donations to this account!

 

 

 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!

 

This is where I put the title of my Blog. It should reflect the title of the research project that was funded in simple terms

 Here is where I write the blog stuff.  Most of these will be from the voice of the faculty mentor. It's ok if it it written in the voice of the funded student.

Nice if you put some kind of thank you to donors at the end. 

To the right on the side bar  -> you can add a label to make it easily located by category just choose one of the drop down choices

Use a publication date that is December of the year funds were awarded. 

 

McQuade Lab Update 2017

In 2017, BIOSINQ funds supported the work of four students working in my laboratory. Those students, Josh Shettler, Amber Gillard, Molly Kubesh, and Rachael Holm, conducted work on two major projects. The first is an established project aimed at assessing the mechanisms by which bioactive compounds exert their effects. Some of this work was incorporated into a research article that was published this summer (Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2017;491(2):449-454). The second is a new project focused on understanding the role amoebae play in the soil food web. BIOSINQ funds were essential for routine maintenance of the model organism, Dictyostelium discoideum, used in both projects.

Thanks to our donors for their support.

 

Ozsoy Lab Update 2017

For 2016-2017 I was awarded $865 for the support of undergraduate research projects in my laboratory.  The funds were used to purchase RNA isolation kits and a DNA extraction kit.  Two undergraduate students, Alex Colombo and Madison Vincent used these kits for their projects.

Alex Colombo used the RNA isolation kits to isolate the total RNA from Northern Tamarisk Beetles (Diorhabda carinulata).  He studied the expression levels of the genes associated with the diapause response in these biological control agents.

Madison Vincent is using the DNA extraction kits to isolate the DNA from gel slices prior to sequencing reactions.  Her project involved beetles of the Coniatus genus obtained from museums overseas with the goal of developing a phylogenetic tree of the Coniatus species using molecular markers.

Thank you to our wonderful donors!

Alex Colombo sorting Diorhabda beetle pairs for two conditions: diapause inducing 12 hour light,12 hour dark (12L:12D) and reproductive 16L:8D photoperiods.

Alex isolating RNA from beetles for differential gene expression experiments.