The 2021 All Biology Research Symposium was held virtually on Monday, April 26th.
Congratulations to the following awardees:
Emily Kilian - MCB Department Head Award Veronica Eskander - Outstanding Senior in PNB Award Brandon Smith - Connecticut Museum of Natural History Award Jordana Graveley - Outstanding Senior in EEB Award James He - Excellence in Applied Genetics and Technology Award Julia Horan - Margaret F. Ertman Award Eman Ahmed - Excellence in Applied Genetics and Technology Award Lily Zhong - Outstanding Senior in PNB Award Akriti Bhattarai - Biology Director's Award
The UConn Board of Trustees approved the award of tenure and/or promotion to 72 individuals across UConn. Among them, Drs. Nathan Alder, Barbara Mellone and Spencer Nyholm were promoted to professor. Please join us in congratulating them!
The 2021 Summer Undergraduate Research Fund (SURF) Awards were announced. 14 out of the 56 undergraduate SURF Award recipients for Summer 2021 are MCB students. These UConn students were selected from an exceptionally strong group of applicants representing diverse areas of academic inquiry. These students are:
Michelle Antony '23 (Molecular and Cell Biology, CLAS) Project Title: EGFR Signals in the Chondroprogenitor Response to Articular Cartilage Injury Faculty Mentor: Dr. Caroline Dealy, Reconstructive Sciences, Orthopedic Surgery & Cell Biology
Amy Backal '22 (Molecular and Cell Biology, CLAS) Project Title: The Effect of Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva (FOP) on the Tongue Faculty Mentor: Dr. David Goldhamer, Molecular and Cell Biology
Poorna Balakumar '23 (Molecular and Cell Biology & Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies, CLAS) Project Title: The Role of Hydrogen Peroxide as a Virulence Mechanism of Mycoplasma pneumoniae In Vivo Faculty Mentor: Dr. Steven Geary, Molecular and Cell Biology
Ashiti Damania '23 (Molecular and Cell Biology, CLAS) Project Title: Validation of RGC Subtypes Via Molecular Markers Using Single-Cell RNA Sequencing Faculty Mentor: Dr. Feliks Trakhtenberg, Neuroscience
Brian Fox '22 (Molecular and Cell Biology, CLAS; Management Information Systems, BUS) Project Title: Defining C1QL1 Protein Signaling in Oligodendrocyte Progenitor Cell Differentiation for Central Nervous System Remyelination with Implications for Multiple Sclerosis Faculty Mentor: Dr. David Martinelli, Neuroscience
Varsha Irvathraya '23 (Molecular and Cell Biology, CLAS) Project Title: Chromosomal Rearrangement of CCND1 on the Development of Parathyroid Tumors and Hyperparathyroidism Faculty Mentor: Dr. Jessica Costa, Center for Molecular Oncology
Paul Isaac '23 (Molecular and Cell Biology, CLAS) Project Title: Save the Crabs: An Investigation of the Genomic and Cellular Components of the Limulus polyphemus Immune Response Faculty Mentor: Dr. Rachel O'Neill, Molecular and Cell Biology
William Odell '22 (Molecular and Cell Biology, CLAS) Project Title: Inhibitory Effect of Sugar Kelp Supplementation on Inflammation in Mice with Atherosclerosis Faculty Mentor: Dr. Ji-Young Lee, Nutritional Sciences
Cindy Pan '22 (Molecular and Cell Biology & Philosophy, CLAS) Project Title: Weighing-In on Weight: A Qualitative Study on an Online Weight Loss Intervention Faculty Mentor: Dr. Sherry Pagoto, Allied Health Sciences
Avin Sapowadia '22 (Molecular and Cell Biology, CLAS) Project Title: Lubricin Delivery System via Biomimetic Nano-Matrix for Treatment of Age-Related Macular Degeneration Faculty Mentor: Dr. Yupeng Chen, Biomedical Engineering
Stephen Stanio '22 (Molecular and Cell Biology, CLAS) Project Title: The Mutagenic and Toxic Effects of Formamidopyrimidine Faculty Mentor: Dr. Ashis Basu, Chemistry
Audrey Worth '22 (Molecular and Cell Biology, CLAS) Project Title: Controlling Pathogen Growth in Raw and Pasteurized Milk with Commercial Bacteriophages Faculty Mentor: Dr. Dennis D'Amico, Animal Science
Joshua Yu '23 (Molecular and Cell Biology, CLAS) Project Title: Correlating Uptake and Intracellular Distribution of Nanoparticle Therapeutics with Cytotoxicity Faculty Mentor: Dr. Xiuling Lu, Pharmaceutical Sciences
Humza Zaidi '22 (Molecular and Cell Biology, CLAS) Project Title: Identifying an Early, Novel Biomarker in the Retina for Alzheimer's Disease Faculty Mentor: Dr. Royce Mohan, Neuroscience
Raising the Odds Against Viral Infection - Learning how viruses slip into cells, with an eye toward making it harder for them.
UConn Today, April 23, 2021, Kim Krieger, UConn Communications See Article
The Judith A. and David C. Kelly Summer MCB Research Fellowship program will support three rising senior MCB majors in their research activities in an MCB Faculty laboratory during the summer of 2021. These three fellowships, funded jointly by the Kellys and MCB, in the amount of $8,000 each, are intended to support students with demonstrated financial need who are MCB majors in good standing, and who have career goals aligned with the major. The recipents are Danielle Arsenault (Peter Gogarten lab), Celeste Cuellar (Sarah Hird lab), and Shirley Guo (Ken Campellone lab). Please join us in congratulating them on their accomplishments and demonstrated academic promise.
MCB is proud to announce the recipients of the 2021 graduate and undergraduate student summer fellowships. These distinguished fellowships are made possible by some very generous donors and are offered on a competitive basis to the most highly qualified students.
Please join us in congratulating them on their accomplishments and demonstrated academic promise.
Claire M. Berg Graduate Fellowship in Genetics
Prachi Tandale
Arthur Chovnick Graduate Fellowship in Genetics
Savannah Hoyt
Richard C. Crain, Jr. Memorial Fellowship
Shannon Sullivan
Cross-Disciplinary Fellowship in MCB and Pharmaceutical Sciences
Shipra Malik
Jean Lucas-Lenard Special Summer Fellowship in Biochemistry
Nadine Lebek
Irio Schiano
Pfizer Summer Fellowship in Molecular and Cell Biology
Sean Stoessel
Antonio H. & Marjorie J. Romano Graduate Education Fellowship
Emily Green
Elizabeth Herder
Todd M. Schuster Award in Molecular and Cell Biology
Julia Mazur
Biohaven Pharmaceuticals Fellowship
Virginia (Lyle) King
Dr. Carolyn Teschke was recently selected as a Fulbright Scholar, and plans to visit the University of York during the Spring of 2022. She joins our other Fulbright Scholar, Dr. Michael Lynes, who was re-selected for the current year after the pandemic prevented his going to the University of Bergen last year.
Dr. Teschke plans to mathematically model virus assembly reactions to better understand how the process is controlled to produce proper virus capsids. She will also investigate how viruses evolve larger sizes by in silico remodeling of the protein that makes the virus capsid.
Department head and professor of molecular and cell biologyMichael Lynes, will conduct research at the Center for Diabetes Research at the University of Bergen in Norway, to explore the relevance of a therapeutic antibody he developed that can prevent the progression of Type 1 diabetes in mice, and whether it could effectively be used in treating patients.
The Goldwater Scholarship is considered the nation’s premier scholarship for undergraduates studying math, natural sciences, and engineering. The students are: Katherine Lee ‘22 (CLAS) of Monroe, and Seema Patel ’22 (CLAS) of North Haven. The UConn winners are among just 410 students selected nationally for the award.
Professor Dan Gage among UConn researchers involved in a study to use mussels in the filtration of microplastics funded by a $2 million grant from the National Science Foundation's Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation (EFRI). They will study the use of mussels (part of the bivalve family), combined with microplastic-degrading bacteria, in the filtration of microplastics from the discharge that flows back into our surface water from wastewater treatment plants.
UConn Today - March 15, 2021|Eli Freund- School of Engineering
How Marine Animals Could Be Used to Clean Up Nature’s Big Pollutant: Microplastics
'Nature's perfect filtering machines' to the rescue
n a hot summer day in Connecticut, it’s common to go to a beach-side restaurant, eat some fresh oysters and mussels, and enjoy the crashing of the waves against the sand. For a group of University of Connecticut faculty and a Florida Atlantic University professor, their plan is to skip the beach and the restaurant and use relatives of those delicious animals for another reason—filtering the harmful microplastics that end up back in our environment.
“Suspension-feeding bivalves, such as oysters, clams, and zebra mussels are very efficient at filtering water and capturing on their gills (the ‘filter’) particles as small as four micrometers in size [less than 1000thof an inch]. Their ‘filter’ is self-cleaning and they often filter water for 12 or more hours per day. They are nature’s perfect filtering ‘machine,’” Marine Sciences Professor J. Evan Ward says.
Over the next four years, the group – including Associate Dean Leslie Shor, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Professor Kelly Burke, Molecular and Cell Biology Professor Daniel Gage, Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor Baikun Li, and Ward – will use a $2 million grant from the National Science Foundation’s Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation (EFRI) program to study the use of mussels (part of the bivalve family), combined with microplastic-degrading bacteria, in the filtration of microplastics from the discharge that flows back into our surface water from wastewater treatment plants.
Other faculty members involved in the project include CEE Professor Christine Kirchhoff, CBE Professor Matthew Stuber, CBE Professor Jeff McCutcheon, Marine Sciences Professor George McManus, and Florida Atlantic University Biology Professor Tracy Mincer.
Microplastics, an umbrella term for particles of many different shapes, sizes (<5 mm), and polymer types, are commonly found in the environment through the shedding of synthetic fibers that wash off clothes in the laundry and tiny plastic fragments that are produced in the environment by different processes.
“Most wastewater treatment plants rely on old technology–over 100 years-old–and in some cases use basic approaches like sand filtration that have been known since ancient times,” Li says. “In fact, most wastewater treatment plants around the nation are themselves over 50-years old. When these facilities were designed and built, plastics simply did not exist in the variety or quantity that they do today.”
Kirchhoff explains that even if the technical hurdles are overcome, there still may be a problem.
“Retrofitting existing infrastructure is an expensive proposition, and there are also many regulatory obstacles standing in the way. Better understanding the non-science obstacles to implementing innovative technology is a key aspect of our research project.”
UConn’s Water Pollution Control Facility (courtesy of Baikun Li).
Because of the limitations of wastewater treatment, and also because larger plastics break down in the environment, microplastics end up all over our environment, and many types are tough to break down. The concern is that microplastics could cause harm to animals, plant life, and eventually humans.
According to Mincer, it has been shown that plastic particles less than 150 micrometers can make their way into our lymphatic systems, causing systemic exposure and, perhaps, affecting human health.
“Microplastics can also act as sponges, gathering up other harmful things in the environment. Many studies have shown that concentrations of other common contaminants such as harmful chemicals, pathogenic bacteria, and even viruses can be much higher in microplastics than they are in the surrounding water. Consuming microplastics is therefore a way to be exposed to other harmful contaminants,” Mincer says.
In the end, the group hopes learning from nature and working with stakeholders on the barriers to adopting new technology will lead to a sustainable way to better treat wastewater.
“If the project is successful, not only will we develop innovative microplastic wastewater treatment technology, but we will also quantify drivers and barriers to adoption of this new technology with the ultimate goal of increasing its uptake,” Kirchhoff says.
The group also received a Research Experience & Mentoring supplement for their award for the summer of 2021, and in addition to recruiting graduate students, are currently recruiting undergraduates, high school students, and local teachers for paid summer projects. For more information on Shor’s research, pleaseclick here.
Bacteria tend to get a bad rap. But oftentimes it’s one bad apple that ruins the reputation of the bunch.
For example,E. coli, commonly known as bacteria that cause sickness, also has beneficial strains that can help protect us from pathogens. Being able to differentiate between bacterial strains is critical for researchers working to understand the microbiome – the complex environment of bacteria living in and on our bodies.
A collaboration between researchers at UConn, Connecticut Children’s, andTechnology Incubation ProgramcompanyShoreline Biomehas yielded promising findings about bacterial infection in premature infants in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). The group published their findings inmBioin February.
Using Shoreline Biome’s patented microbiome assay technology, the group was able to identify previously un-sequenced bacterial strains that appeared in the stool microbiome of two sets of twins in the Connecticut Children’s NICU.
“It gives us unprecedented resolution and the ability to differentiate bacteria to the species or even strain level,” Joerg Graf, UConn professor of molecular and cell biology, says.
Premature infants in the NICU are at a high risk of infections because their immune system and digestive tract are not fully developed. The researchers were particularly interested in intestinal infections caused by certain strains ofKlebsiella. They also identified strains ofEscherichia coli, andEnterobacter.
The researchers identified unique microbiome fingerprints between and within the sets of twins. This provided valuable insight into the colonization processes in the NICU by looking at which bacteria appear and how they spread.
Normally, the first two years of life, starting the moment a baby goes through the birth canal, is a critical period for developing a healthy microbiome to carry for the entire lifetime. Babies in the NICU are rigorously protected from possible infection, which helps prevent them from getting sick, but also disrupts normal colonization patterns of commensal bacteria.
The researchers plan to continue this research in NICUs in other geographic areas, other parts of the hospital, and other microbiomes, such as those on our skin or in our mouths.
The researchers hope to eventually be able to detect a single genetic fingerprint associated with infection which would pave the way for better strategies to track and combat harmful bacteria.
“That would be a critical finding to improving the overall health of premature babies,” Adam Matson, Connecticut Children’s researcher and assistant professor of pediatrics and immunology at UConn Health, says.
Shoreline Biome’s high-throughput, high-resolution technology sequences a large portion of the ribosomal operon. This part of the bacterial genome contains highly conserved, or similar regions, and other regions that are very diverse. The conserved regions make it possible to use polymerase chain reaction amplification to make thousands of copies of the bacteria’s genetic information.
After sequencing, researchers can study other variable regions of the operon to identify the bacteria more precisely. This also helps identify a bacterium’s evolutionary relationship to known bacteria.
There are two ways to open bacteria to look at their genomes: cracking them open hard, which risks damaging the DNA, or doing it more gently and risking not accessing the DNA from difficult to crack bacteria. Shoreline Biome’s technology combines the best of both, cracking open all bacteria without damaging the DNA.
“If you don’t see DNA, you can’t sequence it,” Mark Driscoll, Shoreline Biome co-founder and chief scientific officer, says. “Now that we can see it, we can actually start to study it.”
Shoreline Biome’s technology allows researchers to analyze multiple samples at once. This is a major advantage for microbiome research. Many microbiome studies suffer from having small sample sizes due to the technical difficulty and costs of analyzing the samples.
Shoreline Biome’s technology delivers scientists and physicians with actionable results. Knowing which strains are showing up in patient biomes can help them to track where they are coming from.
Eventually, this could lead to rapid tests to see if someone entering the NICU is carrying a harmful bacterium. Conversely, they could also track beneficial bacteria infants should be exposed to.
“We’re actively looking at ways to apply this technology to track pathogens and encourage colonization of healthy microbiomes,” Matson says.
The collaboration between Shoreline Biome and the researchers extends beyond this project. Graduate students from theProfessional Science Master’sPrograms in Applied Microbial Systems Analysis Graf directs now work for Shoreline Biome, retaining a valuable workforce in the state.
“It’s great for us to be able to work with experts to deepen the technology,” Driscoll says. “It’s a great ecosystem.”
