Boston University Department of Biology

Undergraduate Researchers

Cell and Molecular Biology

Florencia Rago, a Biochemistry & Molecular Biology major, works with Professor Dean Tolan on the dynamics of aldolase substrate specificity. She is studying the conformational changes of aldolase A variants upon substrate binding via fluorescence spectrophotometry and hopes to find evidence of different conformational changes upon binding to different substrates. This would advance understanding of how aldolase is able to catalyze the cleavage of one substrate over the other. She is a Beckman Scholar supported by the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation.

Neurobiology

Beth Cimini works in Professor William Eldred’s laboratory on signaling pathways involving the neurotransmitter acetylcholine in the retina. She is a Beckman Scholar supported by the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation. Boston University was one of only 14 institutions nationwide to receive Beckman Scholar funding in 2005.

Ecology, Behavior, and Evolution

Becca Tarvin is doing her senior thesis in Karen Warkentin's lab. She is examining how the five-fold variation in size at metamorphosis of red-eyed treefrog affects their post-metamorphic growth, and potential mechanisms underlying those effects. Her results will be integrated with other work in the lab on metamorph predation to better understand the implications of plasticity in metamorphosis. Becca was funded by UROP to spend the summer at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, where she raised froglets and measured their growth rates. She is also analyzing froglet activity from time-lapse video recordings and food intake based on fecal samples..

Kathleen January is a biology major and a psychology minor working in Gloria Callard's lab. She writes, "I have been working in the G. Callard lab over a year now (for credit during the year and on UROP grants during the summer). Estrogen is a key regulator of development, growth and physiology in a broad range of tissues in both males and females, and is also linked to many pathologies. In addition to estradiol (E2), the main hormonal estrogen, there are other endogenous (3-beta-5-alpha-androstandiol, Adiol) and exogenous estrogen-like molecules. The latter include pharmaceuticals (diethylstilbestrol, DES) and environmental pollutants (bisphenol A, BPA; zearalenone, ZEA). The main effects of estrogens are exerted through two estrogen receptors (ER alpha and ER beta), which act as ligand-activated transcription factors to increase or decrease target gene expression. Although it is established that ER alpha and ER beta can interact in vitro, it is unclear how they actually function in vivo. I use the zebrafish (Danio rerio), ideal for experimental manipulation and observation, embryo as a model to address these issues. By “knocking-down” expression of each ER gene, by morpholino microinjection of fertilized eggs, I determine how knock-down, alone and in combination, affects response characteristics of different estrogen-responsive genes to authentic estradiol and different endogenous (Adiol) and exogenous (DES, BPA) ligands. I also determine how knock-down affects possible compensatory expression of the each of the ER subtypes as well as determine how knock-down of each ER isotype with different ER ligands affects basic developmental endpoints (survival, motility, hatching, gross morphology). Answers to these questions are important for understanding the basic biology of estrogens and the origin of estrogen-linked disease and therapeutic solutions."

Marine Biology

Erin McDougal works in Professor Jelle Atema's laboratory studying female American lobster mating preferences for healthy versus shell-diseased males. Her research has been supported by UROP.

 

 

 

Peter Stetson works with Professors Phil Lobel and Les Kaufman on coral reef mapping technologies in Belize. Specifically, he has been working with an autonomous underwater navigation unit called a Cobra-Tac (manufactured by RJE International). The unit is a handheld bottom-facing acoustic doppler current profiler (ADCP) and uses a fluxgate compass for underwater navigation. With Cobra-Tac a diver can swim a study site and have a three-dimensional map of the site within 30 minutes of getting out of the water. These maps are complete with absolute latitude and longitudes of any event marks recorded during the dive. He has been investigating the utility of the device for monitoring coral collapse and erosion. He is also looking at the Cobra-Tac's capacity for calculating rugosity, a measure of the structural complexity which has been shown to correlate to fish abundance and diversity.