Summer Research 2020 Poster Session
SUMMER 2020
Live Poster Session: Zoom LinkThursday, July 30th 1:15-2:30pm EDT Abstract: Bernays and Graham proposed the “Enemy-Free Space” hypothesis in the paper “On the Evolution of Host Specificity in Phytophagous Arthropods” in 1988. They hypothesized that traits associated with dietary specialization would allow herbivores to better escape generalist enemies, and thus generalist enemies would select for … Read more
Live Poster Session: Zoom LinkThursday, July 30th 1:15-2:30pm EDT Abstract: Human impact. We are currently living in what scientists have deemed The Age of Humans. Never before has any other organism influenced the course of nature as much as humans have. From superstorms and droughts to emerging pathogens, our appetite for domination is a double-edged … Read more
Live Poster Session: Zoom LinkThursday, July 30th 1:15-2:30pm EDT Abstract: Until recently, biologists considered the traits of an individual organism to be determined entirely by its genotype and its environment. However, new findings have shown that the parents’ environment can also influence an organism’s development via inherited regulatory factors. In an ongoing, large-scale greenhouse growth … Read more
Live Poster Session: Zoom LinkThursday, July 30th 1:15-2:30pm EDT Abstract: Seizures are described as sudden, uncontrollable electrical disturbances in the brain brought on by high-frequency synchronous neural activity. In temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), many patients experience focal seizures in the temporal lobes of the brain. Research in the Naegele lab investigates stem cell therapies for … Read more
Live Poster Session: Zoom LinkThursday, July 30th 1:15-2:30pm EDT Abstract: Our current method of analyzing vertebrae under the microscope uses calcein and alzarine staining to visualize calcified mass. Despite the success of this method, it has limitations like the scales, which block the view of the vertebrae in older fish. Human vertebrae is commonly visualized … Read more
Live Poster Session: Zoom LinkThursday, July 30th 1:15-2:30pm EDT Abstract: Transcriptomics reveals how abiotic and biotic factors influence the portion of the genome being transcribed from DNA into RNA, and is a useful tool to understand the impacts of climate change on marine organisms at a molecular level. We utilize transcriptomics to uncover the molecular … Read more
Live Poster Session: Zoom LinkThursday, July 30th 1:15-2:30pm EDT Abstract: mRNA codons with the sequence GCN are known to be overrepresented at the beginning of the open reading frame (ORF) of highly expressed yeast genes. This conserved periodicity suggests that these GCN repeats may play a role in regulating protein translation. The structural basis of … Read more
Live Poster Session: Zoom LinkThursday, July 30th 1:15-2:30pm EDT Abstract: Growth and development within an organism are shaped by both genetic and environmental factors, including present and parental environmental conditions such as light and soil moisture. These transgenerational effects result in varied phenotypic expression of aboveground shoot tissues and belowground root tissues. However, it is … Read more
Live Poster Session: Zoom LinkThursday, July 30th 1:15-2:30pm EDT Abstract: Only ten percent of people who drink alcohol will develop an Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD). Though a history of risky drinking is believed to predict one’s vulnerability to developing an AUD, both sex and age of first drink are important variables shown to moderate the … Read more
Live Poster Session: Zoom LinkThursday, July 30th 1:15-2:30pm EDT Abstract: The vertebral column is the hallmark of vertebrates and provides essential structure as an arrangement of regularly repeated segments along the anterior-posterior axis. Congenital spine disorders are diagnosed by vertebrae that visibly lack this regularity, and are aberrant in their size, spacing, or morphology. Other … Read more
Live Poster Session: Zoom LinkThursday, July 30th 1:15-2:30pm EDT Abstract: Zebra finches incorporate new neurons into song regions throughout adulthood in a process called adult neurogenesis. Even after song is mastered, two types of adult-born neurons (NNs) are added to HVC, the zebra finch’s vocal center (Tokarev, et al., 2016). One type of HVC NN … Read more
Live Poster Session: Zoom LinkThursday, July 30th 1:15-2:30pm EDT Abstract: Our understanding of marine ecosystems and our ability to conserve marine species lags behind that of terrestrial systems. This is despite the fact that 10% of the world’s population depends on fish and fish products (FAO) and despite the unique threats to ocean life. The … Read more
Live Poster Session: Zoom LinkThursday, July 30th 1:15-2:30pm EDT Abstract: Drosophila sechellia is a species of fruit fly found on the Seychelles Islands off the eastern coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean. After colonization of the island chain, D. sechellia evolved many derived traits associated with specialization on its preferred host plant Morinda citrifolia … Read more
Live Poster Session: Zoom LinkThursday, July 30th 1:15-2:30pm EDT Abstract: Our research is focused on elucidating the functional significance of a ‘GCN’ 3-nucleotide periodicity observed in protein coding open reading frames (ORFs). GCN is overrepresented in the initial codons of ORFs (the ramp region), particularly in highly expressed genes. The Weir lab has observed through … Read more
Abstract: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease characterized by the dysfunction and death of motor neurons in the spinal cord, brain stem, and motor cortex. Approximately 10% of all ALS cases are familial (fALS) and have been linked to a variety of genetic mutations. About 20% of fALS cases are linked to … Read more