Hello biologists!!
We hope you had an amazing Fall Break! We're excited to round out this semester strong. To kick off our quarter 2 newsletter, we have some exciting faculty news we’d love to share:
Professor Foen Peng had a publication “Evolutionary gain and loss of a pathological immune response to parasitism" published in Science. You can read his publication here! Below is an image of the three-spined stickleback fish and tapeworm parasite covered in this publication (photo: Natalie Steinel).
Professor Courtney Marshall was awarded an Alzheimer’s Disease Research grant from the Bright Focus Foundation. It is a $200,000 grant funding a project to evaluate the potential disease-modifying effects of a clinically approved drug in an Alzheimer’s mouse model. This project is part of an ongoing collaboration that she has with Dr. Virginia Lee’s lab at Penn.
Professor Roshan Jain was awarded an Academic Research Enhancement Award from the National Eye Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This $420,000 grant will support the lab's research on how the brain integrates visual and acoustic information, and how this process is modulated by the autism-linked gene ap2s1, using a zebrafish model. The funds will allow the lab to expand their research collaborations with scientists in Dr. Filippo Del Bene’s lab in Paris and Dr. Michael Orger’s lab in Lisbon. Featured below is a graphical abstract highlighting the main questions addressed in Professor Jain's grant. The second is an image of 5-day-old zebrafish larvae with strong GFP fluorescence in their hearts (taken by Eliza Brody HC Bio '21).
Congratulations to Professor Peng, Professor Marshall, and Professor Jain!
Next up, one of our biology seniors, Oscar Garrett is leading the Citizen Science Club! Here is Oscar’s club description; feel free to reach out to him if you are interested!
Do you love science but hate inhaling toxic fumes in a stuffy lab? Don't think you're a "STEM person" but still curious about the world around you? Or maybe you just like doing fun, wacky hands-on science projects?
If any of these are you, then join the Citizen Science Club! We are a group of students interested in bringing scientific problem solving outside of the lab and having fun with it. Collaborate in an open setting with diverse thinkers to ask questions about the natural world and answer them yourself, without the need for expensive lab equipment. Get creative with Bio-art, fill your belly by growing your own gourmet mushrooms, or make a difference by cataloging local biodiversity to aid in local environmental policy decisions. The possibilities are limited only by your own creativity. In the end, our goal is to make a space for participation in science that is open to all.
If you're interested, please reach out to Oscar at ogarrett@haverford.edu to express your interest. Let's spread the gospel of science together!
For our second quarter, the Biology Student Group and the Biology Department are excited to announce and host the following events:
October 27th, 7-9pm, Zubrow - Meet the Labs Trick-or-Treat (Collab with CSG):
Join the Bio and Chemistry departments for some fun trick-or-treat to celebrate Halloweeen, and get to know some of the labs on campus! There will be representatives from Bio, Chem and other various STEM labs who are excited to chat about their research, and information on the different labs will also be provided. Also, there will be a scavenger hunt around the KINSC, and lots of candy! We hope to see you there!
November 11, 12-1pm, Zubrow - DEI Student Discussion:
DEI-focused underclassmen (BIPOC, FGLI, LGBTQ+), come join us for a discussion with some upperclassmen on their experiences in the Bio major! Learn about other students’ paths through the major, and their experiences navigating the Biology department. This will be a casual discussion, so bring all your questions! Food will also be provided (light lunch/snacks). If you are interested in attending, please fill out this form here, so that we can make sure we have enough food.
Week of Nov 14 - Alumni Panel:
Come learn about where our Haverford alumni have gone with their biology degree! Alumni from around the country will join us in a hybrid in-person + Zoom format to speak about their careers, their career paths, and answer any questions you may have!
November 28 - Senior Window Decorating Competition (during 499):
During 499, our seniors will decorate the lab windows in a friendly lab vs. lab competition! A google form will be distributed for everyone to vote.
December 2 - Lab Coat Decorating (at VCAM):
Come decorate your lab coat at the VCAM! Biology themed stencils will be provided (or you can make your own) and you can decorate your lab coat with fabric paints and fabric markers. If you are planning on coming, please fill out this form.
More information regarding these events can be accessed at our website and as events near, more info will be announced. Anyone interested is welcome to any of these events; we hope to see your wonderful faces there!
Something Fishy… :
Our student spotlight is a senior in the Jain Lab: John Dvorack! Hi Friends— My name is John, and I’m a biology major and thesis-ing senior. I was born in B.C., Canada, raised in Northern California, and now I’m having a splendid time in my last year at Haverford. Some of my interests include reading, exploring cities and nature (equally), enjoying interesting cuisines with friends, and music. I’m so glad to have the chance to share a bit about myself with you all.
1. Describe your path into research at Haverford and what you are doing for your thesis
To join a lab, I reached out to professors in my first year based on the projects, animals, and topics that sounded interesting to me. For three semesters I worked on fly models of diabetic neuropathy with Seol Im, our visiting faculty. I cannot understate how much talking about research concepts in a lab group made me a better student and scientist, and I recommend it for everyone. For my senior thesis, I’ve pivoted to the Jain lab: I’m engineering a transgenic zebrafish with an inducible mutagenesis system to investigate the developmental role of ap2s1, the gene our lab studies.
2. If you could give someone advice about biology at Haverford, what would it be?
I would advise someone to ask questions fearlessly, and pursue something that interests them. Also, the best things come out of collaboration. You will find support and inspiration in other people if you seek it out. Of course, you’ll want to find some balance with some enjoyable non-curricular activities.
3. What are some of your favorite things to do outside of class?
I like music, so I do a lot of it. I play trombone in the orchestra, I sing with the chamber singers, and I continue to play with an assortment of student groups. I’ve also had the unique experience and a wonderful time singing as a choral scholar with the Redeemer Church this semester.
Chirping Evo-Devo:
To conclude this newsletter, our underrepresented scientist spotlight is on Cassandra Extavour, who is the Timken Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard University’s Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Her work focuses on researching factors that influence germ cell differentiation during early embryonic development, while using crickets as her model organism. During her Ph.D. at the Autonomous University of Madrid, she discovered that there is cell-cell competition between primordial germ cells before gametogenesis occurs, implying that natural selection can operate within the precursors on gametes. The Extavour lab has recently been featured in the New York Times in an article titled “The Mysterious Dance of the Cricket Embryos”, which discusses the lab’s work on tracking nuclei movement during embryonic development of crickets. She is a strong advocate for the use of crickets as model organisms, and as such, she is the director of the Evo-Devo-Eco Network (EDEN) which is a NSF funded collaborative organization for researchers studying atypical model organisms. To learn more about her work, and the awesome Extavour lab, visit her lab page here!
Thank you all for reading our newsletter and we hope to see you at some of our biology events!
With beakers of love,
The BSG <3
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