S U M M E R
2 0 0 7
Collaboration Explores Critical Transporter Genes
W
hen scientists with different areas of expertise
collaborate, their combination of skills and tools
can greatly expand the hypotheses pursued. In this case
two INBRE scientists at the Mount Desert Island Biological
Laboratory – computational biologist Carolyn Mattingly,
Ph.D., and molecular biologist Antonio Planchart, Ph.D. –
are working together to track the evolutionary history of a
critical transporter gene in search of clues as to how it is
regulated.
Over the past three years Dr. Mattingly’s lab has used
bioinformatics to make a cross-species comparative analysis
of non-coding sequences surrounding ABC (ATP-binding
cassette) proteins. These important transporters carry a
variety of molecules across extra- and intra-cellular membranes, and are biomedically significant for their role in
detoxification. Unfortunately, ABC proteins also play a
role in multi-drug resistance, by rejecting potentially therapeutic compounds as foreign substances. Regulation of
these proteins is not well understood, and Mattingly’s
INBRE RESEARCHERS ANTONIO PLANCHART AND CAROLYN MATTINGLY
research seeks to identify non-coding genomic elements
that control the ABC genes’ expression in order to help
(Story continues on page 7)
scientists develop strategies for intervening to prevent adverse pharmacological reactions.
• TWO MAINE INBRE STUDENTS WIN
2007 GOLDWATER CHOLARSHIPS
• 2007 INBRE FELLOWS
• SUMMER SYMPOSIA
SPECIAL INVITATION TO STUDENTS
In this Issue
Honors and Awards
Maine Biological and Medical Sciences Symposium
IDeA States Regional Meeting
INBRE Alumna, Katie Gassman, UMF ‘06
New Investigator Awards
INBRE Alumna, Kristin Beale, UMF ‘07
NIH IDeA Briefing for Congressional Staff
2007 INBRE Summer Fellows
Spring Undergraduate Training Courses
Publications
Page
Page
Page
Page
Page
Page
Page
Page
Page
Page
2
3
3
4
4
5
5
6
8
9
2
Wri tten by Hand . . .
DR. PATRICIA HAND, ADMINISTRATIVE DIRECTOR OF MDIBL
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR OF THE MAINE INBRE PROGRAM.
AND
I
t was a pleasure to welcome so
many of you to the Mount Desert
Island Biological Laboratory (MDIBL)
for the Maine Biological and Medical
Sciences Symposium this spring. The
statewide participation in the conference
truly demonstrated the strength and
growth of scientific research in Maine.
The symposium provided a great forum
for networking with COBRE (Center of
Biomedical Research Excellence) colleagues from the Maine Medical Center
Research Institute, and SEPA (Science
Education Partnership Award) participants from the Foundation for Blood
Research. We were especially pleased
that colleagues from two of Maine’s
newest biomedical entities – The
Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences
and the Maine Institute of Human
Genetics and Health – shared some of
their goals and accomplishments with us.
An event like MBMSS really highlights
both the remarkable research being done
across Maine, and the collaborative relationships that strengthen all our work.
As the summer gets underway,
seventeen INBRE Student Summer
Research Fellows are beginning new laboratory projects at partner institutions
around our network. At MDIBL we’re
welcoming many new faces to campus
for the summer. We’re pleased to have
five New Investigators from IDeA states
working at the laboratory this summer.
The summer environment, which gathers
so many investigators from different
institutions together, offers exciting pos-
sibilities for collaboration and interaction among researchers.
Our INBRE continues to foster
many such research collaborations,
including a partnership you’ll read
about in this issue, between MDIBL
INBRE Project Leaders Carolyn
Mattingly, PhD, and Antonio Planchart,
PhD. Their work together exemplifies
the ways in which investigators can
advance science and achieve results
more quickly and effectively by
combining their talents and dedication
than either scientist could alone.
Drs. Mattingly and Planchart will
be presenting some of their research
findings at the Northeast Regional
IDeA Meeting in Vermont this August,
as will many other Maine INBRE and
COBRE researchers. We’re looking
forward to interacting with scientists
from other IDeA states, learning about
their programs and sharing the progress
that we’ve made with them and NCRR
staff.
It’s an exciting time to be involved
in biomedical research in Maine – I
wish you all a productive summer!
college students in these fields. 317
outstanding students were selected this
year on the basis of academic merit, from
a field of 1,110 nominated students nationwide. The Goldwater Scholarship, which
honors the late Senator, is considered the
premier undergraduate award of its type in
the scientific disciplines.
Burpee who will graduate in 2009,
intends to pursue a Ph.D. in Evolutionary
Biology, and wants to teach as well as
conduct research. He credits his experience at MDIBL with giving him the background and self-assurance to successfully
apply for the Goldwater Scholarship.
“The relationships I formed with my
Principal Investigators were what made
my experience unique. Working at the
Lab instilled confidence in myself and my
potential. This played a huge part in
applying for this scholarship.”
Chelsi Snow, who will finish her
undergraduate studies in 2008, aims to
continue in biomedical research. This
summer she will work with INBRE
mentor CLARISSA HENRY, Ph.D.,
examining cellular mechanisms of
skeletal muscle and tendon development
in larval zebrafish.
INBRE Project Leader and MDIBL
Investigator, J. DENRY SATO, D.Phil,
received a Fellow Award from the
Society of In Vitro Biology at the 2007
annual SIVB meeting. The Fellow
Award recognizes outstanding professional accomplishments in the research,
teaching, or administration of in vitro
biology and service to the Society.
Best regards,
Patricia Hand, Ph.D.
Principal Investigator
Honors and Awards
ENJAMIN T. BURPEE and
CHELSI J. SNOW, undergraduates at The University of Maine, were
awarded prestigious Goldwater
Scholarships this spring. Both students
are participants in Maine’s INBRE
summer fellowship program. Burpee
came to the MDI Biological Laboratory
in 2006 to work with mentor Dr. Andrew
Christie on “Developmental Expression
of SIFamide in Homarus americanus."
Snow is participating in the fellowship
program this summer.
The Barry M. Goldwater
Scholarship and Excellence in Education
Program was established by Congress in
1986 to provide a source of highly
qualified scientists, mathematicians, and
engineers by awarding scholarships to
B
3
34th Maine Biological and Medical Sciences Symposium
M
aine researchers found a lot to
share, to learn and to think
about when they gathered at the MDI
Biological Laboratory in April for the
34th Annual Maine Biological and
Medical Sciences Symposium (MBMSS).
With thirty platform sessions and fortyone poster presentations, the symposium
provided an opportunity for researchers
from disparate fields to share their
hypotheses and findings with each other.
Among the more than 130 participants were sixty-seven students, many of
whom were presenting research results
for the first time. Students especially
appreciated the supportive environment at
MBMSS, complimenting the “low-key
atmosphere where people feel comfortable presenting creative research.”
In addition to an opportunity to share
their work, the symposium also offered
both graduate and undergraduate students
an occasion to meet with seasoned
researchers from sixteen institutions from
across Maine, including scientists from
Maine’s COBRE and INBRE programs.
“In a big rural state,
even the science is dispersed
and having a critical mass
for thinking requires
an effort like MBMSS.”
Platform and poster sessions were
organized around the topics of
Comparative Genetics and Population
Genetics, Comparative and Human
Physiology, and Genomics and
Computational Biology.
PARTICIPANTS
SET UP THEIR POSTERS IN THE
MDIBL
Keynote speaker Dr. David Botstein,
Director of the Lewis-Sigler Institute for
Integrative Genomics at Princeton
University, gave a marvelous seminar
covering a huge range of topics. He
elegantly synthesized many years of
chemostat data on yeast transcriptional
responses, as well as recent work on
potassium and ammonium channels and
genome-wide expression studies using
high throughput microarray technologies.
Representatives from research and
research-training programs – including
the Graduate School of Biomedical
Sciences, the Maine Institute of Human
Genetics and Health, the Foundation for
Blood Research and the Institute for
CONFERENCE CENTER’S
DAHLGREN HALL
Broadening Participation – were also
on hand to inform students about their
programs, which provide avenues for
students wishing to continue in scientific research.
Dr. Walter Allan, PI of
BiomedWorks, a program at the
Foundation for Blood Research funded
by an NIH Science Education
Partnership Award, appreciated the
chance to talk to an eclectic group of
scientists from around Maine and hear
what interesting science is going on.
“In a big rural state,” he noted,
“even the science is dispersed and
having a critical mass for thinking
requires an effort like MBMSS.”
IDeA States Regional Meeting, August 15 -17, 2007
PLEASE JOIN INBRE AND COBRE RESEARCHERS FROM MAINE, VERMONT, DELAWARE AND RHODE ISLAND
FOR THIS IMPORTANT OPPORTUNITY TO SHARE OUR WORK WITH EACH OTHER.
PLATFORM SESSION TOPICS INCLUDE: CANCER BIOLOGY, COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY, DEVELOPMENT AND REGENERATION, INFLAMMATION AND
IMMUNOLOGY, NEUROSCIENCE, PROTEIN STRUCTURE/FUNCTION, AND STEM CELLS
KEYNOTE ADDRESS: " THE PROMI SE AND CHALLENGE OF STEM CELL RESEARCH" JAMES BATTEY, JR., MD, PHD, DIRECTOR,
NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON DEAFNESS AND OTHER COMMUNICATION DISORDERS, NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH
REGISTRATION DEADLINE: AUGUST 1, 2007
PLEASE VISIT HTTPS://WWW.UVM.EDU/~VGN/IDEAMEETING/REGISTRATION.PHP FOR MORE INFORMATION
4
Alumna Profile:
Katie Gassman, UMaine-Farmington ‘06
New Investigator
Awards 2007
E
ach year the Mount Desert
Island Biological Laboratory
provides New Investigator Awards for
summer research at MDIBL. The
purpose of the awards is to bring
investigators to the unique research
facilities of MDIBL. The awards are
designed to support research for a
period of one to three months.
Applications are evaluated on the
basis of the scientific merit of the
research and the extent to which the
research makes use of the facilities at
MDIBL, with preference given to
novel research problems that utilize
marine species.
This year five of the twenty-eight
New Investigator Awards went to
recipients from IDeA states. IDeA
New Investigators for 2007 are listed
below.
W
hen Katherine Gassman chose to attend the University of Maine at
Farmington, she was attracted to its small classes and campus. She liked the
way the biology department was geared towards teaching research techniques, including
the planning and design of experiments, and the opportunities the curriculum offered for
independent projects. The INBRE program also offered numerous opportunities to
engage in scientific research, and Gassman made the most of those possibilites.
In her junior year, she took an on-site laboratory training course at MDIBL,
Molecular Biology Research Techniques, which “gave her a foundation for working in a
lab.” The following year, she was an INBRE Student Summer Fellow at The Jackson
Laboratory (TJL). Under the guidance of Dr. Chuck Ostermeier, Gassman gained more
lab experience researching whether cryopreservation (freezing) decapacitated sperm.
After graduating from UMF in August 2006, she accepted a full-time position as a
research assistant in the laboratory of Dr. Lindsay Shopland at TJL. “Having the
INBRE summer research fellowship on my resume helped me land a permanent job,”
Gassman says.
Dr. Shopland’s research team is investigating patterns of gene distribution in the cell
nucleus, specifically in the region of the nuclear periphery. Called a “zone of transcriptional repression,” the periphery of the cell has often been regarded as a location of
inactive genes, but Shopland’s lab is finding that the region has a very particular
architecture that correlates with specific gene expression programs of some active genes.
Gassman feels that being at TJL is a way of continuing her education, noting that
“working there, I learn something new everyday.” She enjoys taking a molecular
approach to studying genetics and increasing our understanding of the role genes play in
causing diseases. She intends to put it all to good use. She is now applying to medical
schools, after which she hopes to fulfill her lifelong dream of working in pediatrics.
Glen E. Collier, Ph.D.
Department of Biological Science,
The University of Tulsa, Oklahoma
GENE ORGANIZATION OF
CRUSTACEAN ARGININE KINASE
Clare Bates Congdon, Ph.D.
Department of Computer Science,
Colby College, Maine
MACHINE LEARNING AND
BIOINFORMATICS
Laurie Connell, Ph.D.
School of Marine Sciences,
The University of Maine
DETERMINATION OF A NATURALLY
OCCURRING SODIUM CHANNEL GENE
MUTATION IN EASTERN MAINE
POPULATIONS OF SOFTSHELL CLAM,
MYA ARENARIA
Clarissa A. Henry, Ph.D.
Department of Biological Sciences,
The The University of Maine
CELL AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY OF
SEGMENTATION AND MUSCLE
DEVELOPMENT IN ZEBRAFISH
Ione Hunt von Herbing, Ph.D.
School of Marine Sciences,
The University of Maine
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF DETECTION
AND RESPONSE TO ENVIRONMENTAL
CHANGE IN THE DEVELOPING
MARINE FISHES
5
INBRE UMF Alumna Kristin Beale Joins MDIBL Staff
I
NBRE Alumna Kristin Beale recently joined the MDI
Biological Laboratory, as a new research assistant working
with Dr. David Towle’s laboratory. A native of Norridgewock,
Maine, she graduated in May from the University of Maine at
Farmington, where she majored in biology and participated in
research on veal heart pathology, biomass conversion, and DNA
sequencing for E. coli.
Beale’s first exposure to MDIBL came in February 2006
when she participated in the INBRE short course “Molecular
Biology Research Techniques.” Now as a part of INBRE Science
Core Director David Towle’s laboratory, she is putting her experience to work as part of a multi-institutional project funded by
the Canadian government and private industry to protect and
improve the lobster fishery. MDIBL's portion of the work will
include a greatly expanded database of expressed sequence tags
as well as the development of microarray tools for assessing
lobster molting and health.
Dr. Towle says that “Kristin will be essential to implementing the new project on lobster genomics funded by the Atlantic
Canada Opportunities Agency through the University of Prince
Edward Island. In just her first week, she has assisted a visiting
investigator with a molecular search for a calcium-activated
chloride channel in lobster, and promises to be a great full-time
addition to MDIBL.”
Congressional Staff Learn About IDeA Program Outcomes
Network of Biomedical Research Excellence) programs initiatn Washington, D.C. last month Dr. Patricia Hand, Maine
ed under the IDeA program. While both COBRE and INBRE
INBRE Principal Investigator, moderated an educational
programs provide resources for enhancing research capacity in
briefing on the National Institutes of Health’s Institutional
these states, the INBRE program also focuses on improving
Development Award (IDeA) program, attended by more than
undergraduate biomedical research training and opportunities.
eighty congressional staffmembers. Panel participants included
This is especially true in Maine. Over the last year almost
Dr. Gus Kousoulas of Louisiana State University, Dr. James
seventy
students participated in faculty-mentored research, and
Turpen of the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Dr.
more than fifty took part in laboratory
Frances Carr of the University of Vermont,
training courses as a part of the INBRE
and Dr. Malcom D’Souza from Wesley
Increasing numbers of
program. Increasing numbers of graduCollege in Delaware, who attested to the
graduates are going on
ates
are going on to advanced degree
impact of IDeA funding on biomedical
to advanced degree programs
programs or careers in the biomedical
research in their states. While each
or careers
sciences.
described a research network tailored parin the biomedical sciences.
In addition to the direct funding
ticularly to their state, all confirmed the
available
through INBRE and COBRE –
IDeA program’s significant contribution to
funding for state of the art instrumentation, bioinformatics
biomedical research.
tools, and other research resources – IDeA program support
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) designed the IDeA
has increased participants’ competitiveness for other federal
program to direct resources toward states that had traditionally
research funding programs. Since the IDeA programs’ incepreceived the least federal biomedical research funding. Twentytion in 1999, each eligible state saw on average a 277%
three states and Puerto Rico are eligible for the COBRE (Centers
increase in total NIH funding.1
for Biomedical Research Excellence) and INBRE (IDeA
1National Institutes of Health
I
6
2007 INBRE Summer Fellowships
T
alented undergraduates are invited to participate in summer research programs of established scientists in a network-wide competitive program.
Selection of students is based on a combination of prior academic success, letters of
recommendation and research interests. Below are our 2007 undergraduate student
research fellows, their institutional affiliation, and mentor.
KATHLEEN BRADLEY, THE UNIVERSITY OF MAINE
J. DENRY SATO, PH.D., MDI BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY
JACQUELINE BROSNAN, BOWDOIN COLLEGE
HADLEY HORCH, PH.D., BOWDOIN COLLEGE
MEGAN CHASE, THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW ENGLAND
GARY CONRAD, PH.D., MDI BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY
ZINAIDA DEDEIC, COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC
GARY CONRAD, PH.D., MDI BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY
ROBERTA DENNISON, BOWDOIN COLLEGE
PATSY DICKINSON, PH.D., BOWDOIN COLLEGE
CHRISTOPHER DURKIN, THE UNIVERSITY OF MAINE – FARMINGTON
DAVID BARNES, PH.D., MDI BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY
JENNIFER FORTIER, THE UNIVERSITY OF MAINE
SUSAN EDWARDS, PH.D., MDI BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY
ABBIE FREDERICK, COLBY COLLEGE
KEVIN RICE, PH.D., COLBY COLLEGE
DAVID HALUSKA, THE UNIVERSITY OF MAINE
DAVID TOWLE, PH.D., MDI BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY
NATALIYA ILIYASHENKO, COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC
SHAOGUANG LI, PH.D., THE JACKSON LABORATORY
MEGHAN LANPHER, THE UNIVERSITY OF MAINE – MACHIAS
CLARISSA HENRY, PH.D., MDI BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY
KATELYN MICHAUD, THE UNIVERSITY OF MAINE – FARMINGTON
WESLEY BEAMER, PH.D., THE JACKSON LABORATORY
JENNIFER MYERS, COLBY COLLEGE
ANDREA TILDEN, PH.D., COLBY COLLEGE
INNOCENT NDZANA, THE UNIVERSITY OF MAINE – MACHIAS
FRANKLIN EPSTEIN, M.D. AND PATRICIO SILVA, PH.D., MDIBL
CHELSI SNOW, THE UNIVERSITY OF MAINE
CLARISSA HENRY, PH.D., MDI BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY
GREGORY SOUSA, BATES COLLEGE
ANDREW CHRISTIE, PH.D., MDI BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY
KRISTEN YOUNG, BATES COLLEGE
MARY KATE WORDEN, PH.D., MDI BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY
IDeA
Network of
Biomedical
Research
Excellence
Research Institutions:
Mount Desert Island Biological
Laboratory
The Jackson Laboratory
Baccalaureate Institutions:
Bates College
Bowdoin College
Colby College
College of the Atlantic
The University of Maine
Outreach Baccalaureate Institutions:
University of Maine at Farmington
University of Maine at Machias
Maine INBRE Director:
Patricia Hand, Ph.D.
Maine INBRE Program Coordinator:
David Barnes, Ph.D.
INBRE External Advisory Committee:
Barbara Beltz, Ph.D., Chair
Christopher Bayne, Ph.D.
James Gentile, Ph.D.
John G. Hildebrand, Ph.D.
Lynette Hirschman, Ph.D.
Leonard I. Zon, M.D.
INBRE Steering Committee:
Pamela Baker, Ph.D., Bates
Patsy Dickinson, Ph.D., Bowdoin
Keith Hutchison, Ph.D., U of Maine
Barbara Knowles, Ph.D.,
The Jackson Laboratory
Chris Petersen, Ph.D., COA
Edward Yeterian, Ph.D., Colby
Core Directors:
John Gregory, Ed.D.
Carolyn Mattingly, Ph.D.
Michael McKernan
David Towle, Ph.D.
Charles Wray, Ph.D.
Supported by:
National Center for Research Resources
National Institutes of Health
This publication was made possible by
NIH Grant Number P20 RR-016463
from the INBRE Program of the
National Center for Research Resources
7
Continued from front page...
The collaborative research Planchart and Mattingly have
Planchart and Mattingly agree that the collaboration
embarked on stems from this quest to discover ABC gene reguthey’ve embarked on wouldn’t have been come about withlatory elements. Cross-species comparison of gene sequences
out INBRE. “It would have been highly unlikely we’d have
helps to identify evolutionarily-conserved elements, important
met and worked together without INBRE, ” Planchart says.
because their very conservation through millions of years sugMattingly points out that they’ve been able to leverage
gests that they play vital roles in either function or regulation.
INBRE resources, making
Together Planchart and Mattingly are working to see how far
substantial use of the Bioinformatics Core’s sequence analyback they can trace two critical ABC family proteins – ABCB1
sis tools, and the INBRE BAC libraries for shark and skate –
and ABCB4 – in the evolutionary hierarchy.
expensive resources that would be difficult for an individual
The identification of the ABCB proteins in Chondrichthyes,
research budget to support. This alignment of resources and
a class of cartilaginous fish 450 million years divergent from
talents gives their collaboration its strength.
humans, could help scientists understand the molecular history
For her part, Mattingly has welcomed the opportunity to
of these important transporters and provide new scientific modreturn to work at the bench in this collaborative research
els for investigations in toxicology
project, and also appreciates the
and multi-drug resistance.
other connections with colWorking with a bacterial artifileagues the INBRE network has
The identification of the ABCB proteins
cial chromosome (BAC) library
provided. “For researchers like
in Chondrichthyes,
of dogfish shark (Squalus acanus, working at small institua class of cartilaginous fish
thias), constructed with support
tions, the group of Junior
450 million years divergent from humans,
from the Maine INBRE, these
Faculty Researchers provides
could help scientists understand
two scientists are sequencing the
support and encouragement.”
the molecular history of
genomic region they believe
Already Planchart and
these important transporters
contains their ABCB gene(s) of
Mattingly have one BAC clone
and provide new scientific models
interest.
which carries an ABCB gene
for investigations in toxicology
In an investigation that
that they will be investigating
and multi-drug resistance.
combines Planchart’s skill in
further. The gene they’ve found
molecular biology bench techbears similarities in sequence to
niques with Mattingly’s expertise
both human ABCB1 and ABCB4.
in bioinformatics, they developed a strategy to identify this
Their labs will need to perform more sequencing and analygenomic region using a probe for carnitine O-octanoyltranssis on this novel Chondrichthyes sequence before they can
ferase (Crot). Crot does not belong to the ABCB superfamily
say definitively whether the shark carries both the ABCB1
of genes, but it is syntenic (in the same order on a chromosomal
and ABCB4 genes, or whether the duplication that resulted
thread) with the ABCB4 and ABCB1 genes in genomes of many
in these two genes occurred after the divergence of
divergent organisms, an observation Mattingly made in her comChondrichthyes and other jawed vertebrates. In either case,
parative sequence analysis work. Planchart’s lab isolated Crot
the dogfish genome holds great potential for better undersequence from dogfish shark, which they used to probe the BAC
standing the regulation of the ABCB gene(s) identified and
library on the assumption that when they find a clone containing
their associated protein functions.
Crot, ABCB genes will be nearby.
Using Crot as a probe has another advantage, in that the
Do you have INBRE news?
Crot gene is unique and does not belong to a family of genes
with highly similar sequences. In humans, the ABC family conPlease let us know about upcoming
tains 49 members of high sequence similarity, presenting chalevents, items of interest and your
lenges for development of probes that reliably identify specific
program accomplishments.
genes. By relying on evolutionary conservation of synteny and
using Crot as the initial probe, Mattingly and Planchart immediContact: Aimée Picard
ately identified a positive clone that contained an adjacent
(207) 288-3605 x101
ABCB gene.
[email protected]
8
Spring Laboratory Experiences for Undergraduates
his spring the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory hosted three more groups of students for on-site laboratory
studies. Undergraduates from the College of the Atlantic studied Methods in Developmental Biology in the lab with Dr.
James Coffman during March, using sea urchin embryos as a model system and gaining experience with the confocal microscope.
T
ABOVE LEFT: BATES COLLEGE
STUDENTS USE
PCR
TO STUDY
RNA
IN THE LAB AT
MDIBL;
ABOVE RIGHT: INVESTIGATOR DENRY SATO
WITH
UNIVERSITY
OF
MAINE STUDENTS
niversity of Maine students came to campus for two weeks of intensive study in the Functional Genomics of Membrane
Transport, which included instruction from MDIBL scientists as well as researchers from Dartmouth College, The
University of Maine and the University of Pittsburgh. Students appreciated learning an approach to scientific questions that focused
on molecular pathways and mechanisms, as well as being able to interact and learn from a group of diverse scientists.
In May, Bates College Environmental Toxicogenomics students used RNA purification and PCR amplification in their laboratory
with Associate Professor Rebecca Sommer. Participants credit the lab time with giving them hands-on experience with advanced
tools, and deepening their understanding of experimental design.
U
ABOVE LEFT: UNIVERSITY OF MAINE STUDENTS WITH INSTRUCTORS CHRIS CHAPLINE, DENRY SATO, BRUCE STANTON AND SIMON WATKINS.
ABOVE RIGHT: BATES COLLEGE ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR REBECCA SOMMER AND STUDENTS OF ENIVRONMENTAL TOXICOGENOMICS.
9
New in Print
Bates College INBRE Junior Faculty RYAN BAVIS, Ph.D., published “HYPOXIC VENTILATORY RESPONSES IN RATS AFTER HYPERin Respiratory Physiology and Neurobiology, 155(3): 193-202, with co-authors
K.E. Russell, *J.C. Simons and J.P. Otis.
CAPNIC HYPEROXIA AND INTERMITTENT HYPEROXIA”
INBRE Junior Faculty Researcher HADLEY W. HORCH, Ph.D., Bowdoin College, has published a paper co-authored by two
INBRE students. “DEVELOPMENTAL AND ADULT EXPRESSION OF SEMAPHORIN 2A IN THE CRICKET GRYLLUS BIMACULATUS,” authors
*Maynard, K.R., McCarthy, S.S., *Sheldon, E., and Horch, H.W., appears in the Journal of Comparative Neurology, 503: 169-181,
2007.
J.DENRY SATO, D. Phil., INBRE Junior Faculty Researcher and MDIBL Investigator, has a new publication on the regulation
of CFTR, the chloride ion channel proteinmutated in cystic fibrosis. “REGULATION OF HUMAN CYSTIC FIBROSIS TRANSMEMBRANE
CONDUCTANCE REGULATOR (CFTR) BY SERUM- AND GLUCOCORTICOID-INDUCIBLE KINASE (SGK1),” authors Sato, J.D., M.C. Chapline,
R. Thibodeau, R.A. Frizzell, and B.A. Stanton (2007) is in press at Cellular Physiology and Biochemistry.
CHARLES WRAY, Ph.D., INBRE Outreach Core Co-Director and MDIBL Associate Administrative Director, co-authored a
paper with MDIBL scientists. “THE FARNESOID X RECEPTOR, FXRα/NR1H4, ACQUIRED LIGAND SPECIFICITY FOR BILE SALTS LATE IN
VERTEBRATE EVOLUTION,” authors Shi-Ying Cai, Xiong, L., Wray, C.G., Ballatori, N. and Boyer, J.L., is in the American Journal of
Physiology – Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology.
A team of INBRE researchers – including Steering Committee member PATSY DICKINSON, Ph.D., of Bowdoin College;
INBRE Science Research Core Members from MDIBL, DAVID TOWLE, Ph.D., and CHRISTINE SMITH; INBRE
Undergraduate Mentor ANDREW CHRISTIE, Ph.D.; and Bowdoin Undergraduate, SZYMON RUS – recently published two
papers. “IDENTIFICATION AND CARDIOTROPIC ACTIONS OF SULFAKININ PEPTIDES IN THE AMERICAN LOBSTER HOMARUS AMERICANUS” is in
the Journal of Experimental Biology, 210: 2278-2289, authors P.S. Dickinson, Stevens, J.S., *Rus, S., Brennan, H.R., Goiney, C.C.,
Smith, C.M., Li, L., Towle, D.W. and Christie, A.E. “IDENTIFICATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF A CDNA ENCODING A CRUSTIN-LIKE,
PUTATIVE ANTIBACTERIAL PROTEIN FROM THE AMERICAN LOBSTER, HOMARUS AMERICANUS,” authors Christie A.E., *Rus S., Goiney C.C.,
Smith C.M., Towle D.W., and Dickinson PS, appeared in Molecular Immunology 44(13): 3333-7.
Bowdoin Undergraduate EMILY BRUNS is co-author of two other papers with research groups that include DICKINSON and
CHRISTIE. “MASS SPECTROMETRIC IDENTIFICATION OF PEGFYSQFRYAMIDE: A CRUSTACEAN PEPTIDE HORMONE POSSESSING A VERTEBRATE NEUROPEPTIDE Y (NPY)-LIKE CARBOXY-TERMINUS,” authors Stemmler EA, *Bruns EA, Gardner NP, Dickinson PS and Christie
AE, was published in General and Comparative Endocrinology, 152 (1): 1-7.
The second paper, “IDENTIFICATION, PHYSIOLOGICAL ACTIONS, AND DISTRIBUTION OF TPSGFLGMRAMIDE: A NOVEL TACHNYKININCANCER CRABS,” authors Stemmler EA, Peguero B,
*Bruns EA, Dickinson PS and Christie AE, appeared in the Journal of Neurochemistry, 101(5): 1351-66.
RELATED PEPTIDE FROM THE MIDGUT AND STOMATOGASTRIC NERVOUS SYSTEM OF
* Indicates undergraduate co-authors
Summer Symposia On Environmental Health and Stem Cells
Over the next two months the MDI Biological Laboratory will host two symposia. INBRE researchers of all levels of professional development are invited. Students are especially encouraged to attend, as they will be admitted at no charge.
The 14th Annual Environmental Health Sciences Symposium begins at 8:00 pm, July 18, with a keynote lecture by Bruce
Stanton, Ph.D., Director, Dartmouth Lung Biology Center and Associate Director, Dartmouth Center for the Environmental Health
Sciences. The full day of scientific sessions July 19 will address the topic “Human Health and the Environment: Arsenic and
Mercury, A Public Health Crisis?”
The 6th Annual MDI Stem Cell Symposium – co-sponsored by The Jackson Laboratory and MDIBL – will take place August
10 and 11th. The two-day meeting, featuring leading researchers from around the country, includes sessions on:
• Current knowledge and recent discoveries in the molecular genetics of ES and adult stem cells.
• Recent research on stem cells in lung, breast, blood, and neural cancers.
• Developmental dynamics of organ systems in model organisms including mouse, fly, and fish.
• Recent research on stem cells in neuromuscular, renal, and cardiac disease, in addition to the role of stem cells in immune
responses and transplant rejection.
Please visit the events page of www.maineidea.net for more information about these and other events.
10
Developmental Biologist Dr. David Epel Visits Maine
D
istinguished developmental biologist Dr. David Epel,
Stanford University and Hopkins Marine Station,
visited Maine June 20 – 22 to give an INBRE-sponsored seminar,
"Strategies of embryo protection: how the act of fertilization
saves the life of the egg," and to spend a few days with students
and scientists.
Over the past four decades Dr. Epel has performed many
seminal studies of the cell biology and physiology of marine
embryos, providing important insights on how development is
initiated at fertilization. Of special interest is the dormant
metabolism of the egg, and how the activity of these cells is
radically altered in the process of fertilization. Dr. Epel's
research has shown that the change that initiates egg development
is a transient rise in free calcium and a permanent increase in
intracellular pH.
Recently Dr. Epel has turned his attention to how development takes place in the marine environment, especially how
embryos resist the effects of such environmental stresses as
ultraviolet radiation, pathogens and natural and man-made toxins.
Dr. Epel's group is looking at these questions from a cellular and
molecular viewpoint, and finding unsuspected and novel adaptation that permit embryo survival in these potentially harsh
environments. He presented a chalk talk on Thursday entitled
"Tinkering with Toxicity: Avoiding environmental problems by
understanding how cells handle toxic chemicals."
Who we are
T
he Maine IDeA Network of
Biomedical Research
Excellence (INBRE) is an
NCRR/NIH-supported network of
ten Maine institutions including
Mount Desert Island Biological
Laboratory (lead institution), Bates
College, Bowdoin College, Colby
College, College of the Atlantic, The
Jackson Laboratory, and The
University of Maine. Maine INBRE
outreach institutions include The
University of Maine at Farmington
and The University of Maine at
Machias.
The overall goal of the Maine
INBRE is to strengthen Maine’s
capacity to conduct NIH competitive
biomedical research. Maine’s
INBRE provides research support
and core facilities to junior faculty,
creates research and training opportunities for undergraduates, serves as
a pipeline for undergraduate
students to pursue health research
careers and enhances the scientific
and technical knowledge of Maine’s
workforce.
Dr. Epel has been a Guggenheim Fellow, and is a Fellow
of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
In addition, Stanford students voted in 1996 to award him the
Cox Medal for Faculty Excellence in Fostering Undergraduate
Research. His laboratory developed a website with NSF
funding on how to use sea urchin fertilization in high school
and freshman biology labs. The site, which has had over 10
million visitors, is at:http://www.stanford.edu/group/Urchin/ .
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Maine INBRE
MOUNT DESERT ISLAND
BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY
P.O. Box 35
Salisbury Cove, ME 04672
www.mdibl.org
WWW.MAINEIDEA.NET
Patricia H. Hand, Ph.D.
Maine INBRE
Principal Investigator
207/288-3605 (tel)
207/288-2130 (fax)
email: [email protected]
Jerilyn M. Bowers
Director of Public Affairs
207-288-3147 (tel)
207-288-2130 (fax)
email: [email protected]
Maine’s INBRE is supported
by NIH Grant Number P20
RR-016463 from the INBRE
Program of the National
Center for Research Resources