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Where are They Now? Featuring: Monique Richard
WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
Monique Richard
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Master of Science in Clinical Nutrition
Year of Graduation: 2013
Why did you choose ETSU for your education? How did your time at ETSU prepare you for this career?
East Tennessee State University was a top contender due to its coordinated dietetic internship and graduate program, the possibility of obtaining a graduate assistantship, and the robust variety of experiences offered in the medical community and academic curricula.
What is your current position and/or research?
I am an integrative and functional registered dietitian nutritionist (RDN) and registered yoga teacher (RYT). I am also the owner of a private practice, Nutrition-In-Sight (www.eatrightrx.com), that offers consulting, counseling, and nutrition communication services with a focus on personalized nutrition and lifestyle medicine. I was recently selected to be a National Media Spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, and I am the immediate past President of the International Affiliate of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
What does this position/research entail?
As an integrative and functional RDN, I work to educate, empower, and support individuals with a variety of health and nutrition related needs. These needs range from what foods, nutrients, and/or supplements may be best in addressing a specific medical condition or health goal to understanding more intricate details of digestion, genetics, or functional lab tests. As a spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, I am able to reach wider audiences in order to communicate practical ways to navigate nutritional needs, talk about research studies and current evidence in areas of dietetics and nutrition, and promote the numerous ways RDNs’ services and knowledge can be of benefit to an individual, family, healthcare system, and community. The dietetic internship and graduate program at ETSU helped prepare me for this career path with expansive and varied opportunities to learn and apply principles and competencies. My experiences within Johnson City’s medical and public community were valuable and comprehensive. The nutrition faculty and faculty/staff within the College of Clinical and Rehabilitative Health Sciences fostered my interest in various leadership roles, supported my drive and determination to explore international opportunities, and allowed me to complete a thesis in a non-thesis specific program.
If you held a graduate assistantship or tuition scholar position, how did this experience enhance your education?
Being a GA elevated my education while simultaneously supporting my ability to obtain my degree. Learning from my advisor and colleagues throughout my assistantship was a valuable opportunity that aligned with my needs and goals in addition to providing enjoyable connections and support.
What advice would you offer to current or future graduate students?
Don’t limit yourself to what you see, hear, or know. There are more paths beyond what you think are currently available. Ask questions. Dream, imagine, investigate, and then apply your knowledge and skills to create, enhance, explore, and inspire! What you do matters.
Anything else you would like to add:
Thank you to everyone at ETSU and in the Johnson City community; I’m also here to help you!
Eavesdropping on Plant Communication:
Tracking the Movement of Phytosulfokines Stress Signals in Plants
Bernard Abakah
Chemistry, MS
Dr. Robert Standaert
Faculty Advisor
Written by Marten Baur
Bernard Abakah, from Old Odonase, Ghana, recalls visiting the farm with his grandmother to collect medicinal plants for people in his village. Even as a child, Bernard wondered, “What is so special about these plants that allows them to treat disease?” Now at ETSU, Bernard is conducting first-hand research on understanding the internal communication mechanisms of plants. Under the tutelage of Dr. Standaert, a professor and chair of the department of chemistry, Bernard is studying phytosulfokines (PSK), an important plant messenger peptide involved in regulating the growth, development, and stress response in plants. PSK is a peptide, which is a small fragment of a larger protein that the plant modifies. It travels inside the plant and is recognized by specific proteins called PSK receptors (PSKRs) on the surface of target cells. This article features Bernard’s thesis involving the trafficking of PSK using a novel, nondamaging monitoring tool to understand the fundamental mechanisms of stressresponse communication in plants. Bernard received a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from the University of Cape Coast in Cape Coast, Ghana. For his master’s degree, Bernard wanted a university that would allow him to conduct innovative and interdisciplinary research. In addition, he wanted a university that offered support for international students. The chemistry program at ETSU gave Bernard the potential to follow his passion for chemistry and biology in a manner that would allow him to become an original contributor in the fields of bioenergy and medicine. In Dr. Standaert’s lab, Bernard would have the opportunity to research the internal communication mechanisms of plants in response to stress.
Plants undergo various stresses such as drought, changes in salinity, changes in acidity, and infection. When faced with a stressor, plant cells communicate through messengers like the peptide PSK. Understanding how plant cells communicate can help researchers develop stress-resistant plants, which have applications for both bioenergy and food production. One of the largest hurdles to studying plant stress is finding ways to measure and monitor plants without inducing additional stress. If the measurement itself is stressful, then the results of the study may be altered. Bernard and his advisor, Dr. Robert Standaert, have developed a non-destructive method to monitor internal plant communication by using a specialized microscope called a fiber optic fluorescent microscope. The microscope, which Dr. Robert Standaert built by following models in the literature, can emit light in a variety of colors and wavelengths. These wavelengths can then excite cells tagged with a fluorescent dye. These tagged cells absorb the incoming light and “fluoresce,” which causes the light to be re-emitted as a different color.
For his thesis, Bernard wants to understand how plants internally communicate environmental stressors. More specifically, Bernard wants to know if PSK is mobile and if the PSK receptors play a role in the peptide’s ability to travel within the plant. Additionally, Bernard
Thale Cress (Arabidopsis thaliana)
wants to know how the PSK affects the level of its receptors in plants. In essence, Bernard is attempting to “eavesdrop” on plant communication. To accomplish this, Bernard must track PSK and its receptors with the fiber optic fluorescent microscope. Bernard tags PSK with a fluorescent dye that will cause PSK to fluoresce orange with high sensitivity under the microscope. Next, Bernard introduces either tagged or untagged PSK into the leaves and roots of an Arabidopsis thaliana, a common model plant. Bernard works with three variants of Arabidopsis: a wild type (wt—the natural variant), a variant that lacks both PSK receptors (pskr1/pskr2), and a variant with overexpressed receptors tagged with a green fluorescent protein (wt/PSKR1-GFP). Green fluorescent protein (GFP) is a jellyfish protein that causes the receptors to glow green when placed under the microscope. This allows Bernard to see the receptors for his experiments. In one experiment, Bernard incubates the roots of the three variants of Arabidopsis with both labeled and unlabeled PSK. In another experiment, he introduces the tagged and untagged PSK into the leaves of the three variants. Because it is not known how long it will take for PSK to move
Fiberoptic fluorescence microscope. Left, Dr. Robert Standaert, Right, Bernard Abakah. The microscope provides two-color (FITC/TRITC) optics and high-resolution (3–5 µm) epifluorescence micrographs via a 1-m coherent imaging fiber and a GRIN objective lens.
from the root to the leaves of the plant, Bernard takes images with the fluorescent microscope every thirty minutes. During the experiment with the leaf injections, Bernard took images for 24 continuous hours. “It’s really fun… sometimes!” admitted Bernard.
Bernard observed that PSK can move from the top side of a leaf to the bottom side of the leaf within 24 hours for all the three variants of Arabidopsis, but PSK moved at different rates and fluoresced at different intensity levels depending
Bernard controlling the robot from ST Robotics using the Roboforth software. The completion of the microscope will entail robotic manipulation of the fiber to monitor probe movement, growth and signaling.
The title is Root imaging of arabidopsis wt/ PSKR1-GFP under Blue excitation light
Leaf imaging of arabidopsis wt/PSKR1-GFP under Green excitation light following TAMRAPSK incubation
Leaf imaging of arabidopsis wt/PSKR1-GFP under Blue excitation light following TAMRAPSK incubation to the root
Left, Dr. Robert Standaert, Right, Bernard Abakah
on the variant. PSK was detected at the bottom of leaves of wt/ PSKR-GFP plants after six hours. He also observed slower PSK trafficking rates in the Arabidopsis variants that lacked PSK receptors, indicating that the PSK receptors might facilitate its transport. Additionally, Bernard observed that PSK can move from the root to the shoot of all three variants of Arabidopsis following 30 minutes of root incubation with tagged PSK. Again, Bernard observed different rates and fluorescent intensity levels for each variant. Fluorescent intensity was higher in the leaves of wt/PSKR1-GFP, and the trafficking time was slowest in pskr1/ pskr2 for each time point, again indicating that the PSK receptors might facilitate PSK transport. Lastly, in the Arabidopsis variant with overexpressed receptors tagged with GFP, Bernard and Dr. Standaert observed the disappearance of receptors in the root after incubation with PSK. They hypothesized that after the PSK binds to the receptors, the receptors and the PSK will move into the cell, which is why they become undetectable on the fluorescent microscope. While it is now known that (1) PSK is mobile over both long and short ranges, (2) PSK receptors facilitate its trafficking, and (3) PSK affects the level of its receptors in roots, the location of the PSK receptors after binding PSK remains unknown.
Bernard has presented his research at the U.S. Department of Energy Annual PI meeting, the Appalachian Student Research Quorum, and the prestigious Gordon Research Seminar and Conference on Plant Molecular Biology, where he was awarded best poster presentation. Bernard attributes a great deal of his success to his mentor, Dr. Standaert. “Dr. Standaert brought out my creativity and ingenuity, and he gave me the opportunity to independently navigate through my own experiments,” said Bernard. Likewise, Dr. Standaert is proud of Bernard for his persistence and creativeness throughout the research process: “You don’t realize how many months of work goes into collecting these quality plant images,” he explained. Bernard would also like to thank his collaborators at the University of Chicago and Oak Ridge National Laboratory: Dr. Jean Greenberg, Dr. Joanna Jelenska, Jessica Morgan, Dian Liu, and Dr. Jennifer L. Morrell-Falvey. “Working and learning from such brilliant and passionate scientists has been a surreal experience... It’s been amazing!” remarked Bernard.
Bernard’s research introduces a novel method to nondestructively image plants to assess their internal communication strategies. As with any project, scientific or otherwise, a firm foundation must be set to ensure the success of following stages. Because of Bernard’s fundamental observations of PSK, researchers are one step closer to understanding how to improve the resilience of plants for biofuel and agricultural applications.
