CST Biology Update Spring 2018

College of Science and Technology

BIOLOGY UPDATE SPRING 2018

Chair’s Message The Department of Biology is continuing to build on excellence in teaching and research with the recent addition of two new tenure-track assistant professors.

Jocelyn Behm, who studies species decline and conservation strategies, joined the department in July 2017 and Anna Moore, a neuroscientist, joined us this January. These hires balance the recent retirements of professors emeriti Ed Gruberg and Frank Chang.

Despite a challenging funding atmosphere, faculty members continue to receive substantial new external grants that support our growing PhD program and offer research opportunities to many undergraduates.

Faculty members have also been busy on the instructional front, with several new courses at both graduate and undergraduate levels introduced that enhance the breadth and depth of the curriculum. The Professional Science Master’s programs associated with the department—biotechnology; bioinnovation (a joint program with Temple’s Fox School of Business); bioinformatics; and, our newest, scientific writing—have strong enrollments and produce successful graduates.

We thank alumni and friends whose financial support contributes to the department’s success, and invite all of our graduates to remain in touch online and on campus.

Robert Sanders Professor and Chair

bio.cst.temple.edu

New faculty bring expertise in ecology and brain activity Jocelyn Behm, assistant professor Behm earned her MS and PhD in ecology and biodiversity conservation from the University of Wisconsin-Madison after graduating Anna R. Moore summa cum laude from Drexel University with Jocelyn Behm a BS in environmental science. She was an adjunct professor at Ursinus College in 2015 and brings more than 10 years of teaching experience to her new position. She has received more than $750,000 in grants for her research in the ecology of lizards and frogs, molecular ecology and species extinction.

Behm has dedicated her time to mentoring undergraduate and master’s students in various aspects of her research. She has been awarded both the NWO Dutch Aspasia Women in Science Fellowship and the Fulbright Institute of International Education Fellowship. Her natural history notes have been published in the Herpetological Review, and she has published a field guide to the frogs of southwest China.

At Temple, she will be studying patterns of biodiversity and invasive species in both the Caribbean and southeastern Pennsylvania, as well as the ecology of food system sustainability.

Anna R. Moore, assistant professor Moore earned her PhD in biomedical sciences with an emphasis on neuroscience from the University of Connecticut Health Center after earning her BS in biology from James Madison University. She comes to Temple after seven years as a postdoctoral fellow in Brandeis University’s Department of Biology. While there, an NIH Institutional Training Grant for Neuroscience laid the foundation for a three-year NIMH K01 Fellowship.

While pursuing her doctoral degree, the ability to monitor neuronal activity in real time sparked Moore’s interest in her current area of research. At Temple, her laboratory will continue to explore the molecular mechanisms by which neuronal activity instructs circuit formation and function in the mammalian brain. A major goal of this research is to uncover how the interplay between genes and activity works to shape the pathways of the nervous system. The Moore lab addresses these questions using mouse models and a variety of approaches including electrophysiology, molecular biology and genetics.

Support CST You can contribute to the continued success of the College of Science and Technology and the Department of Biology by supporting scholarships, undergraduate research, graduate fellowships, faculty endowment and innovative programs.

Make your gift at giving.temple.edu/givetocst.

Quinn wins undergraduate research prize for animal locomotion study Brooke Quinn, a sophomore biology major in the Temple Honors Program, won the 2017 CST Undergraduate Research Program’s (URP) poster award at the URP Symposium. Quinn, who has been working in Associate Professor S. Tonia Hsieh’s lab since January 2017, continues to investigate the relationship between complex environmental variables and locomotor behavior.

For her URP research, Quinn analyzed videos of 50 different amphibians, reptiles and mammals ranging in size from mice to elephants. Her purpose: determine if the bending angles of ankles and knees and foot flexibility differed as the organisms moved. Her surprising conclusion, which she spoke about at the annual Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB) Conference in January: “All of these animals walk in very similar ways, which is clearly the most efficient way to move around the environment.”

The CST Science Scholar and peer advisor is now trying to determine the difference between learned and adaptive locomotion behavior in tarantulas following limb loss and regeneration—research that she will present at next year’s SIBC conference.

Ultimately, she says, “I want to follow in Dr. Hsieh’s footsteps. She earned degrees from UC Berkeley and Harvard, and now she’s teaching and conducting research at Temple. That seems like a dream to me.”

Danielle DeLeo (PhD ’16, Bio)

Recent biology PhD graduates excel Danielle M. (Young) DeLeo, ’16, is a postdoctoral fellow at Florida international University, researching the evolution of bioluminescence in deep-sea crustaceans—shrimp and crabs that live 200 to 1,000 meters beneath the surface of the Atlantic Ocean. While earning her doctorate, the Philadelphia native took part in five research cruises in the Gulf of Mexico to study coral communities with her advisor, Associate Professor Erik Cordes.

“At Temple I gained experience with a lot of molecular techniques and next-generation sequencing that were useful for both my doctoral research and the bioluminescence project that I am working on now,” DeLeo says. She plans to pursue a career in academia and to continue researching deep-sea habitats.

Sarah DeVaul Princiotta, ’16, is a postdoctoral research associate with Murray State University’s Hancock Biological Station in Kentucky. She is researching the dynamics involved in blooms of harmful cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae.

Princiotta’s doctoral research focused on mixotrophy by single-celled protists in freshwater environments. “A lot of research is collaborative and transdisciplinary,” she says, “and Dr. (Robert) Sanders introduced me to nearly everyone I know in the science world.” Eventually, she hopes to teach and mentor undergraduate researchers at a small liberal arts college.

Janne Pfeiffenberger, ’17, submitted his doctoral dissertation on November 30. The next day he drove to Tufts University, to begin a postdoctoral fellowship that involves researching fish propulsion and movement.

With Associate Professor S. Tonia Hsieh as his advisor, his doctoral dissertation focused on the biomechanical control mechanisms and morphology of ghost crabs. As a result, he says, “I don’t see myself any more as just a fish biologist, but one who can address questions regarding different types of animals.”

Since 2016, Craig Stanley Jr., ’17, has been a data scientist for Elsevier, an academic publisher that has become a global health-care solutions information and analytics company. Stanley’s role: developing knowledge graph applications to support medical clinicians in answering questions and helping them make better diagnostic and treatment decisions.

Working with his advisor, Associate Professor Rob J. Kulathinal, Stanley’s dissertation focused on the genomic architecture of reproductive systems in fruit flies. Thanks to those experiences, he says, “one of my strongest assets is being able to bridge the gap and act as an interface between technologists and doctors.”

RECENTLY FUNDED RESEARCH

FACULTY NOTES Associate Professor and department vice chair Erik Cordes led a team of researchers that have defined—for the first time—all of the habitat zones of a seamount (or submerged mountain) from the deep sea all the way to the surface.

Supported by the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, the month-plus cruise on the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s (SOI) Research Vessel Falkor focused on the Phoenix Islands Protected Area in the Pacific Ocean. The researchers used SuBastian, SOI’s remotely operated underwater vehicle to sample and photograph biodiversity that included the discovery of at least two new species of coral and crab. Cordes also has received a new five-year contract from the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research to explore the deep sea off of the southeast U.S. coast.

Erik Cordes (far right) led a research team to define seamount habitat zones

Vincenzo Carnevale • Ion Channels Response in Physiological Conditions, NSF • Structure-Based Design of Xe-129 NMR Biosensors for Multiplexed Cancer Detection, University of Pennsylvania

Erik Cordes • Collaborative Research: Quantifying the Biological, Chemical, and Physical Linkages Between Chemosynthetic Communities and the Surrounding Deep Sea, NSF • Deepwater Atlantic Habitats II: Continued Atlantic Research and Exploration in Deepwater Ecosystems with Focus on Coral, Canyon, and Seep Communities, U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management

Mark Feitelson • HBV Capsid Inhibitors, NIH/NIAID • Therapeutic Vaccine Against Hepatitis B Virus (Hbv), Theravectys

Antonio Giordano • Sbarro Health Research, Sbarro Health Research Organization Inc.

Jody Hey

Antonio Giordano, professor and director of CST’s Sbarro Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Medicine, and his colleagues have found that whole extracts from two varieties of Italian-grown tomatoes blocked the growth of stomach cancer cells and dampened their malignant characteristics. Their findings were published in the Journal of Cellular Physiology.

Laura H. Carnell Professor of Science S. Blair Hedges was quoted in a Washington Post Magazine story that highlighted what a wildlife haven the U.S. Naval Station at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has become. Because the station is fenced in and does not allow hunting, Hedges noted that there is an abundance of iguanas and hutias that he has not seen elsewhere on the island. Hedges was also featured in a story published in the magazine Science, which described how he sampled the excrement of beetle larvae found in a rare, 900-year old book at Oxford University’s Bodleian Library. His purpose: to extract DNA that can date the beetles, identify where the books were made and trace the evolution of the bookworms.

• ABI Development, University Auxiliary and Research Services

Rob Kulathinal • A Multi-Level Predictive Analytics and Motif Discovery Across Large Dynamic SpatioTemporal Networks and in Complex SocioTechnical Systems, NSF

Sudhir Kumar • eQTL Mega-Analysis for Functional Assessment of Multi-Enhancer Gene Regulation, NIH • Evolutionary Bioinformatics of Tumor Profiles, NIH • Innovative Molecular Timing Applications to Obtain Accurate Histories of Early Life, NASA

Frank Nelson • Inference-Making and Reasoning, University of Illinois

Awards and Honors Nei wins prestigious John Scott Award

Spigler earns teaching award

Masatoshi Nei, Laura H. Carnell

Rachel Spigler, assistant professor,

Professor of Biology, has won the prestigious John Scott Award for contributing to the “comfort, welfare and happiness” of humankind. Past winners include Marie Curie, Thomas Edison, Jonas Salk and Nikola Tesla. Nei has been a major contributor to population and evolutionary genetics theory throughout his distinguished career.

He is one of a select few to have a statistic named for him, and “Nei’s genetic distance” is a cornerstone of population genetic analyses. His many awards include the Kyoto Prize in Basic Sciences, in 2013.

received the College of Science and Technology’s William Caldwell Memorial Distinguished Teaching Award for 2017. The award honors William Caldwell, a chair of the chemistry department who served as dean of Temple’s College of Liberal Arts in the 1950s and is funded by Seda K. Tarzian (BA ‘48, Bio), distinguished graduate and member of the college’s Board of Visitors

Sergei Pond • Biological Properties of HIV-1 V3 Evolutionary Variants, NIH • MRI: Acquisition of a Flexible High-Performance Computing System for Data and Compute Driven Scientific Discovery, NSF • Tuning Big Data Analysis Infrastructure for HIV Research, NIH

Robert Sanders • Ecological Impact of Mixotrophic Algae in a Changing Arctic Marine Climate, NSF

Rachel Spigler • Effects of Mating System Change on Population Dynamics, NSF

Weidong Yang • Super-Resolution Microscopy Study of Molecular Microscopy Study of Molecular Transport Mechanisms, NIH

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Biology Department centers host two evolution symposia

Isabel C. Gines shines thanks to PSM biotechnology degree

The Institute for Genomics and Evolutionary Medicine (iGEM), Carnell Professor Sudhir Kumar and Professors Sergei Pond and Jody Hey organized the International Symposium on Molecular Evolution and Medicine associated with the Society for Molecular Biology & Evolution. In honor of Masatoshi Nei, Carnell Professor of Biology, the on-campus event included a two-day program focused on molecular evolutionary genetics.

Attendees included about 100 graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and faculty members from institutions throughout the United States, Europe, Brazil, India, Taiwan and Japan.

The life story of Isabel C. Gines, who earned her Temple Professional Science Master’s (PSM) in biotechnology last year, is a great example of perseverance. After teaching physical education and being a university research technician with a BS degree in her native Colombia, she came to the Philadelphia area and worked as a limousine chauffeur for five years.

While doing so, she earned her English as Second Language certification and began taking science courses at the Community College of Philadelphia (CCP). That led to her successful completion of a joint certification program in biomedical technician training offered by CCP and the Wistar Institute.

With her PSM degree, she is now both responsible for setting up CCP’s Microbiology Laboratory and an adjunct professor of microbiology at Temple.

“I learned to love microbiology, and I also appreciated the program’s holistic approach,” she says. “Our professors didn’t just teach techniques. We learned how to successfully pursue a career in many different environments.”

For information about PSM programs in bioinformatics, bioinnovation and biotechnology, contact Associate Professor Seema Freer at sfreer@temple.edu.

The Center for Computational Genetics and Genomics (CCGG) and iGEM hosted a symposium sponsored by BMC Evolutionary Biology titled, “Theory and Models Meet Data in Evolutionary Biology and Genomics.” The event drew nearly 60 graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and faculty researchers from the National Institutes of Health, Smithsonian Institution and more than a dozen academic institutions throughout the Northeast. Speakers included: Peter Andolfatto, Princeton University; Arndt von Haeseler, University of Vienna; Kateryna Makova, Penn State University; Paul Schmidt, University of Pennsylvania; and Temple’s Carnell Professor S. Blair Hedges and Professor Jody Hey. Associate Professor David Liberles organized the meeting.

ALUMNI NEWS

Hanna named Bloomsburg University president Bashar Hanna (BA ’89, MA ’94, PhD ’99, Bio) was named the 19th president of Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania in 2017. Hanna was a professor of biology and formerly vice president for academic affairs and dean of the faculty at Delaware Valley University in Doylestown, Pa. In addition to earning his bachelor’s in biology; his master’s degree in developmental biology and his PhD in developmental neurobiology from Temple, Hanna also served his alma mater as associate dean of the College of Science and Technology. In that role, Hanna co-chaired the college’s strategic planning committee, helping increase undergraduate and graduate enrollment.

In his career, Hanna has garnered more than $8 million in external funding for projects, programs and scholarships. He is a member of the board of directors of the Pennsylvania Drug Discovery Institute, the American Association of University Administrators and is an editorial board member of the Journal of Education Management and served on the board of the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center of Bucks County.

In Memoriam: Ralph Hillman Dr. Ralph Hillman, emeritus professor of biology, died on March 22, 2018 at the age of 88. He began his career at Temple in 1960, was twice chair of the department and taught genetics for many years until he retired in 2006. His research was in the area of developmental genetics and he continued to contribute to the department after retirement, running the undergraduate Distinction in Biology and mentoring students. He also established the Dr. Nina W. Hillman Award in memory of his late wife, a Temple Laura H. Carnell Professor of Biology. The award is given to graduating seniors in biology who have shown excellence in developmental biology or genetics.