Biology Update Summer 2020

College of Science and Technology

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BIOLOGY

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UPDATE SUMMER 2020

For more news, go to bio.cst.temple.edu

New BS in genomic medicine offered Beginning this fall, CST and the Biology Department will be offering a new major: a bachelor of science in genomic medicine.

The 123-credit program is designed to attract and serve the next generation of researchers and professionals interested in careers at the interface of biology and human health.

“Graduates of the program will have gained a foundation in the life sciences that emphasizes the medical relevance of genomics, evolutionary biology and informatics, making them well prepared for entry into medical school and STEM research careers in medicine,” says Sudhir Kumar, Laura H. Carnell Professor and director of Temple’s Institute for Genomics & Evolutionary Medicine who led the development of the new degree program.

The program will develop a strong foundation for next-generation medical professionals, who will arrive in medical schools and laboratories fully conversant in modern biological sciences. Temple’s curriculum delivers the genomic basis of diseases and their physiology, which are taught in partnership with Temple’s School of Medicine.

Faculty

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Using the Galaxy Project’s powerful software tools, Pond says he and his research collaborators will watch for any changes in the virus during the next six to 12 months that could indicate it is evolving in a clinically significant way. “We will continue to look for any evidence that, in the wake of defensive responses by the human body, the virus is adapting or changing,” says Pond.

That will involve looking for evidence of natural selection occurring; how frequently mutations are occurring over time; variations of the virus within individual humans; and instances of mutations occurring at the same genomic positions as previous coronaviruses. Any such significant findings, says Pond, could help fine-tune the development of COVID-19 drugs and vaccines.

Creating predictive epidemiological models Associate Professor Rob Kulathinal, currently on sabbatical at the College de France in Paris, has unexpectedly found himself during COVID-19 confinement helping to develop new epidemiological models that can predict the spread and control of the disease.

As part of a team of mathematical biologists, Kulathinal is helping to generate a new random variable model that “includes direct population-based clinical features taken from the recent literature, including SARS-CoV-2 incubation period and generation time, as well as the fraction of asymptomatics in a population and duration times between infection, symptom establishment, hospitalization, recovery and death,” explains Kulathinal. “From our simulations we have also been able to infer the effective days of confining a population and the effects of such lockdowns on deaths.”

The model, which will soon be submitted for peer-reviewed publication, suggests several strategies to guide both local and global policies—including monitoring, surveillance and population controls—in reducing the spread of this deadly virus.

Producing medical face shields Associate Professor Tonia Hsieh, is part of the Temple University COVID-19 Assistance Team—a universitywide task force of faculty, students and staff. Hsieh is leading a face shield design and production team that is utilizing 3D printing with a goal of producing 3,000 face shields per week. The face shields have been distributed to medical staff at both Temple University Hospital and Temple’s Maurice H. Kornberg School of Dentistry.

The goal is to expand distribution to other hospitals in the region.

Chair’s message

Faculty address COVID-19 pandemic

Like other faculty responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, I spent the last weeks of the spring semester teaching courses from home, worrying about students and colleagues, and participating in what seemed like an endless procession of administrative Zoom meetings. Now, we are teaching summer courses online and preparing for fall, whether online or in person.

When Temple University Hospital asked for extra personal protective equipment, our department delivered more than 5,000 lab coats, goggles, a case of N95 masks and nearly 50,000 pairs of gloves.

Meanwhile, instructional laboratories are sequentially undergoing renovations and the Post Baccalaureate Pre-Health Program moved into remodeled space in the Bio-Life Building. The biology and neuroscience undergraduate programs remain robust, with students increasingly involved in advanced research projects with our faculty. In addition, this fall we are launching a new undergraduate major in genomic medicine. We have welcomed new graduate students into the Professional Science Master’s programs (biotechnology, bioinformatics, bioinnovation) and PhD students into biology and the recently established bioinformatics interdisciplinary program.

Our faculty continue to conduct well-funded, cutting-edge research around the world. Their dedication to teaching and determined response to the sudden challenge of online instruction continues to encourage and inspire me.

As researchers around the world search for safe and effective drug treatments and vaccines, SARSCoV-2, the virus that causes COVID19 appears to be very stable in terms of its genomic, or complete DNA, makeup.

“At least at the moment, the SARS-CoV-2 virus is very homogenous and stable globally as it passes through the human population,” says Professor Sergei Pond, a researcher with Temple’s Institute for Genomics and Evolutionary Medicine. “That lack of significant change has tremendous significance for researchers looking to target the virus with potential drug treatments and vaccines.”

Pond bases that conclusion partly on data gathered by the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID), a German-based, publicprivate partnership that, as of May 7, had made more than 17,000 SARSCoV-2 genome sequences available to researchers.

Pond’s big-data analysis of the GISAID genome database indicates that, even though each virus genome contains approximately 30,000 different positions, any two randomly selected individual genomes only have eight to 10 different positions—an extremely small number—that indicate evidence of mutations.

“Given that most mutations have no effect and often aren’t transmitted, this should make it relatively easier to create an effective vaccine,” says Pond.

Robert Sanders Professor and Chair bio.cst.temple.edu

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Undergraduate Research Symposium awardees First Place Claire Goucher, biology Poster: “Promoting Axon Regeneration in Adult CNS by Targeting Liver Kinase B1”

Second Place Shannan Lowe, biology Poster: “Determining the Function of tbx-20 Repressor Domains in Zebrafish”

Honorable Mention Priya Nigam, neuroscience: cellular & molecular Poster: “Evolution of Genes Involved in Gametocyte Development Genes in the Life Cycle of Plasmodium sp., the Agents of Human Malaria”

Phi Beta Kappa nominees Seven biology majors—Aubrey Haggerty, Brian Ming-Tzuen Hsu, Margarita Makarova, Maxwell Reid Mikels, Vibhuti Mishra, Krishan H. Patel and Jessica Leigh Stout—and Priya Nigam, a neuroscience: cellular & molecular major— have been nominated to Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s oldest and most prestigious academic honor society.

Temple’s first female Goldwater Scholar Leah DeFlitch, a neuroscience: cellular & molecular major, has been named a Goldwater Scholar, the most prestigious undergraduate scholarship in STEM fields. She will receive $7,500 for tuition, housing and fees for her senior year as she continues neurobiology research that she has been conducting since her freshman year.

“Temple has been very conducive to undergraduate-led research,” says the Pittsburgh native. “In my lab, we’ve basically been trying to understand the underlying molecular and genetic mechanisms of abrupt memory deficits, like delirium. It’s been a great experience.”

DeFlitch, who has also served as a classroom assistant, has participated in CST’s Science Scholars Program and Undergraduate Research Program, the Frances Velay Fellowship in STEM and the Diamond Research Scholars Program. She also is the co-president and founder of the Temple chapter of Scientista, an organization that encourages female STEM participation.

DeFlitch says the cognitive decline associated with delirium can be a precursor to dementiarelated disorders, like Alzheimer’s. She is excited by the potential her work can have for people suffering from these common degenerative ailments—which is why, after graduating next year, she plans to pursue a PhD in neuroscience.

Alumna now Penn State Schuylkill professor Last fall, Sarah DeVaul Princiotta (BS ’10, PhD ’16, Bio) became a tenure-track assistant professor of biology at Penn State Schuylkill. The microbial ecologist focuses her research on freshwater plankton. After earning her doctorate, Princiotta served as the director of research and education at the Lacawac Sanctuary and Biological Field Station in the Pocono Mountains. She also did NSF-funded postdoctoral research at Murray State University’s Hancock Biological Field Station in Kentucky.

“My springboard for getting into research was Temple’s Undergraduate Research Program, which I did my senior year after Professor Robert Sanders’ ecology course inspired me to pursue that field of study,” says Princiotta, whose PhD advisor was Sanders.

She enjoys teaching the relatively smaller classes at Penn State Schuylkill. “I wouldn’t have been qualified for this job if I hadn’t served as a teaching assistant at Temple during my PhD program,” she says.

Master’s student reporting for newspaper Kelly Franklin (BS ’16, Bio) who expects to earn her MS this summer, has been awarded an AAAS Mass Media Science & Engineering Fellowship by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. As a result, this summer Franklin will write science stories for The Austin AmericanStatesman in Texas.

Prior to coming to Temple, in 2009 Franklin earned a BFA in illustration from the Maryland Institute College of Art and then worked several years as a freelance artist and sign painter.

Working with Assistant Professor Brent Sewell, Franklin’s conservation biology research focuses on the devastating effects of white-nose syndrome on little brown bats.

“Since I was a child, I’ve always been extremely passionate about nature and art,” says Franklin.

“After the fellowship, I hope to continue to build on the skills that I develop at the Statesman and cultivate a career where I utilize art and storytelling to bring science and nature to a broad audience.”

Sanders probes Antarctic phytoplankton for mixotrophy Robert Sanders, professor and chair of the Department of Biology, spent seven weeks this past winter off the coast of the Western Antarctica Peninsula analyzing microscopic phytoplankton, or algae, found in the Southern Ocean.

His team was most interested in a phenomenon, called mixotrophy, in which phytoplankton can fuel their energy needs both via photosynthesis, from the sun’s rays, and by ingesting smaller algae or bacteria. The ability to use particulate food could partly explain how phytoplankton are able to survive through the long darkness of the Antarctic winter.

Although mixotrophs were described first in the late 1800s, the phenomenon’s widespread prevalence was not apparent for another hundred years when several scientists, including Sanders, began focusing on mixotroph ecology and distribution. Sanders—who also has studied it in lakes and in the Atlantic and Arctic oceans—and his research team are the only scientists who have published on its impact in the Southern Ocean. Extending their previous work on the opposite side of the continent in the Ross Sea, Antarctica, his team confirmed the occurrence of mixotrophs in plankton populations off of the Western Antarctic peninsula.

“In every sample we took, we found evidence of mixotrophy,” says Sanders. “It shows how widespread it is.”

To quantify the diversity of phytoplankton species they found in the ocean water and in sea ice, Sanders’ team is currently performing DNA analyses of their samples.

The expedition team included researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and University of West Florida; Jean-David Grattepanche, Temple University assistant research professor and Christopher Carnivale, biology PhD candidate.

Amy Freestone, associate professor, was awarded CST’s 2019 Italia-Eire Foundation Distinguished Teacher of the Year. In addition, Freestone was appointed director of a new field station at Temple Ambler.

Darius Balciunas • Genetic and molecular analysis of the role of Tbx5a in heart regeneration, Research Council of Lithuania Jocelyn Behm • Investigating the Role of Invasive Plants on the Prevalence of Lyme Disease in Pennsylvania, PA Department of Agriculture Vincenzo Carnevale • Molecular Mechanism of Trpv1 Activation, NIH Antonio Giordano • Role of Rb Family Proteins in Mediating Gene Expression Through Epigenetic Mechanisms in Normal and Cancer Cells, Sbarro Health Research Organization Inc. S. Blair Hedges • CIBR: Accelerating the discovery and utility of the timescale of life, NSF Matthew Helmus • Linking Spotted Lanternfly Field Biology and Mathematical Modeling, U.S. Department of Agriculture • Dispersal, Ecology and Dynamics of the Spotted Lanternfly Invasion, PA Department of Agriculture Sudhir Kumar • Bioinformatics of Metastatic Migration Histories, NIH • GCR: Understanding Epistasis: The Key for Genotype to Phenotype Mapping, NSF Anna Moore • Unraveling the Molecular Mechanisms of Intrinsic Excitability, Brain & Behavior Research Foundation Sergei Pond • Rapid Response Research, COVID-19 (RAPID), NSF • Secure HIV-Trace, CDC Robert Sanders • Collaborative Research: Diversity and Ecological Impacts of Antarctica Mixotrophic Phytoplankton, NSF

FACULTY NOTES Eric Cordes, professor and vice chair of the department, earned the Temple University President’s Award for Discovery.

Newly Funded Grants

Rhonda Nicholson has been promoted to associate professor of instruction.

Maria Pacheco, research assistant professor, has been elected president of the Neotropical Ornithological Society for 2024-2028.

Antonio Giordano, professor, was featured in a Forbes article on COVID19 antibody tests in Italy and the USA.

Brent Sewall • Combating White-nose Syndrome in Bats, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation • At Fort Indiantown Gap National Guard Training Center: Wildlife, Forestry & Conservation Monitoring & Management; Integrated Training Area Management; Geographic Information Systems; Range & Training Land Assessments (& Seasonal Augmentation), Pennsylvania Department of Military and Veterans Affairs