T H E BI OL O GU E News2014-2015 A NOTE FROM THE NEW CHAIR... Dear alumni and friends, I am happy to announce that after a short hiatus the Biologue is back! A lot has happened since we published the last issue of the Biologue and I hope that you will enjoy catching up on the news of the department in the pages of this issue. Thanks to Dr. Floria Uy for volunteering to edit this important newsletter that allows us to annually share our activities and achievements with you. As I complete the first year of my tenure as the Chair of Biology, it is a good time to reflect back on the events of the past year, as well as on all of the exciting changes that have taken place in the department over the past few years. I was recruited to the University of Miami by the previous Chair Dr. Kathryn Tosney, and I arrived at UM in fall 2007. When Kathryn came aboard in the previous year, she initiated programs to expand the research directions of the department into cellular and molecular areas of modern biology research. As part of this initiative, Kathryn recruited a number of faculty working on more lab-based areas of research such as development and neuroscience. Many of these faculty were highlighted in the last issue of the Biologue. I now have the privilege of building on Kathryn?s significant achievements and continuing to work towards the collective goal of building a truly collaborative and integrative Department of Biology. In addition to the hires in cellular and molecular areas indicated above, we have also recently recruited two established faculty who combine fieldwork in the tropics with modern molecular tools to investigate age-old questions in ecology and evolution. These two faculty lines were made possible by generous endowments established by our alumni, and the faculty that we hired have allowed the department to maintain 1
its renown in tropical biology research. In 2011 we welcomed Dr. Al Uy as the inaugural Aresty Chair in Tropical Ecology. This chair was established by a generous endowment from Pat and Jeff Aresty who were both undergraduates at UM in the mid 1970?s. Al is an evolutionary biologist who uses a variety of experimental tools to understand how biological diversity arises in the tropics. His work in the Solomon Islands was recently featured in a beautiful documentary entitled ?Islands of Creation? that is being aired on the Smithsonian Channel. More details about this documentary follow in the pages of this newsletter. Al, along with Dr. Floria Uy, teach a unique summer field course for UM undergraduates in the Solomon Islands. In spring 2014 Dr. Kevin McCracken joined the department as the inaugural James A. Kushlan Chair in Waterbird Biology and Conservation. Kevin is an evolutionary biologist who combines fieldwork with molecular tools to study the genetics of adaptation, primarily using tropical waterbirds found in the high altitude regions of the Andes. This chair was made possible by a generous donation from Dr. Jim Kushlan, who has had a distinguished academic career studying the biology of waterbirds, and has a strong commitment Biology News 2015 / www.as.miami.edu/ biology/
A NOTE FROM THE NEW CHAIR to their conservation. We are deeply grateful to Pat and Jeff Aresty, Jim Kushlan, and all the alumni and friends whose generous support has allowed us to continue the tradition of excellence in tropical biology research in the department. This past year we welcomed two outstanding new assistant professors to the department. Dr. David Van Dyken received his Ph.D. from Indiana University, followed by postdoctoral training at the FAS Center for Systems Biology at Harvard University before he joined us in fall 2014. David uses the baker?s yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae to carry out high-throughput laboratory experiments in experimental ecology and evolution. David?s research group and their robot overlords are temporarily housed in the Cox Neuroscience Annex while his permanent lab in the Cox Science building is being renovated. Dr. Kevin Collins received his Ph.D. from Dartmouth College, and he joined us in fall 2014 from Yale University where he was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry. Kevin is a neuroscientist and he uses the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans as a model system to study how neural circuits develop. Kevin?s lab is in the Cox Neuroscience Annex. You can read more about the exciting research done by our new assistant professors in this newsletter. The past few years have seen some of our faculty step down after many years of distinguished service to the department and the university. Last year Dr. David Wilson retired, and Drs. Steve Green and Keith Waddington will retire at the end the AY 2014-15 academic year. All three of these faculty had long and impressive careers at the university and between them contributed over 100 years of service! We wish them well in their retirement and we will miss their collegiality, insights, humor and wisdom around the department. On a more somber note, recently we were greatly saddened by the passing of Professor Emeritus Tom Herbert and Senior Lecturer Bruce Grayson, both of whom served the department with distinction for many years. Tom and Bruce were both kind men who cared deeply about their students, and they will be fondly remembered by all those who knew them.
Faculty hiring in Biology has been accompanied by significant improvements to the research infrastructure in the Cox Science Center. Thanks to support from the Provost and the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, newly hired faculty are occupying labs that have been custom renovated to suit their individual research needs. To facilitate access to research instrumentation and resources central to modern laboratory science, the department has established several core facilities including a molecular core, an imaging core, and a state-of-the-art zebrafish facility. The construction of the Neuroscience Annex has allowed Biology to expand into brand new research labs in the new building. This year we received word that the administration is moving ahead with plans to build a new integrative science building on campus. This new building will feature open laboratory spaces where faculty and students from different science departments can work side by side on collaborative and integrative research projects. The integrative science building will also house new classrooms and teaching labs that will accommodate the instructional needs of creative teaching laboratories such as the integrated Biology and Chemistry Labs that were designed as part of the new Howard Hughes Medical Institute grant awarded to UM. This grant was developed by Professors Mike Gaines of Biology and Mark Knecht from Chemistry, and its receipt allows us to continue to provide innovative learning experiences for our undergraduates. The past few years have been an exciting time to be in Biology! The changes that have been implemented now provide a solid foundation for us to build on in the future. In the coming year, we anticipate more positive changes with projected new faculty hires, new batches of talented graduate students and undergraduates entering this fall, and continued improvements to our infrastructure. I look forward to reporting on all the ?new? news in the next issue of the Biologue! With warmest regards,
Athula Wikramanayake, Ph.D. Professor and Chair
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Biology News 2015 / www.as.miami.edu/ biology/
DEPARTMENTAL NEWS Michael Gaines, Professor and Assistant Provost of Undergraduate Research and Community Outreach, and Marc Knecht, Associate Professor of Chemistry, receive a Howard Hughes Medical Institute grant to improve undergraduate science education at Miami Dade College and the University of Miami
showing them the interdisciplinary nature of science and research . The new integrated labs will be piloted at UM during the spring 2015 semester and then exported, via UM graduate student instructors, to MDC in fall 2015. This is a major focus of the new grant enabling talented students traditionally underrepresented in the sciences to become engaged in scientific research as part of their education. Through participation in this course at MDC, the hope is that these students will continue on to complete four-year university STEM degrees. This partnership between MDC and UM provides undergraduates a pathway to careers in science and a mechanism for reaching many more students than UM?s HHMI program has in the past.
Assistant Professor Julia Dallman receives a National Institute of Health grant to study Autism Spectrum Disorders The University of Miami (UM) is one of only 37 research universities to be awarded a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) grant to improve how science is taught and develop ways to retain more undergraduate students in STEM majors. UM?s five-year $1.5 million grant will focus on the development of course-based research experiences, building upon the HHMI introductory biology laboratory course developed with previous HHMI funding. Undergraduates who participate in this first year laboratory course are twice as likely to do independent research and have a 15% higher persistence rate in STEM majors than students who take the traditional biology laboratory course. This new award will bring UM to 25 years of continuous support from HHMI. The funding has helped to build strong partnerships with Miami Dade College (MDC) and Miami-Dade County public schools. The current award will fund the development of an integrated biology and chemistry authentic research laboratory course in which first year UM and MDC students conduct authentic research projects under the guidance of research faculty and graduate students.This new lab will expose students to research in biology and chemistry early on in their undergraduate career 3
Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) are currently estimated to impact 1-2.6% of children world-wide, representing a steep rise in ASD prevalence with annual costs to the United States alone calculated at $126 billion (2012). Because known therapies are less effective with increasing age of diagnosis, addressing outstanding questions about ASD etiology is a research priority. In the more common mammalian models however, embryonic stages are inaccessible therefore embryogenesis presents a major gap in our understanding of ASD etiology. To address this gap, we propose to generate zebrafish ASD models to focus explicitly on functional consequences in embryos of mutations known to cause ASD. Biology News 2015 / www.as.miami.edu/ biology/
DEPARTMENTAL NEWS Professor Kathryn Tosney receives the Victor Hamburger Outstanding Educator Prize from the Society of Developmental Biology
field of developmental biology. It provides an international forum for research, education and career development in developmental biology. Tosney said, ?I am truly gratified that the principles of educational excellence and community support are rewarded by my society, and are valued by the University of Miami.?
Lecturer Daniel Wang is chosen to participate in a NSF-funded program to develop teaching materials for flipped learning strategy
Named for noted embryologist Dr. Viktor Hamburger, the prize celebrates excellence in teaching at all levels, professional training, program administration, integrating developmental biology into other fields, and disseminating reliable information both within and beyond academia. Tosney has expertise in all of these areas. ?I so value the honor of receiving the Victor Hamburger Outstanding Educator prize from the Society of Developmental Biology because it construes educational excellence in the broadest sense, that happily coincides with my passion for teaching both science and professional skills,? Tosney said. ?In this award, educational excellence is not simply lecturing well, or even developing teaching tools like my ?origami embryo? or my crossword puzzle text ?Across Development.? College of Arts & Sciences Dean Leonidas G. Bachas said, ?We are proud of Professor Tosney, and grateful for her significant contributions to our College and our students. This award is a great recognition of a career-long commitment to excellence in education.? Biology Department Chair Athula Wikramanyake added, ?The Viktor Hamburger Outstanding Educator Prize to Dr. Kathryn Tosney is a timely and well-deserved recognition of the significant contributions she has made to developmental biology education at many levels.? The Society for Developmental Biology is a non-profit professional society dedicated to advancement of the 4
Dr. Daniel Wang was chosen to participate in a program to develop materials for teaching General Biology using the flipped learning strategy. The flipped learning approach requires that students watch videos or perform readings before class in order to acquaint them with fundamental principles. Once students come to class, they apply these principles as they work through practice problems, exercises, games, or case studies to reinforce their learning. The program is funded by the National Science Foundation?s Division of Undergraduate Education and is dedicated to the study of teaching within the college setting. The program focuses on developing and using videos specifically as the means of preparing students, as well an opportunity to develop new case studies. Daniel?s study, called ?The Holy Grail of Life? falls within the scope of Chemistry of Life, and will seek to identify the root of the tree of life and the chemical compounds life requires. Once completed, the developed material will be available at the National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science (NCCSTS) website. Biology News 2015 / www.as.miami.edu/ biology/
DEPARTMENTAL NEWS Professor Carol Horvitz and collaborators find that excess deer facilitate population explosion of exotic plants, while suppressing populations of native plants
UM alumnus, Keun Lee, and Assistant Professor Isaac Skromne identify the signaling factor Retinoic Acid as a key player in the organization and alignment of hindbrain and spinal cord tissues
The forest understory at the long term study site is invaded with Alliaria petiolata (garlic mustard) and experiences high deer browse levels. (photo by Susan Kalisz). Too much garlic mustard growing in the forests of Pennsylvania? Actually, the problem may be too many deer. A new study published online in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences concludes that an overpopulation of deer is the primary reason garlic mustard is crowding out native plants, such as trillium, which are preferred food for wild deer. This study introduces a novel form of analysis to summarize experimental effects on population changes over time and space. "Our findings show that there is a link between disruption of the native animal community and invasion by non-native plant species," says Carol Horvitz, professor of biology and co-author of the study. "Similar links maybe found in other ecosystems between disrupted fauna and declining diversity of flora." Deer density in the U.S. is about 4 to 10 times what it was prior to European settlement of North America. "Our findings imply that management of overabundant grazing animals would be beneficial for conservation of plant biodiversity," says Horvitz, who is also a founding member of UM's Institute of Theoretical and Mathematical Ecology. 5
Systematic reduction of Retinoic Acid in zebrafish results in anterior expansion of posterior tissues (spinal and column, green and blue bars), and misalignment on neural and skeletal precursor territories. Adult organs are complex, their physiological function requiring precise organization of its diverse cell constituents. Take for example the neck?s craniovertebral junction, were the configuration of ossified structures allow retention of the brain in the skull, provide safe passage to axons into the spinal column, while providing mobility and support. In this paper published in the journal Development, they identify the signaling factor Retinoic Acid as a key player in the organization and alignment of hindbrain and spinal cord tissues to precursors of the occipital bone and vertebrae. This new organization activity of Retinoic Acid is independent of its previously reported activities on cell specification and tissue patterning. This work provides evidence for Retinoic Acid as a global coordinator of neural and skeletal tissue development at the head-trunk transition. Biology News 2015 / www.as.miami.edu/ biology/
FACULTY HIGHLIGHTS: BIOLOGY WELCOMES NEW PROFESSORS Kevin McCracken, Ph.D. Kushlan Chair in Waterbird Biology and Conservation
McCracken?s research interests lie at the intersection of population biology, genomics, and physiological genetics. He also has performed many other studies focusing on waterbirds as intercontinental carriers for pathogens, such as influenza, and on the systematics of waterbirds, including ducks and herons. ?I was drawn to the University of Miami by its reputation, proximity to my study sites in Latin America and history of tropical biology research in places like the Everglades, which abound with all kinds of different waterbird species,? McCracken said. ?After fourteen years in the subarctic, my family and I are really looking forward to the adventure and geographical, cultural, and biological contrast of living in the subtropics in one of the world?s most dynamic and greatest cities.?
Evolutionary geneticist Kevin G. McCracken has been named the inaugural James A. Kushlan Chair in Waterbird Biology and Conservation at the University of Miami. McCracken, formerly a professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, will serve a dual appointment as associate professor in the Department of Biology at the College of Arts and Sciences and in the Division of Marine Biology and Fisheries at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. He was selected via a months-long international search, and joined the UM faculty in January 2014. McCracken has published more than 75 journal articles and has received National Science Foundation grants and Fulbright scholarships to study molecular mechanisms of hypoxia resistance in high-altitude waterbirds in the South American Andes. The cause of ?altitude sickness? in humans, hypoxia occurs when the body or a part of the body is deprived of oxygen. ?The James A. Kushlan Chair position provides a great opportunity for the Rosenstiel School to develop research and education programs in waterbird biology, an expertise the school lacked and is yet a very important aspect of the marine ecosystem,? said Roni Avissar, dean of the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. ?We are excited that Dr. McCracken is joining our faculty.? 6
The James A. Kushlan Chair in Waterbird Biology and Conservation was established in 2012 through a generous endowment from three-time University of Miami alumnus Dr. James A. Kushlan, during the University?s Momentum2 campaign. A writer, scientist, educator, and conservationist, Kushlan is recognized for his expertise in the biology and conservation of waterbirds and wetlands and in the strategic management of not-for-profit conservation and educational organizations. He serves as co-chair for the College of Arts and Sciences?Momentum2 campaign and as member of the college?s visiting committee. He also serves on the boards of the Everglades Foundation, Zoo Miami Zoological Society of Florida, History Miami, and Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden.
? Dr. M cCracken?s appointment as the first James A. Kushlan Chair in Waterbird Biology and Conservation marks a significant advancement in U M ?s long-time leadership in ornithology and science in the tropics,? said Leonidas G. Bachas, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. ?H is exemplary work on waterbirds complements our efforts in interdisciplinary science research ? Biology News 2015 / www.as.miami.edu/ biology/
FACULTY HIGHLIGHTS: BIOLOGY WELCOMES NEW PROFESSORS J. David Van Dyken, Ph.D.
Kevin Collins, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Assistant Professor
In my lab we are interested in uncovering the forces that shape the evolution of organismal complexity. Complexity is built by interactions among system components: molecules interact within cells to form networks, molecular networks interact to build cells, cells interact to build organisms, organisms interact to build societies, and populations of organisms interact to form ecological communities and ecosystems. Disruption of productive interactions can lead to disease, social strife, species extinction and ecosystem collapse. We therefore would like to be able to predict when complex systems will function productively and when they will not. These predictions require an understanding of the physical, biomolecular, ecological and evolutionary origins of complexity. Remarkably, despite the seemingly disparate nature of phenomena at different levels of biological organization, a common set of fundamental, general principles explains the evolution of complex systems at all size scales. This means that the same principles underlying, say, the evolution of molecular networks controlling cell growth and lifespan also govern the evolution of ecosystems. We seek to elucidate these general principles using a combination of mathematical theory, computer simulations, genomics and laboratory experiments in the model unicellular eukaryote, Saccharomyces cerevisiae (i.e., "Brewer's yeast"). Our aim is to formulate precise quantitative models that give us the predictive power to apply our discoveries to a range of problems in the real world, including cancer, aging, disease epidemics and species conservation.
Understanding how neural circuits in the brain process information during learning, memory, and behavior is one of the most complex and important questions in animal and human biology. Dr. Collins and his group are leveragingfantastic new tools to literally watch and control the activity of neurons in behaving animals to understand how neural circuits function at the molecular level.
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Understanding how humans become ravaged by neurological and behavior disorders including Alzheimer?s disease, autism, drug addiction, and psychiatric illness is becoming one of the most pressing biomedical concerns of an aging population. Dr. Collins believes that these studies will reveal how specific genes and their encoded proteins promote the proper development and function of neural circuits in people. The Collins Lab studies the reproductive behavior of Caenorhabditis elegans, a nematode worm and darling of geneticists. These simple worms have only 302 neurons and yet execute many of the same behaviors of more ?complex? animals. They can choose to develop into a hardy ?dauer? form that is resistant to starvation. Or a mother can choose to sacrifice herself to ensure the survival of her children. Worms can even become depressed and addicted to drugs?highlighting the ancient biochemical pathways these drugs target to modify animal behavior. In work funded by a grant from the National Institutes, of Health Dr. Collins and the researchers in his lab are Biology News 2015 / www.as.miami.edu/ biology/
FACULTY HIGHLIGHTS investigating how the worm decides when, where, and how many eggs to lay. They are using new fluorescent reporters of cell activity to watch the neurons and muscles fire during egg-laying behavior. Worms, like humans, prefer to have children when the environment is best for their offspring. Dr. Collins has found that during the inactive phase, the neurons and muscles that drive egg laying are quiet--they have very low activity. However, when the animals enter the active phase, the entire circuit lights up with rhythmic activity that leads to muscle contraction and egg release. The neurons in this behavior circuit signal use serotonin, a neurotransmitter that also regulates human mood and reproduction. Acute activation of serotonin signaling dramatically induces worm egg laying and changes in movement. The Collins lab will define how distinct serotonin receptors signal though downstream molecules to drive each of these behaviors. The human brain also expresses several distinct serotonin receptors, and defining how each of them regulates a specific aspect of brain function would help us to understand major depression and other human behavior disorders.
Richard O. Prum, Ph.D. William Robertson Coe Professor of Ornithology at Yale University Distinguished Visiting Professor of 2016
Prum, the William Robertson Coe Professor of Ornithology at Yale University and Head Curator of Vertebrate Zoology at the Peabody Museum of Natural History, from February 16-27. Dr. Prum is a renowned evolutionary ornithologist whose research has resulted in many important advances in the fields of sexual selection, phylogenetics, and feather evolution and development, leading to him being awarded an extremely prestigious MacArthur Fellowship ?genius grant? in 2009. Over the course of his two-week visit, Dr. Prum gave a series of seven talks focusing on his recent theoretical work on the evolution of aesthetic beauty. He began by emphasizing the need to incorporate an entirely-aesthetic non-adaptive null model into studies of sexual selection, and explained how an aesthetic sense of ?beauty? can explain a wide variety of natural phenomenon, including not only the wide variety of colorful plumages found in birds, but also the origins of lekking behavior and the evolution of female sexual autonomy. He then expanded the aesthetic null model to human evolution, hypothesizing that many of the key difference between humans and other primates evolved purely because they were aestheticallypleasing to the opposite sex and not for the adaptive reasons commonly assumed by evolutionary psychologists. Finally he concluded his lecture series by applying the dynamics of the aesthetic evolutionary model to the arts and humanities to understand what ?art? is and how and why artistic ideas and styles evolve. In addition to his lectures, Dr. Prum also spent considerable time interacting with current graduate students to talk about their research as well as more general scientific topics. Natalia GutiĂŠrrez-Pinto of the McCracken lab organized a birdwatching outing to the Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden, and he accompanied undergraduate students in Dr. Kevin McCracken?s Marine Field Ecology course on a field trip to the Gulf Coast. Finally, Dr. Prum?s visit concluded with a department-wide reception hosted in the lobby of the Cox Science Building.
The Biology Department was honored to host its 2015 distinguished visiting professor (DVP), Dr. Richard O. 8
The 2016 Distinguished Visiting Professor will be Dr. Peter Chesson of the University of Arizona. Biology News 2015 / www.as.miami.edu/ biology/
IN MEMORIAM Bruce Grayson, Senior Lecturer
Davidson Owners Group. On weekends, he could be found on stage singing his favorite songs to Karaoke or with a local band. To quote a friend, "His cowboy voice and those twinkling eyes always seemed to let you know that he was enjoying a secret joke. Bruce was a loyal CANES fan to the end. He and his family, with friends, attended nearly every football game until the demolition of the Orange Bowl. Bruce is survived by Tamar, a UM graduate and his wife of 46 years, and his son Daniel. To know someone as a true friend is the greatest complement one can pay to another, Bruce was a true friend to so many at UM and in the community and he will be missed by them all.
By Dan Grayson and Bruce's f riends at UM Bruce Evan Grayson, retired lecturer from the University of Miami, passed away after a long illness on April 10, 2014. Bruce, born in Miami, graduated from Coral Gables High School in 1965 and from the University of Miami in 1970. Bruce completed his Master?s in Education at the University of Central Florida in 1972, while teaching at Jones and Evans High Schools in Orlando. Returning to the UM in 1974, Bruce's professional career was spent doing what he loved most- teaching. Bruce was known as an excellent, rigorous teacher. He held high standards in the classroom and students respected him for his knowledge and boundless enthusiasm. A former director of the Health Science program for 16 years and director of the undergraduate biology program for eight years, Bruce retired in 2014. He was a well-loved and dedicated lecturer of Human Anatomy and Physiology in the Biology Department for 40 years. He had a talent for administration and a zest forteaching. Bruce lived life to the fullest, thrived on traveling, learning new things, and was an avid reader. As a teenager and through his thirties, he enjoyed scuba diving, underwater photography and woodworking. Bruce was a member of numerous groups and organizations including the NRA, Palmetto Muzzle Loaders, SASS Cowboy shooting, and the Harley
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Tom Herbert, Professor
By Kat hryn Tosney Our esteemed colleague, Emeritus Professor Tom Herbert, was the most joyous person I have known. I retain an indelible image of him, walking toward me with his quirky smile and bouncy walk, eager to share his latest insight, his newest discovery, his boundless enthusiasm. Tom lived a life that he filled with joy. Tom died on November 21, 2013, in an auto accident near Irkutsk, Siberia. He spent his last days as he spent Biology News 2015 / www.as.miami.edu/ biology/
IN MEMORIAM his life, doing what he loved, adventuring out in the world where he was at peace, happy, and full of wonder. Tom grew up with a love of the outdoors and a passion for science and all things technical. He received his B.S. in Biophysics from MIT in 1970 and his Ph.D in Biophysics from Johns Hopkins. After post-doctoral work at Brown and Cornell he was a Biology Department faculty from 1974 -2012, where he created mathematical models of light interception and photosynthesis by plant canopies. He was a visiting scientist at Osaka University in 1983, and at the Estonian Academy of Sciences in the former Soviet Union in 1987-1988. Tom?s scientific loves were plants, lasers, and computers but he felt that as a university professor one of his most important responsibilities was the students whom he truly loved to teach. Tom?s insatiable curiosity about the natural world and other cultures led him to twice circumnavigate the globe by air and land and to travel throughout six continents. On his journeys he was an artful photographer of the earth and its people and he often traveled independently using itineraries devised of his own energetic planning, to fully immerse himself in his adventures. He sought rare paths through the most unique landscapes and cultures. At times, his family joined his adventures through Europe, Africa, and and Asia to reach destinations diverse as the rivers of France, the plains of Zambia and the Karakoram Highway in Pakistan. With great skill, Tom turned his broad curiosity in natural phenomena into meaningful quantification and analysis. He took a natural phenomenon that few would notice, the angle of leaves on trees, and asked ?Does it matter?? In a mathematic model, he showed that leaf angles greatly affect photosynthesis in entire plant canopies, modeled how leaves move with the sun to maximize photosynthesis, and showed that plant leaves are more steeply inclined at higher altitudes in a dependence that is important to photosynthesis. Because leaf angle has been shown to have a genetic basis, his work suggests that ?in a time of rapid global
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warming, plants may not be able to change structure rapidly enough to adapt to solar tracts at higher latitudes.? The scope of Tom?s skills and thought was exceptionally wide-ranging. A Remembrance, held in a Cox science room in which he had often lectured, gathered a standing-room-only group of friends from across the country, with others sending messages to be read. Some excerpts: George Rosenwasser, MD, a 1979 undergraduate with Tom: ?Tom was as unique an individual as you're likely to meet these days... Generous with his knowledge, friendship and encouragement in science and life exploration. Mentor, camper and friend. A brilliant scientist with a great knack for biophysics from the movement of actin and myosin in muscles to the movement and orientation of leaves in the canopy of tropical trees. A talented photographer who collected, loved and used his vintage cameras. A hiker/ trekker/ world traveler who enjoyed his passions to the last moments of his life.? Tara Grover, former graduate student: ?Tom was my first mentor in graduate school and for that I will forever be grateful. His enthusiasm and curiosity about plants and modeling could only be equaled by his love of travel.? Bruce Grayson, colleague, also sadly lost to us this year: ?Tom had many passions. He loved his family, wife Lynn and kids Peter and Janet, he loved photography and technology, and especially he loved to travel and hike in exotic places. I think he was the most well traveled person I knew. Every break in classes he was off somewhere. Good thing he had a very understanding wife. I don?t know exactly how many countries he visited but it seems he has been to almost every corner of the world. I remember he went to Bolivia once for a couple of days simply because he found a discount airline ticket and he had never been there.? Tom is survived by his beloved wife Lynn, daughter Janet, son Peter, grandchildren Bet, Kenan, Justin, and William, and brother Captain William (Bill) Herbert of Ventura CA. He is greatly missed by his family, colleagues and friends, with whom he leaves a legacy of adventure and a love for science and nature.
Biology News 2015 / www.as.miami.edu/ biology/
GRADUATE STUDENT HIGHLIGHTS Simeon Yurek DeAngelis Lab
empirical surveys and statistics to try to understand how sea level rise will affect the community of fish along the eastern shore of Biscayne Bay. Thus Simeon is working on two projects and covering both sides of two coins: both empirical work and modeling, and both freshwater and marine fish. But in each case, the emphasis is on taking into account the temporal variability and spatial complexity of the environment, because, as Simeon says, ?that is the way nature really is.?. That, plus endless curiosity, is a good attitude for a scientist.
Simeon Yurek came to the Biology Department already having abundant experience in field research. As a staff member of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Maryland Fisheries Research Office in Annapolis, Maryland. He also worked at coastal Delaware wildlife refuges, which involved the monitoring of resident salt marsh fauna of wading birds, shore birds, and passerines, as well as vegetation mapping. Simeon?s plan in coming to the University of Miami was to obtain a Ph.D. studying the South Florida marine coastal fish community. However, in working with Don DeAngelis, he quickly found out that he also had skills in modeling, and he became the co-developer of a computer simulation model, GEFish, for freshwater fish in the Everglades marsh. GEFish simulates an assemblage of small (< 6 cm) freshwater fish species, along with the food web that supports them. The modeling is important for understanding and predicting the dynamics of the small fish community, which provides the energy link between lower trophic level production and the top consumers, such as wading birds. Simeon published a paper on GEFish and is now applying it to questions of interest to Everglades restoration. Simeon?s expertise in computer coding (he started learning coding as a child) and his perseverance in making a large computer model work, will allow those questions to be studied. Despite his intense work on GEFish, Simeon has been able to combine this with an empirical study of the coastal fish community in Biscayne Bay. In fact, he has recently coauthored a paper on an important Biscayne Bay species and is combining 11
Lingyu Wang Wikramanayake Lab
Lingyu Wang was selected to participate in the Visiting Scientist Program at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. This program hosts researchers from labs outside of Boston for four weeks at the Broad Institute for training in lab or computational technology of interest alongside two scientists from the Broad Institute. Lingyu was trained by Dr. Brian Haas and Dr. Timothy Tickle from the Regev Lab on de novo RNA-seq assembly with data from Lingyu?s dissertation research. The data set was generated from sea urchin embryos. One discovery from this data set was that a huge batch effect existed between different individual wild-caught sea urchins, and this effect is not commonly found in experiments using cell cultures or inbred mouse lines. This unique data set was very helpful to understand and to determine how to deal with batch effects. And the methods used will have broader applicability as more labs examine non-mainstream model systems. Biology News 2015 / www.as.miami.edu/ biology/
GRADUATE STUDENT AWARD WINNERS 2015 OUTSTANDING TEACHING ASSISTANT ECOLOGY LAB TEACHING ASSISTANTS: Andrea West erband and Luis Vargas
BEST GRADUATE STUDENT PUBLICATION (publ ished in cal endar year 2014) Rebecca Duncan f rom t he Wil son Lab for her paper entitled "Dynamic recruitment of amino acid transporters to the insect-symbiont interface" appearing in a special issue of Molecular Ecology. She coauthors with paper with F. Husnik F, JT Van Leuven , DG Gilbert, LM Davalos , JP McCutcheon and her doct oral advisor, ACC Wil son.
RESEARCH AWARDS Wil l iam H. Evoy Graduat e Research Fund f or earl y st age research in any area. Wint er Beckl es, Sarah Cowl es, Al l ie Graham, José R. Hidal go
Jay M. Savage Graduat e Research Fund f or pil ot st udies in t ropical biol ogy. Wint er Beckl es, Nat al ia Borrego, Karl a Rivera Caceres, Cat al ina Vásquez
Kushl an Graduat e Research Research Fund f or st udies in organismal biol ogy WInt er Beckl es, Sarah Cowl es, Al l ie Graham, José R. Hidal go, Jason Sardel l , Luis Vargas
J. Gerry Curt is Pl ant Sciences Schol arships f or research in t he f iel d, greenhouse, or l aborat ory Wyat t Sharber, Joanna Weremijewicz, Andrea West erband
McLamore Yearl y Graduat e Fel l owship f or research in Tropical Biol ogy Karl a Rivera-Cáceres, Simeon Yurek
Graduat e st udent Karl a Rivera-Caceres receives a Doct oral Dissert at ion Improvement Grant f rom t he Nat ional Science Foundat ion (NSF) Karla?s research will help understand why interactions in which individuals exchange vocal signals are an important aspect of communication in many species. Human conversation provides one familiar example; other examples drawn from songbirds are countersinging between territorial males and duetting between mated males and females. The development of vocal signals such as human speech and the song of songbirds have been amply studied, but, we know significantly less about the development of the rules that mediate vocal interactions in these groups. Because of the interactive nature of duets, duetting species provide an ideal model system to study the development of vocal interaction rules. This research study will provide the first thorough study of the ontogeny of interaction rules of duets. A hand rearing experiment with plain wrens (Cantorchilus modestus zeledoni) will address four main questions. 1) Do plain wrens need experience of duet singing during their early development to be able to duet with temporal precision? 2) Do plain wrens have an innate predisposition to learn their own sex-specific songs? 3) Are duet codes acquired during the early stages of life? 4) Can duet codes be altered after individuals have reached adulthood? 12
Biology News 2015 / www.as.miami.edu/ biology/
UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT HIGHLIGHTS Eric Keene, Class of 2015
virology and the sort of resources that accompany such labs. Eric was awarded the prestigious Goldwater Scholarship for 2015 in recognition of his potential. Baker has the feeling that this is just the first of many awards Eric will receive, and looks forward to following his academic career.
Sarah McGriff, Class of 2016 ?I want to study how bacteria change their behavior in response to viruses. Can I do that in this lab?? This first of many questions was my initial contact with Eric Keen, then a first semester freshman ? said Dr. James Baker, faculty in the Department of Biology. He was looking for an academic sponsor and Baker politely explained to him that modern academic science didn?t really work that way and he thanked Baker and went on his way. Eric found a faculty member in Geology, Dr. James Klaus, who agreed to let him set up shop in his lab. It was about a year later that Klaus stopped Baker in the hallway exclaiming about this kid working in his lab. A year after that Eric took Cellular and Molecular biology with Baker, he often came to office hours to have discussions at the level of graduate students or colleagues. During this time, Eric had written several commentaries that were published in scientific journals, the latest two of these published in 2015 bring his total to seven. It is unheard of for an undergraduate to publish in scientific journals so independently and so often. Meanwhile, in the lab Eric has persevered through the typical barrage of problems that plague researchers and is on his way to wrapping up a series of experiments that should be publishable. He became interested in a line of experimentation that he felt was a scientific blind spot and he began a series of experiments to address the issue. Eric is already operating like a professional scientist. He writes well, works independently and is very passionate about his science. It?s exciting to imagine what he will do when he enters graduate school and begins working with experts in 13
Sarah McGriff blew in from the windy city (Chicago) three years ago. As a Foote Fellow, Sarah has been able to pursue a unique program that includes majors in Psychology and in Health Science Business Administration, with minors in Chemistry, Business Administration and Exercise Physiology. Though she?s committed to pursuing a career in medicine Sarah has enthusiastically embraced research in the Biology department with terrific results. Working in the Baker lab Sarah has helped to explore the molecular genetic basis of respiratory development and physiology in fruit flies. She and a team of fellow undergraduates have explored the mechanism that underlies the activation of the insect respiratory system, the details of which may improve our general understanding of the functions of such epithelia in animals and humans. She has presented posters at both the national meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology and at the Research and Creativity Forum at the University of Miami, where she and her colleagues were recently awarded the third place prize for best poster. On top of her academic and scientific pursuits Sarah is Biology News 2015 / www.as.miami.edu/ biology/
UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT HIGHLIGHTS the past vice president and current president of the medical fraternity on campus. She has also served as a teaching assistant in a summer program designed to help high school students explore careers in medicine. Sarah?s academic record is sterling, as demonstrated by her frequent inclusion on the Presidents honor roll. Sarah?s motivation to study medicine is anchored by her desire to help others and her love of the medical sciences.
in biology. We are thrilled to announce her as the 2015 Outstanding Graduating Senior in Biology award. Andrea is currently an intern in the animal management of the department of Wildlife Safari in Winston, Oregon. This is a first step, as in the near future, she wants to pursue conservation work with endangered species.
Christine de Silva, Class of 2015 Andrea Knox, Class of 2015 Outstanding Graduating Senior in Biology
Andrea Knox has been an active undergraduate researcher in our department for several years working first with Carla Hurt and then, for a short stint, with Bill Browne. She was an excellent student researcher with little need for supervision. After Dr. Karla Hurt?s departure, Andrea took over management of the sequencing facility, a job that she has faithfully and competently done for the last couple of years. In this capacity Andrea helped to order supplies, aliquoted and distributed supplies to the department, ran the sequencer, conducted maintenance of the sequencer, trained new employees, kept the books, and sent in the billing information. In all of these duties she was effective and conscientious. She was also a great student with a high GPA and with the ambition to pursue graduate studies in biology. In summary, Andrea is wonderfully independent, intelligent and responsible, and she?s pursuing a career 14
Our official Biologue photographer won an award for this image in the Working Ocean category of the 2015 World Ocean Day photo contest. Christine is majoring in Biology and minoring both in Marine Science and Photography.
During the summer of 2013, she took the Solomon Islands field course. in As a result of this experience, she is currently performing research to understand population genetics of eusocial wasps across these islands. In the future she hopes to meld her two strongest passions, photography and science, together in order to educate the public. Christine says the following about her winning entry - " As I was snorkeling just off the island where we were living in the Solomon Islands, I looked up to see a girl canoeing home from a nearby island. She looked so beautiful and serene, like the water, with the soft light from the setting sun on her. The Solomon Islands hold a special place in my heart and this photo captures the essence of my life-changing experience there." Biology News 2015 / www.as.miami.edu/ biology/
BIOLOGY FACULTY AND OUTREACH Associate Professor Alexandra C.C. Wilson Documentary by the Smithsonian Channel releases short films for children to explore captures speciation research of J. Albert Uy, the Aresty Chair in Tropical Ecology the amazing science of symbiosis
UM alumnus Nate Dappen and Neil Losin of Day?s Edge Productions released a series of short films on the amazing science of symbiosis, a mutually beneficial relationship between two or more species. Funded by the National Science Foundation, these short films aim to educate children, using Associate Professor Alex Wilson's ground-breaking work on symbiosis between the pea aphid and the bacteriumBuchnera aphidicola. The films highlight the discovery by Wilson?s group that an amino acid transporter is the master regulator of amino acid biosynthesis in the symbiosis [1]. By leveraging insect nutritional symbioses, systems that commonly involve a single host in symbiosis with a single microbial partner, Wilson?s integrative work at the frontier of symbiosis research aims to identify and characterize the general principles governing intimate interactions between eukaryotic hosts and their microbial symbionts; general principles that are anticipated to extend to study of symbioses important to human health. [1] Price DRG, Feng H, Baker JD, Bavan S, Luetje CW, Wilson ACC (2014) Amino acid transporter regulates glutamine supply to intracellular bacterial symbionts. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 111, 320-325. For links to the videos and more details to her research, visit Dr. Wilson's website: http:/ / www.bio.miami.edu/ acwilson/ ?page_id=217 15
Islands of Creation, a documentary on the work of Al Uy, Aresty Chair in Tropical Ecology, premiered in the Smithsonian Channel on June 24, 2015 and continues to air throughout the summer. The 50-minute documentary follows Al and his group in a remote region of the Solomon Islands, where they are studying the origin of species. Given that the evolution of new species can take thousands or even millions of years to complete, this process is difficult to observe in nature. Al and his team do the next best thing by studying populations of a single species that are on the road to becoming new species. For the past 8 years, Al has been tracking changes in the appearance of birds across the Solomon Islands. His study species, the Monarch Flycatcher, has populations that look different on every island ? some islands have completely black birds while others have birds with chestnut bellies and white caps. So far, Al and his group have found that these differences in color actually matters to the birds, as they use it to recognize members of their own species. In addition, Al found that a simple genetic mutation can create the color differences across islands. As such, Al is finding that simple genetic changes can set a population on the road to becoming new species. However, this important biological process of generating new species is threatened by clear-cut logging throughout the Solomons. Al?s role has changed from a curious biologist to a conservation advocate. Biology News 2015 / www.as.miami.edu/ biology/
BIOLOGY FACULTY AND OUTREACH Follow Al and his group as they attempt to unlock the mysteries of how new species are born while trying to preserve one of our planet?s biodiversity hotspots. The documentary was created by UM alumnus Nate Dappen and Neil Losin of Day?s Edge Productions, and co-produced by the Smithsonian Channel.
Professor Emeritus Theodore Flemming and Dr. W. John Kress publish book on coevolution and conservation in the Tropics
For details on the documentary follow this link in the Smithsonian Channel: https:/ / www.smithsonianchannel.com/ shows/ islandsof-creation/ 0/ 3421513
Former graduate student, Andrew Mack, publishes a book on cassowaries and conservation in the New Guinea Rainforest From t he original rel ease by Chicago Universit y Press The average kilometer of tropical rainforest is teeming with life; it contains thousands of species of plants and animals. As The Ornaments of Life reveals, many of the most colorful and eye-catching rainforest inhabitants ? toucans, monkeys, leaf-nosed bats, and hummingbirds to name a few? are an important component of the infrastructure that supports life in the forest. These fruit-and-nectar eating birds and mammals pollinate the flowers and disperse the seeds of hundreds of tropical plants, and unlike temperate communities, much of this greenery relies exclusively Andrew Mack immersed himself in a vast expanse of on animals for reproduction. roadless, old growth rainforest of Papua New Guinea in Synthesizing recent research by ecologists and 1987.He and his co-investigator Debra Wright, built a evolutionary biologists, Theodore H. Fleming and W. research station by hand and lived there for years. Their mission was to study the secretive and perhaps most John Kress demonstrate the tremendous functional and dinosaur -like creature still roaming the planet: the evolutionary importance of these tropical pollinators and frugivores. They shed light on how these mutually cassowary. symbiotic relationships evolved and lay out the current The ensuing adventures of this unorthodox biologist conservation status of these essential species. In order studying seeds found in cassowary droppings (pekpek), to illustrate the striking beauty of these ?ornaments? of learning to live among the indigenous Pawai'ia, traversing the rainforest, the authors have included a series of jungles, fighting pests and loneliness, struggling against breathtaking color plates and full-color graphs and unscrupulous oil speculators, and more--are woven into a diagrams. compelling tale that spans two decades. Mack shares the insights he garnered about rainforest ecology while Theodore H. Fl eming is professor emeritus of biology studying something as seemingly mundane as cassowary at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. W. pekpek. He ultimately gained profound insight into why John Kress is curator and research botanist as well as conservation is failing in places like Papua New Guinea and director of the Consortium for Understanding and struggled to create a more viable strategy for conserving Sustaining a Biodiverse Planet at the Smithsonian some of Earth's last wild rainforests. Institution. 16
Biology News 2015 / www.as.miami.edu/ biology/
JOHN C. GIFFORD ARBORETUM NEWS Updates by Stephen D. Pearson, Director of the John C. Gifford Arboretum
Arboretum director, Stephen D. Pearson (to the right), honors Chris Rollins with a plaque for transmitting his knowledge of tropical fruits to our community. Until recently, Chris served as director of the Redland Fruit and Spice Park.
The University of Miami's Arboretum was planted in 1947 through the efforts of UM Professors Frank J. Rimoldi and Roy Woodbury. It was then named in 1949 in honor of John C. Gifford, another UM Professor who was the first graduate forester in our country. Dr. Gifford was an expert on tropical woods, and an outspoken advocate for building with local materials and in harmony with nature. The Gifford Arboretum's purpose has always been to maintain a botanically significant collection for education and research. However, today, another one of its stated purposes is to inspire interest in tropical plants and an appreciation of their importance. The Arboretum does this by not only maintaining a botanically diverse collection, but also by including trees that have interesting ethnobotanical histories, including being used for food, medicine and spiritual purposes. The Arboretum is about 3 acres in size, and it contains over 450 plant species. Following its restoration after the destruction caused by Hurricanes Wilma and Katrina, the Gifford Arboretum has made great progress in recent years with significant expansions in the breadth and value of its collections, while also increasing its profile and outreach within the community. We have also continued our tradition of great monthly meetings and the annual Gifford Lecture. Highlights have included outstanding programs by UM Professor Hal Wanless on climate change; UM graduate and ecologist Tom Lodge on the Everglades and the ties of agricultural practices to mercury poisoning. Dr. 17
Dennis Stevenson, the Vice President of Laboratory Research at New York Botanical Garden, delivered a very interesting and educational Gifford Lecture on why botanical gardens and arboreta continue to be vitally important to botanical science and conservation in today's world of molecular analysis. To increase use and enjoyment of the Arboretum, a partnership with the Frost School of Music was started to present concerts in the Arboretum from October to April of each school year. Enjoying a concert by talented students and teachers from UM's School of Music within the splendor of the Arboretum is a delightful way to end the day, and attendees have been consistently impressed with the great talent that has been heard. The Arboretum is now publishing two newsletters each year. Sadly, an included article was dedicated to Kathy Gaubatz, who died last year. Kathy truly loved the Gifford Arboretum. The Arboretum also started a "Plant of the Year" program where a tree or shrub that particularly benefits native fauna is named and distributed each year. This year's winner was Exothea paniculata (Inkwood), a tree that is beneficial to many birds and butterflies. For our last Holiday Picnic in December, 2014, we featured a tour of the over 120 edible trees in the Gifford Arboretum. Chris Rollins, the then soon-to-retire director of the Redland Fruit and Spice Park and one of the world's leading authorities on tropical fruit, co-led the tour with Steve Pearson. Chris was also honored by the Gifford Arboretum with a special plaque commemorating his many years of great service to this community by introducing new fruits and cultivars to our area, as well as by educating us about them and their uses. Finally, we have been developing a new on-line catalog paired with new Arboretum signage that will include QR Codes. This project will be finished later this year and it will greatly increase the educational value of the Arboretum while also putting us on the cutting edge of interpretive signage and dissemination of information. If you are not already receiving emails about upcoming programs and events at the Arboretum, please send Stephen D. Pearson an email at sdpearson@bio.miami.edu and ask to be added to the Friends of the Arboretum list. Biology News 2015 / www.as.miami.edu/ biology/
ALUMNI NEWS Nathan Muchhala, Ph.D in Biology 2007 Assistant Professor Department of Biology University of Missouri ? St. Louis, St. Louis, MO
Dr. Muchhala (third from the left), doing field research with graduate students and assistants in Ecuador.
maximize pollen transfer. Further fieldwork throughout the bat?s geographic range demonstrated that, although it feeds from many different species of flowers, only those that transfer their pollen on the upper surface of bat heads have evolved long tubes. Experiments I conducted with my lab last summer identified the mechanism behind this pattern: bats lift their heads higher during visits to longer flowers, improving contact with any stigmas/ anthers above their heads, thus evolutionary increases in length only improve pollen transfer for plants that use this region of bats? bodies. To further explore coevolutionary patterns, we will combine population-level sampling thoughout the bat?s range with molecular phylogenies for both plants and bats to aid in evaluating where and how recently the bat evolved, and which plant may have been its original coevolutionary partner.
In the newly-minted Muchhala Lab (est. 2013!) at the University of Missouri ? St. Louis, we study the evolutionary ecology of plant-pollinator interactions in the Neotropics. My experiences obtaining my PhD at the University of Miami had a profound impact on the shape of the lab and our research approaches. The opportunity to work with Dr. Theodore Fleming originally drew me to the program, and interactions with other distinguished ecologists and evolutionary biologists such as Carol Horvitz and William Searcy (members of my dissertation committee) greatly enhanced my education. Here I outline a few of our current research projects in my lab. We are particularly interested in exploring specialization, coevolution, and speciation in bat and hummingbird pollination systems, and we use various approaches including molecular phylogenetics, mathematical modeling, and field experiments.
Another aspect of my U of Miami Ph.D. work involved studying bat pollination of Burmeistera, a genus of bell-flowers from the family Campanulaceae. I found that 2-4 species often co-occurred in the same site, and thus potentially competed for their bat pollinators, which might lose their pollen to foreign flowers or cause their stigmas to be blocked by foreign pollen. Results showed that co-occurring species reduce these costs by evolving different lengths of the staminal column, thus placing pollen on different regions of bat?s bodies. This study provided a rare example of character displacement in plants, and also suggests a potential role for pollinator-mediated reproductive isolation (via differential pollen placement) during Burmeistera speciation. A major focus of current research in my lab involves evaluating the importance of this versus other barriers to gene flow (postzygotic isolation and gametic isolation via pollen-pistil interactions) to speciation across the genus.
During my Ph.D. work at the U of Miami, I discovered an especially extreme example of plant-pollinator specialization: a new species of nectar bat which can launch its tongue 1.5 times its body length (double that of other bats and longer than any other mammal). Unique adaptations allow it to store its tongue in its rib cage. Postdoctoral work demonstrated that this pair is involved in a coevolutionary race with the 9-cm-long flowers of Centropogon nigricans; longer tongues allow bats to reach more nectar, while longer flowers
While much of our research requires fieldwork in the Neotropics, we are also working to bring the Neotropics to St. Louis. We now have 15 species of Burmeistera growing in the UMSL greenhouse, which will aid in studying crossing barriers and floral morphology. We also have flight cages set up in the UMSL animal care facility, and plan import a small colony of nectar bats over the summer. With both plants and bats here, UMSL undergraduates will hopefully soon be able to help our tropical research program without the need for airfare!
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Biology News 2015 / www.as.miami.edu/ biology/
ALUMNI NEWS Nkosi Adejola, B.S., Class of 2008 M.D.-Ph.D. Candidate Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Pre-doctoral Human Genetics Training Program NIH Medical Scientist Training Program
Nkosi (in the UM T-Shirt), with UM undergrads Kamisha Charles, Blake Fortes and Fuyuan Xie (from left to right), at the 50th Anniversary of the Student National Medical Association Conference in Washington, D.C., in 2014
At the start of freshman year of college, I thought I had my whole career path completely planned out. I would major in biology, enroll in medical school, train in orthopedic surgery, and become a physician for a professional sports team. I was not considering anything else. I loved everything about sports and always wanted to be a doctor. So, sports medicine had to be the fit for me. Since freshman year, my na誰ve perception of medicine has grown and matured into a more humble understanding of medicine. During my first semester of college, my abstract ambition to practice medicine started to become more concrete. After some success in my first biology class, my biology professor suggested that I apply for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Undergraduate Research Training Program. Fortunately, I enrolled in this four year program during my second semester. The program?s incorporation of small freshman year research projects, research seminars covering topics from scientific integrity to the patient?s perception of hope, and an honor?s thesis project provided me with a genuine opportunity to explore science and appreciate its role in medicine. For a summer research project, I worked with a physician-scientist for the first time and 19
helped develop a less invasive clinical assay for colorectal cancer. Joining the HHMI program was truly a momentous decision because it challenged me to critically evaluate my interests in medicine throughout college. My experiences outside the realms of class and lab confirmed my fervor for medicine and being of service to people. The Reach Out and Read Program at Jackson Memorial Hospital was a grand opportunity to be a part of a healthcare team and experience the challenges and rewards of giving back to my community. In addition to volunteering, I spent time shadowing a physician at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center. I became more comfortable with talking and listening to patients as well as being more prepared to make a commitment to serving patients and the community. At the end of college in 2008, I knew I wanted to go to medical school, but was still not sure about pursuing a Ph.D. as well. So, I enrolled into the National Cancer Institute Cancer Research Training Award Post-baccalaureate Fellowship at the National Institutes of Health. I worked with another physician-scientist in the Laboratory of Pathology. This post-baccalaureate experience gave me the opportunity to work with a team of physicians and scientists working to provide care for patients while conducting research. This experience confirmed my aspirations to pursue M.D./ Ph.D. training at Johns Hopkins University in 2011. Currently, I am a Ph.D. candidate at the McKusickNathans Institute of Genetic Medicine in the laboratory of Philip A. Cole, M.D., Ph.D. For my thesis, I am characterizing new compounds that inhibit histone modifying enzymes. These new compounds can potentially be used as a new class of epigenetic therapy in oncology, neurology, and other fields of medicine.
We would love to hear what our alumni are up to! If you would like to share your news, please send us a note to: The Biol ogue, Biol ogy Depart ment Cox Science Cent er 1301 Memorial Drive Coral Gabl es, FL 33146 or email us at biol ogue@bio.miami.edu and we will gladly include your update in our annual Biologue. Biology News 2015 / www.as.miami.edu/ biology/
Please consider Supporting Biology
Photo by Assistant Professor William E. Browne, depicting ctenophore species used in his research.
Many of the experiences we are able to offer our students are possible only because of the generosity of those who have made donations made to the Department of Biology. If you would like to designate your annual gift directly to the biology department, you can donate online at the College?s website www.as.miami.edu/donate and select ?Biology? in the drop down designation. You can also mail in your check, payable to ?UM Biology?. Send to PO Box 025388 Coral Gables, Florida 33124-9965. To make your gift by phone or to learn more naming and major gift opportunities contact Jeanne Luis, Assistant Dean for Development, at 305-284-2988 or jluis@miami.edu. For more details about our program and research, please contact Dr. Athula Wikramanayake, Chair of the Biology Department, at 305-284-3973 or athula@bio.miami.edu.
Thank you to all those faculty, staff, and students who contributed to this edition of The Biologue. Biologue Editor: Floria Mora-Kepfer Uy Biologue Photographer: Christine de Silva Departmental logo: Andrea Westerband Published by the Department of Biology and the University of Miami College of Arts and Science 20
Biology News 2015 / www.as.miami.edu/ biology/