Betty Jo Loving Butler ’58 Endowment for Undergraduate Research Scholarship and Farrell Summer Research Scholarship:

Pria Chang (mentor: Susan Halsell)

Birth defects can be acquired during morphogenetic processes. RhoA signal transduction plays a role in many embryonic morphogenetic processes in vertebrate and mammalian development. This summer I analyzed RhoA signal transduction, which is responsible for the actin-myosin cytoskeleton contractions that enable intracellular and intercellular shape changes in morphogenesis.  An actin-binding GFP-moesin fusion protein was expressed in  Drosophila  melanogaster  embryos to visualize the actin cytoskeleton during the morphogenetic process of head involution in wild type and mutant embryos. The exact effect of RhoA on head involution was analyzed through the use of time-lapse confocal microscopy.

Elizabeth McConnell  Bliss  Endowment  for  Undergraduate Research  Scholarship:

Michael Ferras (mentor: Justin Brown)

Recent studies have suggested that an alteration in neurons that secrete serotonin in the brainstem could be linked to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), a common cause of death in infants between the ages of a few months to a year.  It is believed that infants that die of SIDS succumb to environmental stressors such as hyperthermia and/or low oxygen (hypoxic) stress. To determine the role of brainstem serotonin in the thermoregulatory response to stress I followed an ongoing project this summer that involved microinjection of drugs that alter normal neurotransmission into brainstem areas that are rich in serotonin while measuring thermoregulatory responses to hypoxic stress. The eventual goal of this project is to help determine which brainstem areas and neurotransmitters are responsible for protective responses to hypoxic stress and thereby help determine the etiology of SIDS.

Trelawney endowment funds:

Carolyn Fridley (mentor: Corey Cleland)

This summer, I continued my work studying the nociceptive withdraw response in intact, unanesthetized rats.  Although there has been considerable research on the withdraw response in spinalized and anesthetized rats, there has been little research on the response of intact, unanesthetized rats. Previous results from the work of Melissa Seamon and Lindsey Wyatt in our lab revealed significant variability that may have masked relationships between stimulus location and response direction. The specific aim of my research is to identify variables, such as initial paw location, that may influence withdrawal response direction. This summer was spent developing a new experimental design to better control and measure relevant variables.  I hope to discover a better understanding of variables that influence the withdraw response which will allow me to develop a strategy underlying the nociceptive withdraw response in intact, unanesthetized rats.

Jeffrey E. Tickle '90 Family Endowment Scholarship:

Antony Maldonado (mentor: Tim Bloss)

I studied the unfolded protein response of C. elegans in the absence of the nascent polypeptide-associated complex (NAC). The NAC is a chaperone protein complex necessary for the proper folding and localization of proteins during translation. I specifically investigated the effects of NAC-depletion on the expression of heat-shock proteins Hsp-60 and Hsp-4. Using Hsp-gfp fusion proteins, I measured the upregulation of these heat shock proteins after depleting NAC by RNA interference. The work was a continuation of a project described in this paper we recently published.

Taliaferro Scholarship and Jean D. Acton Scholarship:

Kristie Prtorich - (Mentor: Joanna Mott)

My research uses microbial source tracking techniques to study the effects of campus stormwater drainage on the local watershed through the study of bacterial indicators of fecal contamination.  Enterococcus and Escherichia coli levels  are determined on a monthly basis from Newman Lake, the point where drainage water exits JMU's campus.  Isolates of the Enterococcus genus collected from the lake water and from geese feces (hypothesized to be a major contributor to contamination levels) are being speciated and subjected to a panel of antibiotics to compare characteristics of the bacteria.  Eventually, molecular techniques will be used to look for markers linking Enterococcus isolates collected from Newman Lake to their source.

Summer Research Scholarship (Anonymous Donor):

Ben Stanley (Mentor: Christine May)

This scholarship provided summer funding for both student and mentor.

Explaining Localized Variation In Cerion Shell Morphology on San Salvador -  The goal of my study is to investigate possible mechanisms behind the maintenance of morphologically distinct yet reproductively compatible populations of Cerion in localized areas on San Salvador Island, The Bahamas. This remarkably diverse genus of pulmonate land snails has attracted over 50 years of scientific investigation, but a definitive mechanism for localized variation in shell morphology is yet to be determined. When morphometric and dispersal data is analyzed in the light of varying population densities within the study site on San Salvador, behavioral preferences and morphologic trends may arise that can help to shed light on the puzzling spatial distribution of this genus.