The Biology Department was recently honored to welcome Dr. Lucia Barker from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) to campus for a site visit as part of Hampden-Sydney’s participation in the Science Education Alliance-Phage Hunters Advancing Genomics and Evolutionary Science (SEA-PHAGES) project.  The visit gave Dr. Barker the opportunity to observe how the SEA-PHAGES project, in which ~80 schools nationwide isolate and characterize novel bacteriophage from the environment as part of ongoing research on bactteriophage diversity, has been implemented over the past two years at Hampden-Sydney.

Dr. Barker with SEA-PHAGES students James Hughes ’14, Branch Vincent ’16, Kris Miller ’13, and Francis Polakiewicz ’14

Myshake Abdi ’16 shows Dr. Barker his semester work on phage biology as part of the SEA-PHAGES project.

While at Hampden-Sydney, Dr. Barker also met with members of the Biology Department as well as President Chris Howard and Provost Dennis Stevens about strategies for further optimizing science education and research opportunity at Hampden-Sydney and how the HHMI could assist in this goal.

President Howard with Dr. Barker from HHMI

Three Hampden-Sydney biology students, Kris Miller ’13, James Hughes ’14, and Francis Polakiewicz ’14, recently attended the annual PhagePhest, a gathering of bacteriophage research groups from across Virginia that participate in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Science Education Alliance-Phage Hunters Advancing Genomics and Evolutionary Science (SEA-PHAGES) program.  Delegations from Hampden-Sydney College, Virginia Commonwealth University, Thomas Nelson Community College, James Madison University, and the University of Mary Washington gathered in Williamsburg at the College of William and Mary for the event.

Miller, Polakiewicz, and Hughes on the William and Mary campus

Kris Miller gave the Hampden-Sydney PhagePhest presentation on his research into devising a quick and efficient method to classify newly-identified bacteriophage using polymerase chain reaction (PCR), a selective DNA amplification technique.  This project, along with work by Polakiewicz and Hughes to analyze the gene content of a bacteriophage isolated on the H-SC campus by Drew Whitt ’12 named Cheetobro, contributes to the overall SEA-PHAGES mission of bringing collaborative research experiences to undergraduates at all varieties of American colleges and universities. Hampden-Sydney is one of ~80 colleges and universities across the nation that are members of the SEA-PHAGES network.

Kris Miller presents his research

As fate would have it, PhagePhest ’13 coincided with Spring Blowout ’13 at William and Mary, providing meeting participants the opportunity between presentations to join the William and Mary community on their iconic Sunken Garden to help celebrate the end of the semester.

Scientists at play

On April 16, Dr. Goodman’s Herpetology class spent the afternoon herping on campus and had some good finds!  We found 6 species in Chalgrove Lake and 3 species on the Wilson Trail in just a couple hours.

juvenile Northern Water Snake (Nerodia sipedon)

Mat with the snake

Chris and Dr. Goodman take a “selfy” with frogs

Will holds a Pickerel Frog (Rana palustris)

Chris gives this Painted Turtle (Chrysemys picta) the thumbs up

The class poses with a Red Salamander (Pseudotriton ruber) caught on the Wilson Trail

Red Salamander (Pseudotriton ruber)

Hakeem with a Cricket Frog (Acris crepitans)

On Saturday April 20, students from Dr. Goodman’s BIOL 185 “Water Resources and Environmental Issues” and the club Circle K International volunteered for the HSC annual Big Event.  They created 50 rain barrels that will be used in an educational workshop by Clean Virginia Waterways, a local non-profit group.  A rain barrel is installed to catch water from a rooftop, which can then be used for watering lawns and other non-drinking purposes.  This saves precious drinking water from being depleted, and also prevents excessive runoff during storms (which can overload water treatment plants in cities).

The Genetics class at Hampden-Sydney recently hosted students and faculty from the College of Charleston, Barnard College, the University of Georgia, Virginia Tech, and Oberlin College for a meeting in which participants shared their research on Arabidopsis thaliana, a model plant used for genetic, ecological, and evolutionary research.  The meeting was sponsored by CUREnet, a National Science Foundation (NSF)-sponsored group that promotes the development of undergraduate classroom research experiences (http://www.curenet.franklin.uga.edu), and was a meeting of members of unPAK, or Undergraduate Phenotyping of Arabidopsis Knockouts, an NSF-sponsored undergraduate research network of which Hampden-Sydney is a charter member (http://arabidopsisunpak.org).  Students and faculty from each school presented their research to the group at large in the form of both oral presentation and a poster session.

Meeting participants share their research at the poster session

Other meeting sessions focused on technical improvements to future experiments and strategies for implementing Arabidopsis based research experiences in the classroom.  Since its inception in 2011, the unPAK program has engaged 8 Hampden-Sydney students in collaborative independent research as well as provided research experience to the 29 members of the spring 2013 genetics course.

group photo of the meeting’s participants

Students are captivated by Arabidopsis thaliana!!!

On Thursday, April 18, the Hampden-Sydney College Biology Department Seminar Series welcome Dr. Thomas Braciale, Director of the Beirne B. Carter Center for Immunology Research at the University of Virginia.  Dr. Braciale is one of the world’s leading experts in viral immunology, and the current focus of his laboratory is to understand collectively the induction of immune responses to influenza virus infection, the immune-mediated pathology that results from both innate and adaptive immunity to different strains of this virus, and the regulation of inflammation by adaptive immune cells that allows tissue recovery following virus clearance.  In his seminar, Dr. Braciale spoke in depth about the 2009 H1N1 “Swine” flu outbreak, relating this pandemic both to previous influenza pandemics throughout history and to the current highly pathogenic H7N9 avian influenza virus that has just struck China in the last two weeks.  H-SC faculty and students learned a great deal and were lucky to hear such a timely talk from one of the world’s leading experts on influenza virus!

Dr. Kristian M. Hargadon, Elliott Assistant Professor of Biology, recently delivered the keynote address at the Harker Research Symposium at The Harker School in San Jose, CA.  The Harker School, one of the most prestigious high schools in the country, hosts its annual symposium to highlight the research conducted by its students, who often collaborate with institutions such as Stanford University, Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, etc.  Two keynote addresses were given to an audience of approximately 300.  Dr. David Baltimore, recipient of the 1975 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of reverse transcriptase and the role of retroviruses in viral tumorigenesis, discussed recent advances in antiviral gene therapy.  Dr. Hargadon’s talk, entitled “From Gym Rat to Tumor Immunologist: A Scholar Athlete’s Path to Cancer Research,” focused on the role of both academics and athletics in his journey to become a tumor immunologist and biology professor at Hampden-Sydney College, and he highlighted several recent advances from work conducted by he and his students at Hampden-Sydney that have shed light on melanoma-induced immunosuppression of dendritic cells and the associated anti-tumor T cell dysfunction that results from these tumor/dendritic cell interactions.  Dr. Hargadon will also be giving this talk in late May at the Symposium to Advance Research at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, VA, another one of the top-ranked high schools in the country.

Dr. Hargadon delivering the Harker Research Symposium keynote address

Dr. Kristian Hargadon with fellow keynote speaker and Nobel laureate Dr. David Baltimore at the Harker Research Symposium.

Dr. Goodman’s Herpetology class (BIOL 385) took a 4-day trip to the annual meeting of Southeastern Partners in Amphibian & Reptile Conservation in February 2013.  We stayed in the lodge at Hickory Knob State Park in South Carolina and enjoyed a limited amount of “herping” due to cold weather during the stay (students below show our limited findings).  The meeting was full of informative talks, workshops, and posters presenting research and applications of concepts covered in class.  The HSC students, in their sophomore and junior years, engaged in lively conversation throughout the weekend with graduate students, post-docs and faculty, and also working professionals in a variety of government and non-profit roles.

Students with cold, sleepy Green Anole (Anolis carolinensis)

Cricket Frog (Acris crepitans)

Road trip!

Yonathan Ararso ’13 recently gave a poster presentation of his summer research project at The New England Science Symposium held in the Joseph B. Martin Conference Center of the Harvard Medical School. The work, titled “Disarming Cancer’s Signaling Corridor: How Deletion of Endothelial Cell Notch Ligand Jagged 1 Suppresses Tumorigenesis,” discusses the role of endothelial cell initiated Notch signaling in the context of tumorgenesis. The Howard Hughes Medical Institute funded project was undertaken during the summer of 2012 at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City and dealt with investigating how inhibition of endothelial cell Notch ligand Jagged 1 affects tumor growth and metastasis in breast cancer.
Established in 2002, The New England Science Symposium provides a forum for postdoctoral fellows; medical, dental and graduate students; post-baccalaureates; college and community college students to share their biomedical and health-related research activities through oral or poster presentations. (www.mfdp.med.harvard.edu/med_grad/ness/)

Yonathan with his poster

Dr. Goodman and students in her Ecology class (BIOL 203) took a 3-day field trip to the Eastern Virginia Birding & Wildlife Festival in October of 2012.  They stayed in a rustic bunkhouse in Kipotpeke State Park and enjoyed campfire dinner, including first ever smores for a couple students!

Highlights of the trip included a keynote lecture by David Allen Sibley, famous for his illustrated bird guides, a visit to the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center, and a workshop / field trip to learn about and identify various species of dragonflies.

 We also took a field trip to the Savage Neck Dunes Natural Area Preserve (image below at trailhead), which is one of the few intact Chesapeake Bay coastal dune ecosystems that remain in Virginia.  Rare plants and animals there include the federally listed Northeastern Beach Tiger Beetle (sign below).