The biology department was well represented at the College’s 2016 Final Convocation ceremony, held each April to honor the achievements of members of the Hampden-Sydney community over the past year.  The Biology Department gives two awards at this event.  The first, the R.T. Hewitt Biology Award, is given to the graduating senior who has distinguished himself in his work in the classroom and the laboratory over his 4 years at the College.  This year’s recipient, Christopher Hawk ’16, has worked extensively with Professors Ed Lowry and Mike Wolyniak over the past two years on ecological and molecular biological research studying the microbiome of hops.  His work was instrumental in the development in a new research-based introductory laboratory course at Hampden-Sydney.  Chris plans to begin work next year in the field of environmental consulting.

Biology Department Chair Dr. Alex Werth presents the Hewitt Award to Christopher Hawk ’16

Next, the department presented the Overcash Award, a prize awarded to the top junior in the department who is planning a career in the health sciences.  This year’s recipient, James Lau ’17, was recently named the third Goldwater Scholar in Hampden-Sydney history and will undertake research this summer with Professor Kristian Hargadon ’01 (the College’s first Goldwater Scholar) and will begin study at Eastern Virginia Medical School in the fall of 2017 as part of the early admission articulation agreement between the two institutions.

Dr. Werth presents the Overcast Prize to James Lau ’17

Finally, Professor Kristian Hargadon received the John Peter Mettauer Award for Research Excellence in recognition of his extensive and productive research program on the study of melanoma in a mouse model.

Dr. Kristian Hargadon receives the 2016 Mettauer Award from Dean of the Faculty Mike McDermott

Faculty from the Biology Department have won the Mettauer Award 3 of the last 4 years and 4 times in the past 7 years (Dr. Alex Werth-2010, Dr. Mike Wolyniak-2013, Dr. Bill Shear-2015, Dr. Kristian Hargadon-2016).

One of the benefits of getting involved in independent research at Hampden-Sydney is the chance to present the finished product at a national scientific conference.  In the course of a week in early April 2016, six H-SC biology students presented their research on both coasts of the United States!  First, four students made their way to San Diego, California, to attend the 2016 Experimental Biology Meeting.  Travis Goodloe ’16 and Jefferson Thompson ’16 presented work done last summer under the guidance of Dr. Kristian Hargadon while Charlie Kyle ’16 and Jake Rockenbach ’16 showed a poster based on their joint Departmental Honors project advised by chemist Dr. Bill Anderson and biologist Dr. Mike Wolyniak.

Jefferson Thompson ’16, Jake Rockenbach ’16, Charlie Kyle ’16, and Travis Goodloe ’16

Jefferson’s work explored the use of CRISPR-Cas9, an exciting new molecular biology technology, to edit a cancer factor in a mouse cell line model.  Charlie and Jake focused on work originally begun by Chris Ferrante ’15 and Jay Brandt ’15 (both of whom are currently in medical school) that attempted to develop novel antibiotics for use on a series of pathogenic bacteria.  Travis’ project looked at ways to use quantitative PCR to identify the presence of cancer progression in melanoma cells.  The Experimental Biology conference brings together thousands of scientists ranging from students to established leaders in fields representing six different professional  societies covering biochemistry and molecular biology, anatomy, physiology, pathology, nutrition, and pharmacology.  The students, accompanied by Dr. Wolyniak, were also able to take in some of the sites of San Diego, including attending part of the San Diego Padres season opening series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Jefferson Thompson ’16 explains his project

Travis Goodloe ’16 and his poster

Charlie Kyle ’16 and Jake Rockenbach ’16

As the San Diego crew was preparing to come home, another group of H-SC biologists set off from campus to present their work at another national meeting.  This time the venue was the University of North Carolina-Asheville, site of the 30th Annual National Conference for Undergraduate Research (NCUR).  The National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) was established in 1987 and is dedicated to promoting undergraduate research in all fields of study by sponsoring an annual conference for students. NCUR welcomes presenters from all institutions of higher learning and from all corners of the academic curriculum. The conference provides a unique experience for all undergraduate students because it supports student achievement in all areas of study through poster, oral, visual, and musical presentations.

H-SC Biology was represented by two students at NCUR 2016.  First, Mason Luck ’16 presented his work on invasive species conducted under the guidance of Dr. Ed Lowry.

Mason Luck ’16 presents his project

Also presenting was Christopher Hawk ’16 and his Departmental Honors work advised by Drs. Lowry and Wolyniak and identifying molecular markers for the rapid detection of fungal infection on hops plants.

Chris Hawk ’16 and his poster

The Biology Department is proud of both its California and North Carolina representatives to these prestigious national conferences!

On March 30, ten Hampden-Sydney College students were inducted into Sigma Xi, the international honorary scientific research society.  Founded in 1886 to honor excellence in scientific investigation and to encourage collaboration among researchers in all fields of science and engineering, the Society now consists of over 500 chapters at academic, industrial, and government research institutions and has nearly 60,000 members in more than 100 countries around the world.  The Longwood University/Hampden-Sydney College chapter of Sigma Xi was reactivated in 2013, and the two institutions now alternate hosting an annual Sigma Xi Research Symposium that features a keynote speaker and student poster presentations highlighting recent research activities on both campuses.  Congratulations to the H-SC students inducted in 2016:  Branch Vincent, Christopher Hawk, J.D. Chaudhry, Jefferson Thompson, Linh Nguyen, Mitchell Thomas, Shaquann Seadrow, Will Echols, Will Fitzgerald, and Zachary Martin.

As the final product of the Hampden-Sydney Genomics and Bioinformatics course from the spring 2014 semester, the National Center for Biotechnology Information has accepted  the class’ sequence annotation of a bacteriophage discovered at Hampden-Sydney for publication in the GenBank database.  The sequence, authored by Josh Dimmick ’15, Grayland Godfrey ’15, William Banning ’15, Mitch Cavallarin ’15, Tommy Isom ’14, Hakeem Mohammed ’14. Jackson Parker ’14, Francis Polakiewicz ’14, Putney Smith ’14, and Professor Mike Wolyniak, was a part of Hampden-Sydney’s participation in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Science Education Alliance-Phage Hunters Advancing Genomics and Evolutionary Science (SEA-PHAGES) program.  Dr. Vassie Ware of Lehigh University collaborated with the final stages of preparing the sequence, which will directly contribute to a national research initiative based out of the University of Pittsburgh that seeks to understand how viruses that infect various bacterial species have evolved over time.

Bacteriophage McFly was isolated by a previous Hampden-Sydney Molecular and Cellular Biology course by Seth Ayers ’11.  It is a virus that infects the species Mycobacterium smegmatus and has a genome of approximately 50,000 basepairs.  The student authors listed above used several bioinformatics databases over the course of a semester to identify and characterize the predicted genes in the McFly sequence.  McFly is the third bacteriophage Hampden-Sydney students have contributed to the national sequence database, joining Arturo and Cheetobro.  The SEA-PHAGES initiative allows students from Hampden-Sydney to join undergraduates from across the nation in conducting original research as a component of their scientific training.

To explore McFly, visit the sequence file at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/1007010572

Electron micrograph of McFly, isolated at Hampden-Sydney in 2011.

Associate Professor of Biology Dr. Kristian M. Hargadon ’01 recently published an article in the journal Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education highlighting a novel laboratory module that he developed for improving undergraduate student learning of gene expression.  This module, which is based on Dr. Hargadon’s research interests relating to melanoma, is currently used in his Biology 201 Genetics and Cell Biology course and teaches students several cutting edge techniques for investigating gene expression.  Specifically, over a 6-week period, students are exposed to both traditional and quantitative polymerase chain reaction technologies as well as flow cytometric assays as they investigate expression of the Tgfb1 gene in highly versus poorly tumorigenic melanomas at both the population and single-cell levels.  In the recently published study, Dr. Hargadon demonstrates the utility of this module in improving student learning of not only the process of gene expression but also of research techniques that may be employed for the experimental analysis of gene expression.  Since publication of this article, Dr. Hargadon has extended this laboratory exercise in his class such that upon completion of the module, students then develop their own cancer research projects in which they assess expression of a unique gene of interest that they hypothesize might contribute to melanoma progression through altered expression patterns.  Also since its publication, Dr. Hargadon’s laboratory module has also been implemented in a 300-level Biochemical Methods course at Bucknell University.

Dr. Hargadon’s article in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education can be accessed at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/bmb.20958/abstract

Associate Professor of Biology Dr. Kristian M. Hargadon ’01 recently published an Author’s View article in the journal OncoImmunology – the article highlights recent research on melanoma-associated dendritic cell dysfunction conducted in his laboratory at Hampden-Sydney College. Published by Taylor and Francis, OncoImmunology accepts high-profile submissions in the fundamental, translational, and clinical areas of tumor immunology and is one of the leading journals in the fields of both Immunology and Oncology. Following his recent publication on the induction of tissue-resident dendritic cell dysfunction by melanoma-derived factors in the journal Immunology and Cell Biology, Dr. Hargadon was invited by the Editor-in-Chief of OncoImmunology to publish an Author’s View article highlighting his recent work. Dr. Hargadon’s laboratory continues to investigate melanoma-associated immune dysfunction and the role of cancer-associated genes in promoting immune escape and tumor outgrowth. Increasing our understanding of these phenomena will lead to the design of improved immunotherapies and targeted therapies for the treatment of melanoma and other cancers.

Dr. Hargadon’s article may be accessed at: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2162402X.2015.1069462

Senior Biology major Travis Goodloe was recently awarded 1st Place in the poster competition for research he presented at the 2015 VA Branch Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology.  Travis’ research, which he conducted in the laboratory of Associate Professor of Biology Dr. Kristian M. Hargadon ’01, involved the development of a quantitative RT-PCR-based assay for detecting metastatic melanoma cells in tumor-draining lymph nodes.  His study provides a framework for future research aimed at investigating factors the promote lymph node invasion by melanoma, and the assay he developed may ultimately provide a useful diagnostic tool for assessing melanoma progression.  Travis’ poster earned the top honor from among 59 research posters presented by both undergraduate and graduate students from colleges and universities throughout the state.  Travis will attend medical school at the University of South Alabama following his graduation in 2016.

Travis Goodloe ’16 presenting his award-winning research!

The Human Evolution/Anthropology class traveled to Washington, DC, on Tuesday November 17 to see the gorillas and orangutans inside the Great Ape House as well as in their outdoor enclosures (or brachiating high above along the orangutan “O Line”). Led by Dr. Alex Werth, the class was able to see some interesting behaviors, from locomotion and feeding to chest-pounding, chasing, and other displays of dominance.

H-SC students commune with a National Zoo orangutan

Next the class took the Metro subway to visit the National Museum of Natural History of the Smithsonian Institution, particularly the Hall of Human Origins. In addition to the public exhibits, we had a behind-the-scenes tour from the manager and a scientist of the Human Origins Program, checking out skulls, skeletal material, and study skins plus research on core samples revealing the history of the past million years in the Olorgesailie prehistoric site of Kenya, where stone tools and fossils are abundant. It was a long day but a great trip.

Touring behind the scenes at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

On November 6, 2015, two Hampden-Sydney College senior Biology majors, Travis Goodloe and Jefferson Thompson, presented research they have been conducting on melanoma progression at the annual Virginia Branch Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in Richmond, VA.  Working in the laboratory of Associate Professor of Biology Dr. Kristian M. Hargadon ’01, Travis and Jefferson have been investigating factors that regulate melanoma growth and metastasis to regional lymph nodes.  In particular, Travis developed a highly sensitive assay for detecting melanoma cells within lymph nodes draining the skin and lungs, a site to which melanomas frequently metastasize.  In order to understand factors that potentially regulate melanoma growth and metastasis, Jefferson employed a CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing approach to knock out the Foxc2 gene in a mouse melanoma cell line.  FOXC2 is a transcription factor that regulates the expression of other genes within a cell, and this novel melanoma cell line lacking this molecule will be a useful tool for future studies that aim to investigate how the FOXC2 protein promotes tumor growth and metastasis to regional lymph nodes, the latter of which will be studied using the assay developed by Travis.  Both Travis and Jefferson plan to attend medical school.

Travis Goodloe ’16 and his poster describing a method he developed for detecting melanoma cells within lymph nodes

Jefferson Thompson ’16 and his poster describing the generation of a Foxc2 knockout melanoma cell line