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research and happenings from rhode island nsf epscor | winter 2017
Scientists in Training
welcome
Amy Dunkle
communications coordinator editor & writer
Basics Group design
Amy Dunkle photography
RI NSF EPSCoR supports research facilities across the Ocean State. Read about the available resources to RI scientists here: http://web.uri.edu/rinsfepscor/facilities/
Copyright © 2017 The Current. All rights reserved. Rhode Island NSF EPSCoR Geoffrey D. Bothun
Geoffrey D. Bothun
Project Director/Principal Investigator
Edward Hawrot, Ph.D. Co-Principal Investigator
Charlie Cannon, M.Arch. Co-Principal Investigator
Christine M.B. Smith
Executive Director Science Technology & Advisory Council
Sally J. Beauman
Project Administrator
Shelley Hazard
Scientific Research Grant Assistant
Jim Lemire
Undergraduate Coordinator
On the Web:
Find us on Facebook www.facebook.com/RhodeIslandEPSCoR Follow us on Twitter www.twitter.com/RIEPSCoR Find more news and information from Rhode Island NSF EPSCoR on our website http://web.uri.edu/rinsfepscor/
Thank you, Rhode Island NSF EPSCoR community, for welcoming me as the Track-I principal investigator and project director. After I assumed this role in July 2016, we faced our first task — setting our vision for the future of RI NSF EPSCoR. I believe our plan is compelling and innovative, and this would not have been possible without your dedication, leadership, and success during the last six years. It is through our community that we achieve our collective goals of research excellence, workforce development, and outreach. Coastal ecosystems are increasingly challenged by climate variability and the knowledge and training we provide is vital to improving coastal management and environmental stewardship. Narragansett Bay, like so many other estuaries worldwide, is a precious resource and an economic driver that must be conserved. As we move forward, I challenge the entire RI NSF EPSCoR community, and those who share our vision and are eager to get involved, to find new areas of collaboration, identify new pathways for research
translation, and communicate with and engage our stakeholders. I invite you to participate in our 2017 Annual Research Symposium that is being hosted by Brown University and Rhode Island School of Design on Wednesday, April 12. This event will showcase the great work being done through the RI NSF EPSCoR programs. We also are offering our annual Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program and our ongoing SciComm Exchange series. Details can be found on our website. I hope you enjoy this issue of The Current and will join me in congratulating these students on their success!
Best wishes, Geoffrey D. Bothun PI/PD Rhode Island NSF EPSCoR Professor of Chemical Engineering University of Rhode Island
Connect with us on LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/in/rinsfepscor
On the cover: Undergraduate researchers Josh Jacques and Kelly Cribari, Roger Williams University, collect samples in the Taunton River for a project with Associate Professor David Taylor. The Current Rhode Island NSF EPSCoR 224 Pastore Hall 51 Lower College Rd University of Rhode Island Kingston, RI 02881
Our Mission is to provide a platform to promote collaboration and cooperation among Rhode Island’s institutions of higher education (IHE) and to enable alignment of our efforts with the needs of the state to increase research competitiveness, especially in marine life science and affiliated sciences.
We believe this will improve the employment rate, provide more attractive employment opportunities, create new businesses, and preserve and strengthen our connection to Narragansett Bay, its watersheds, Rhode Island Sound, and the Atlantic Ocean.
Rhode Island EPSCoR is funded by the National Science Foundation under Award #EPS-1004057. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
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A decade of undergraduate research Summer fellowship program trains, develops next generation of scientists The numbers alone tell the success story of Rhode Island NSF EPSCoR’s Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program, a 10-week, hands-on research experience guided by faculty mentors across the Ocean State. In 10 years, after beginning with just a handful of students, the SURF program heads into its 11th summer having awarded 288 fellowships to students at nine RI institutions of higher education under the direction of 91 mentors for a total of 217 projects. This coming summer, RI EPSCoR expects to add another 24 students to the total tally. “The fellowship allows undergraduates to truly immerse themselves in the science and not be concerned with grades or writing lab reports,” explains Jim Lemire, an adjunct professor at Roger Williams University, who has run the RI EPSCoR SURF program since its inception in 2007. “And, it’s not just going into the lab and doing experiments — it’s the whole process of discovery, the process of figuring out what works and what doesn’t work. There’s also the element of figuring themselves out.”
“This summer experience has been everything and nothing that I expected it to be. And, I wouldn’t have changed a single moment of it. I’ve learned that research, most of the time, never goes according to plan no matter how prepared you may be. There are good and bad days in the lab, where one minute you have everything under control and the next you will have to go back to the drawing board and rewrite your protocols. “Not only has this program confirmed that I have chosen the correct career path, but it has also taught me invaluable lessons about the importance of communicating scientific data, how to communicate with the non-scientific community, as well as tips on applying to graduate school.”
For the last 10 of its 11 years, RI EPSCoR SURF has been run in collaboration with the Rhode Island INBRE (IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence) SURF program to enhance the professional experience, develop the community of emerging scientists, and deliver the largest annual presentation of undergraduate research in the state. Both RI EPSCoR and RI INBRE are funded by federal grants, respectively from the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health. University of Rhode Island serves as the lead institution on both grants. The SURF opportunity, says Lemire, provides students with experiences they don’t otherwise get during the academic year: “It’s hands on, full-time research that allows them to live a little bit like a full-time scientist and to see what that’s like. Training as an undergraduate during the academic year is limited as to what it can tell you about the lifestyle and day-to-day life of a professional scientist.” Immersed in the research process, SURF students report that they experience all of the obstacles, challenges and rewards of working on an open-ended project. Year after year, in interviews and fellowship surveys, they say they gain critical thinking and problem solving skills and develop a sense of where they see themselves in the scientific community. Asked why they pursued a fellowship, SURF students overwhelmingly cite the research experience as their top reason, followed by the hands-on learning opportunity and the chance to learn what a research career would be like. Katie Heisler, a Roger Williams University marine biology major from New Jersey, participated in the 2016 SURF class and provides a classic example of the program’s achievements. In her end-ofthe-summer survey, she cited research experience as the reason why she applied to the program and she reflected on the outcome:
Salve Regina University 2016 SURF student Courtney Conklin, left, and Katie Jones, former SURF student and 2016 SRU grad, empty the contents of a trap for a project with Associate Professor Jameson Chace.
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Hands-on research provides platform for learning, experience SURF builds foundation for success At Roger Williams University, Josh Leitao, from Bristol, RI, made the most of his undergraduate time there, logging four years of lab research and carrying a challenging academic load. Early on, Leitao earned a 2013 Rhode Island EPSCoR Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF), which provided his first full-time research opportunity. Josh Leitao Courtesy photo He worked in the lab of Associate Professor Avelina Espinosa, on the project “Using Entamoeba to explore the effects of climate change in marine and freshwater protists.” The following years, Leitao secured a SURF award from Rhode Island INBRE and a prestigious summer fellowship from the American Society of Microbiology (ASM). Leitao graduated in Spring 2016 with a B.S. in Biology, B.A. in Chemistry, minor in Public Health, certificate in Biotechnology, and experience from multiple projects. He also trained more than 11 other undergraduates in Espinosa’s lab and picked up additional research experience in the lab of RWU Assistant Professor Erica Oduaran. Leitao’s many accomplishments led him in Fall 2016 to the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where he is enrolled in a one-year master’s of Health Science in the Molecular, Microbiology and Immunology (MMI) program. He also was accepted into the Vaccine Science and Policy certificate program and will complete that alongside his master’s. “Quite frankly,” says Leitao, “without my SURF research experience, I would not be where I am today, at one of the top schools in the country. And, I would have not been offered numerous opportunities that I have taken advantage of due to my intense research background at RWU.” Leitao attributes his current success at Johns Hopkins to the critical thinking and problem solving skills gained from the handson SURF program experience.
Jeremy Hecker
Summer fellowship opens door to opportunities Taking classes part-time at Community College of Rhode Island (CCRI) and working full-time, Jeremy Hecker saw the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program as a chance to to gain experience and explore what a career in science might be like. The Rhode Island NSF EPSCoR 10-week, full-time experience provided Hecker with everything he sought plus a lot more that he did not expect. “The SURF program gave me the direction and confidence I needed to continue my studies,” says Hecker, from Warwick, RI, who will earn his associate’s degree in science Spring 2017. Under the mentorship of Assistant Professor Dawn Cardace and master’s student Abigail Johnson at the University of Rhode Island (URI), Hecker spent his SURF experience studying ocean sediment core samples to better understand how increased carbon dioxide, CO2, affects deep sea microbes. He conducted experiments, honed his skills and techniques, and learned about scientific methods, from the start of a proposal to presenting findings. Hecker says the experience taught him how to make objective assessments and helped him gain confidence, particularly when speaking about his research. Among the highlights, he notes, were two opportunities to travel to California to conduct research — once for the SURF project and then a follow-up trip to work at NASA’s Ames Research Center. “It was an incredible experience,” Hecker says of his time at the NASA center. “I was working in the lab, learning research techniques and even got the chance to help with the astrobiology information booth at the Dark Sky Festival at Lassen Volcanic National Park.” Looking back at his SURF experience, he adds: “It really paved the way to a lot for me. The program itself was very rewarding in the experience and the knowledge that I gained from it. The SURF conference was awesome and helped me get over my fear of speaking about my research.”
Grad student charts path to discovery Three and a half years ago, Chelsea Duball, then a rising senior at University of Rhode Island (URI), spent the last summer of her undergraduate years investigating the presence of and distinguishing between the seaweed species Ulva rigida and Ulva compressa.
“Within my current cohort, I am the student who is asking the intellectual and technical questions during presentations from guest speakers,” Leitao says. “This is a true testament to how transformative it is to start research early in the undergraduate years and the importance of the lab experience — that knowledge has allowed me to excel in graduate school.” Leitao will graduate from the John Hopkins program in May 2017. His plans are to return home to Rhode Island and seek a position in a biotechnology or pharmaceutical company, where he hopes to spend a year or two before applying to a Ph.D. program. 04 //
Chelsea Duball
Courtesy photo
An Environmental Science & Management major from Brentwood, NH, Duball worked in the lab of
Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship program mentor Carol Thornber, College of the Environment and Life Sciences (CELS), now CELS interim associate dean of research. As part of the project, Duball also helped gather data at eight sites in Warwick, RI, to identify seasonal and ecological trends occurring within the area and at each specific site location. Now earning her master’s in Biological and Environmental Sciences at URI, Duball credits her undergraduate research experiences with RI EPSCoR SURF and URI Coastal Fellows for her thesis opportunity with Rhode Island Sea Grant. “RI EPSCoR SURF especially helped me to develop the communication and analytical skills necessary to manage a larger research project and collaborate with a variety of teams and disciplines,” says Duball, who also earned RI EPSCoR support during Summer 2016 as a graduate fellow. She will defend her thesis in late January and is looking at potential Ph.D. opportunities as well as a chance to apply for a NOAA Coastal Management Fellowship. Duball says her career goals are to stay within the field of environmental management, science education, and research.
Finding life lessons in her labwork When she first started in the lab for her RI EPSCoR 2016 SURF, Ekta Chugh did not know how to operate a pipette, a common laboratory tool used to measure and dispense liquid. But by the end of her 10 weeks, along with having mastered the technique, Chugh perfected numerous lab skills, including DNA extraction.
Ekta Chugh
Now a sophomore at Bryant University, Chugh says she finds it challenging to sum up in a few words what the
experience meant: “This fellowship taught me more than I could have imagined,” she says. “I still remember holding the acceptance letter and wondering if I could really do this. I lacked the confidence in what I could do and what I’m really good at. “It taught me a lesson for life that it doesn’t matter where you stand right now, but what matters is where you go from there. It was huge for me.” Chugh, a pre-med and accounting major from Jalandhar, India, spent her summer fellowship under the guidance of Associate Professor Christopher Reid. She helped collect soil and water samples at India Point Park and Oxford Street, both urban coastal sites in Providence with a common history of contamination, and worked to identify microscopic organisms and nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur. The ongoing project seeks to provide greater understanding of the impact of metal contamination in Narragansett Bay’s intertidal areas and the role climate change may play. “I still look back and cherish the days when I was working in the lab, working on my samples and smiling after getting the results,” says Chugh. “The experience also had an impact on my studies because now I know that I can learn anything, from operating a pipette to extracting DNA, just by believing that I can.”
Jennifer Lynn Cyr
Courtesy photo
Undergrad research offers unparalleled experience Providence College alum Jennifer Lynn Cyr, a Ph.D. candidate at University of Georgia and 2016 NSF Graduate Research Fellow, traces her trajectory back to the lab of Associate Professor Elisabeth Arêvalo and her Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) with Rhode Island NSF EPSCoR. “My undergrad and SURF experiences prepared me well for this by introducing me to field research techniques such as how to keep a well-documented notebook and how to make the best of limited supplies,” Cyr says of the impact of undergraduate research opportunities on her doctoral pursuit. Part of the 2014 SURF class, Cyr, from Dracut, Mass., worked on a research project with Arêvalo, investigating the evolutionary relationships in mysid shrimp species while gaining firsthand insight into full-time lab work and what graduate school would be like. The project carried into her senior year and helped her define the path she is now on. She chose the University of Georgia because its veterinary school includes a Biosafety Level IV containment facility, which allows her to do research using pathogens that are restricted to facilities with adequate containment. Today, having just solidified her project questions and wrapped up her first committee meeting, Cyr says she is putting together a large mouse experiment. The NSF award has been critical to purchasing supplies and paying for courses. She also traveled to Kenya to catch and sample the African spiny mice for her research. The species has the ability to heal wounds without scarring, which holds potential health and medical implications for humans, explains Cyr: “Specifically, I am investigating the immune mechanisms behind this healing process and trying to figure out whether, besides the obvious benefit of scar-free healing, there are costs and benefits of using these mechanisms. I’m studying whether there are trade-offs between being ‘better’ at wound healing and other important life processes like feeding, fighting infection, conserving energy, etc.”
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RI EPSCoR: Where science and self meet discovery How much is too much? Rebeka Merson, Rhode Island College associate professor and Biology Department chair, is seeking to answer that question when it comes to the concentration of environmental chemicals and birth defects in skates. It is important work that Merson says would not be possible without the support and collaboration provided by the Rhode Island NSF EPSCoR community, facilities and training programs. “I wouldn’t be able to do this just by myself,” she notes. As a faculty mentor in the RI EPSCoR Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program, Merson offers students hands-on, intensive research experience, working alongside her and EPA scientists. Using the mottled brown, diamond shaped species as a model for top-of-the-food-chain predators like sharks, the team Merson has assembled investigates the effects of chemicals in the environment — polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) — on one particular protein, AHR (aryl hydrocarbon receptor). She is finding it doesn’t take a lot to disrupt the development of embryos.
Merson’s experiment exposes skate embryos to the chemicals for six to seven days and then moves them into clean seawater. Still, the PCBs fail to flush out and even concentrations as small as 2 parts per trillion yield changes in the vascular system of the yolk sac and gene expression. The government outlawed PCBs in the 1970s, but Merson says the chemicals remain in the sediment of Narragansett Bay, staying wherever they were deposited, stirred up by dredging or other disturbances wrought by climate change, and potentially working their way up through the food chain. She talks intently about her research as she weaves her way around the EPA facility research tanks, work enabled by the Rhode Island NSF EPSCoR grant and its core facilities, an RI Science and Technology Advisory Council (STAC) grant, the EPA facility and scientists, and, not least of all, student researchers.
“At higher levels, we see mortality and cranium or jaw abnormalities,” explains Merson, pausing to talk about her research last summer at the Atlantic Ecology Division of the Environmental Protection Agency facility on Narragansett Bay. Amid the steady, low hum of pipes and cold storage equipment, piles of four-pronged skate cases — individually tagged and identified by number — rest in rows of water-filled aquarium tanks. A long fluorescent light shines above, a system of plastic tubing snakes down from overhead. Nearby, numbered glass jars each hold a single embryo removed from its case and sit stacked on a rolling cart. The clear view provides a rare look at what takes place inside the so-called mermaid purses, typically found empty and washed ashore after the embryos hatch, allowing the scientists to track the effects of PCBs. “We also see deformities with the pectoral fins and changes in the vasculature of the yolk sac,” Merson notes. “And, we’re seeing changes in the whole body blood circulation.” The project’s findings — at amounts ranging from 2 to 20 parts per trillion — hold important relevance. Environmental contaminants, PCBs are found in industrial waste; chemicals that, once ingested, travel into the fatty tissue and remain rather than breaking down. There, they disrupt proteins, best characterized as messengers or the way cells in different parts of the body communicate with each other. 06 //
RIC biology major Christopher Rei-Mohammed feeds skates at the Seawater Facilities on the URI Bay Campus.
RIC Associate Professor Rebeka Merson, left, and SURF student Mikayla Lopes
“It’s kind of like I had been walking down a dark hall and the lights have come on one by one. This has really helped me narrow down what I want to do.” Christopher Rei-Mohammed, Rhode Island College Developing the workforce Undergraduates at the nine RI EPSCoR partner institutions can earn summer fellowships through a competitive application process. The SURF program runs for 10 weeks and pays the students a $4,500 stipend plus $500 for materials and equipment. A STAC grant — the state’s match for the federal RI EPSCoR program — in 2015 allowed Merson to bring on board Christopher Rei-Mohammed, a RIC senior biology major from Cranston, RI, during the academic year. Merson serves as the principal investigator on the project and EPA researcher Diane Nacci, Ph.D., is an unfunded collaborator. “What makes this situation really unique and special for the students is that they’ve all gone through background checks and fingerprinting, and they get a badge to access the EPA facility,” Merson says. “The amount of trust put into us is an investment. The students are getting real world experience as if they were hired by an employer to be here.” Rei-Mohammed says the opportunity has been life changing: “What the badge really signifies for me is how far I’ve come. Two years ago, I would not have been able to do this. I wouldn’t have had the right attitude. It’s the difference between class and what you do in the real world. This actually relates to what I want to do. It gave me a different outlook. “And, I do love having this badge. It’s a combination of being independent and I can contribute to the project, but I don’t need
A skate embryo develops and grows outside its case.
someone to walk me down the hallway. If something needs to be done, I can take care of it.” The students come in at the ground level of the project and work their way through every facet, from keeping detailed lab notebooks about each water change and documenting effects to carrying out image analysis and taking care of the skates. Rei-Mohammed, who will graduate Spring 2017, is eyeing graduate school and hopes to land in a conservation or wildlife biology program. He says we wants to work with endangered species and, in particular, wolves. Reflecting on the research experience with Merson as his mentor, he notes, “It’s kind of like I had been walking down a dark hall and the lights have come on one by one. In high school, I had an idea that I wanted to do something with biology, but I also wanted to work with animals. This has really helped me narrow down what I want to do.” RIC supported a travel opportunity for Rei-Mohammed to present a research poster on fin deformity caused by PCBs at a California meeting of undergraduate researchers. Now that the STAC grant is done, he remains invested in the project and continues to assist whenever he can volunteer time. Merson says her work benefits from the variety of students involved and the multiple talents they bring. For example, two students, both retired military, brought their logistical perspectives and provided input that improved the project. As part of the RI EPSCoR community, Merson also gains access to the Rhode Island jurisdiction’s core facilities — most importantly for her project, the Marine Science Research Facility on the University of Rhode Island Narragansett Bay Campus. There, she and her students tend to the adult skates kept in large round tanks with flowing seawater and collect the eggs laid before transferring them to the EPA lab. “I was working with skates before, but at really low level,” says Merson. “There were so many things I wanted to do, but couldn’t at RIC. I didn’t have the facilities to maintain embryos or the seawater containment with chemicals.” The contribution of the SURF students and undergraduates like Rei-Mohammed during the academic year have been similarly invaluable to the progress of the project, she adds: “The time commitment is critical. If we were to write a separate grant to cover the man hours, it would be cost prohibitive.”
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Rhode Island NSF EPSCoR 224 Pastore Hall 51 Lower College Rd University of Rhode Island Kingston, RI 02881
If you would like to receive The Current electronically, please contact amydunkle@uri.edu.
RI Science and Technology Advisory Council Launched in 2005 and sustained by legislative statute in 2006 to make innovation central to the state’s leadership agenda, the Rhode Island Science and Technology Advisory Council (STAC) is the official oversight body of Rhode Island NSF EPSCoR. In 2007, STAC created the RI Research Alliance to establish a statewide platform for collaboration across the state’s research organizations, increase competitiveness for federal funding, and support efforts such as the EPSCoR, Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) and IDeA Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE) networks. STAC Council members represent the academic, business and policy leadership of Rhode Island. They meet on a regular basis to review progress and develop new recommendations for enhancing research and development, supporting entrepreneurial activity, and increasing innovation in Rhode Island.
Christine Smith is Director of Innovation Programs at the RI Commerce Corporation and serves as STAC executive director.
Molly Donohue Magee Executive Director, SENEDIA
Council members are:
Jay Marshall Executive Director of Quality, Amgen Rhode Island
David A. Savitz Vice President for Research, Brown University (Co-Chair)
Patricia C. Phillips Dean of Graduate Studies, Rhode Island School of Design
Gerald Sonnenfeld Vice President for Research and Economic Development, University of Rhode Island (Co-Chair)
Thomas Rockett Former Vice Provost for Research and Graduate Studies, University of Rhode Island
Janet Coit Director, Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management
Peter Snyder Vice President of Research, Lifespan
Pierre Corriveau Chief Technology Officer, Naval Undersea War Center David Hibbitt Founder and Former Chairman, ABAQUS, Inc.
Donald Stanford Chief Technology Officer, GTECH Holdings Corporation Marcel A. Valois Executive Director, RI Commerce Corporation