4 Elms College Magazine
A new research grant of $31,700 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) will enable associate professor of biology Nina Theis, Ph.D., to include students in research-related international and domestic travel, field work and collaboration with colleges across the U.S.
RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES The funding will allow two undergraduate students to accompany Theis to Peru to study tropical cucumber species in the field, as well as peacock flies (a type of true fruit fly that feeds on these cucumbers) and wasps that feed on the flies. The Elms project is part of a larger collaborative study of biological diversity and the evolutionary process of species origination in the tropics. NSF funding for the entire study totals nearly $2 million, representing one of only 10 grant packages awarded by the foundation’s Dimensions of Biodiversity program this year. Marty Condon, Ph.D., of Cornell College in Iowa is leading the research team, which includes participants from Elms College, the University of Iowa, the University of Georgia and North Carolina State University. Theis’ piece of the project focuses on her specific area of expertise: She studies fragrance in flowers and the effect of fragrance on insect attraction. Her component of this project will
focus on the cucumber odors that attract the flies and the wasps. “We’re going to analyze the fragrances of the flowers and see if we can find out how these insects are attracted,” she said. She and her team will determine whether fragrance drives host detection and specificity, or why specific flies and wasps are attracted to specific parts of the flower. The grant also includes funding for Theis to hire students to analyze the fragrance data over the summer. Two Elms students also will be invited to attend a bioinformatics workshop at the University of Georgia. Bioinformatics involves the techniques and software that analyze and interpret large biological data sets. The students also could attend scientific meetings and conferences. Theis also is the director of the ElmSTEM program, supported by a separate NSF grant of $620,620, which awards scholarships to full-time Elms students majoring in biology, computer information technology, chemistry or mathematics. “It’s really great synergism to have the STEM education grant and the research grant at the same time,” Theis said. “Our STEM grant promises that there will be scholarships and that our students will get research experience. Now we have the money to give our students paid jobs doing research on campus and a very highquality tropical research experience. This is an exciting time to be a science major at Elms.”
NSF Grant for Research on Biological Diversity Adult Blepharoneura fruit flies feed on plant surfaces such as the leaves and flowers of Gurania spinulosa. Image courtesy of Marty Condon, Cornell College.
Launching Careers in Science and Health Michael Zulch ‘17 gets excited when he talks about technology. But it’s not a new phone, or even a new app: It’s a digital polymerase chain reaction (PCR) system. The digital PCR system at Elms, “is quite a big deal,” said Michael, a biology major. “It allows us to count DNA molecules, and that is important because if we have a specific target of DNA that identifies a bacteria, this machine will allow us to specifically count the amount of bacteria species in a sample.”
Since he was a freshman, the Ludlow native has participated in a metagenomic study involving microbes in the guts of horses for biology Professor Janet Williams, Ph.D. The microorganisms found in horse guts are analogous to those in humans, and the research at Elms is working to establish the benchmarks for what “normal” is, Michael said. Once that is done, the Elms database “will be beneficial for researchers, pharmaceutical companies, feed companies, and even veterinarians,” he said.
Getting to conduct research as an undergraduate is uncommon at many colleges and universities, but here at Elms, “if a student shows an interest, they’re in” the lab working, Williams said. The research opportunities available here enables students to use “Elms College as a platform essentially to go on to either graduate school or medical school, or any of the health professions,” Williams said. Postbaccalaureate premed students Sotiris Chaniotakis ‘16 of Belmont, MA, and Matthew Marotta ‘16 of Longmeadow, MA, agree. Both entered the postbac premed program to strengthen their knowledge of high-level biology and chemistry, and finding that they could conduct research was an unexpected bonus. They began working in the lab this semester with Michael Zulch. “Medical schools place a lot of weight on if you’ve done scientific research,” said Sotiris, whose first choice for medical school is Tufts. “To be familiar with a laboratory setting.” “And problem solving, and organization and procedure,” added Matt, who hopes to become a physician’s assistant after medical school. “And the way medicine is going right now, a lot of emphasis is being put on the human genome, and the microbiome, so sequencing the horse’s gut is a good way to practice and learn the techniques and the equipment used.”