SSU Biology Department's Holiday Party 12/14/2015

Retirement Party for Christine Maney and Midge Hoover 12/11/2015

The Retirees:  Midge Hoover (L) with Christine Maney.

Left to right: Midge Hoover, Reza Hassanzadeh and Ted Maney

Celebrating our Graduating Seniors at Cat Cove – May 2nd, 2015

Celebrating our Graduating Seniors at Cat Cove – May 2nd, 2015

Starting the Water Balloon Toss Competition

SSU Students Volunteer to Identify Macroinvertebrates for the Ipswich River Watershed Group

Photo of Entomology students who volunteered to help identify macroinvertebrates for the Ipswich River Watershed group.  They identified the specimens to the family level over two days and this information will help in ongoing research about the health of the watershed.  

In the photo: left side of the bench - Jimmy Elliott, on the right side of the bench from back to front: Jon Petrie, Lynn Fletcher, and Vikki Ford.

THE THIRTY-SIXTH DARWIN FESTIVAL, FEBRUARY 9-13, 2015

	MONDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2015
7:50 a.m.	VIDEO: “Some of the Things Molecules Do” – Cosmos - A Spacetime Odyssey.	Slater Lecture Hall
9:30 a.m.	“THE ROAD LESS TRAVELLED: UNDERWATER EXPLORATION AND SCIENCE IN THE ERA OF CLIMATE CHANGE” – Brian Helmuth, Northeastern University, Marine Science Center, Nahant MA. Sponsored by The Scuba Club.	Veterans Hall
11:00 a.m.	VIDEO: “Australia: Awakenings” – Australia: First 4 Billion Years.	Slater Lecture Hall
12:15 p.m.	“GLOBAL ISSUES IN OCEAN AND HUMAN HEALTH” – John Stegeman, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole MA.  Sponsored by the Biological Society.	Veterans Hall
1:40 p.m.	VIDEO: “Plan B: Mobilizing to Save Civilization” – Journey to Planet Earth (84 min).	Slater Lecture Hall

	TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2015 Charles Albert Read Science Lectures
8:00 a.m.	VIDEO: “Why Sharks Attack” – NOVA.	Slater Lecture Hall
9:25 a.m.	“EBOLA, ONE HEALTH, AND EVOLUTION IN ACTION” – Alfred DeMaria Jr., Bureau of Infectious Diseases, Massachusetts Department of Public Health. A Keville-DePalma Founders Lecture.	Veterans Hall
10:50 a.m.	“THE FIERCE URGENCY OF NOW" – Raymond Bradley, Department of Geosciences, University of Massachusetts, Amherst MA. Sponsored by the Geography Department and the Charles Albert Read Trust.	Veterans Hall
12:15 p.m.	VIDEO: “Australia: Monsters" – Australia: First 4 Billion Years.	Slater Lecture Hall
1:40 p.m.	“ENGINEERING COMPUTING, DIAGNOSTICS, AND THERAPEUTICS WITH SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY” – Timothy Lu, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge MA. Sponsored by the Charles Albert Read Trust.	Veterans Hall
3:05 p.m.	VIDEO: “A Murder of Crows” – NOVA.	Slater Lecture Hall

	WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2015 Charles Albert Read Science Lectures
7:50 a.m.	VIDEO: “Alien Planets Revealed” – NOVA.	Slater Lecture Hall
9:25 a.m.	VIDEO: “Decoding Neanderthals” – NOVA.	Slater Lecture Hall
10:50 a.m.	“CURES IN THE OCEAN: MARINE NATURAL PRODUCTS DRUG DISCOVERY” – Isaiah Gomez ‘13, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego CA.Sponsored by the Chemistry & Physics Department and the Charles Albert Read Trust.	Veterans Hall
12:15 p.m.	“THE HYGIENE HYPOTHESIS: CAN EXPOSURE TO PARASITIC WORMS HELP TREAT AUTOIMMUNE DISEASES?” – Joel Weinstock, Tufts Medical Center and Tufts University, Boston MA. Sponsored by the Salem State Chapter of the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi.	Veterans Hall
1:40 p.m.	VIDEO: “Earth from Space” – NOVA (120 minutes).	Slater Lecture Hall

	THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2015 Charles Darwin’s Birthday
8:00 a.m.	VIDEO: “Vaccines – Calling the Shots” – NOVA.	Slater Lecture Hall
9:25 a.m.	“COYOTES AND BOBCATS AND BEARS, OH MY!: WHY PUBLIC POLICY MATTERS TO WILDLIFE IN MASSACHUSETTS” – Jennifer Jackman, Department of Political Science, Salem State University, Salem MA. Sponsored by the Charles Albert Read Trust.	Veterans Hall
10:50 a.m.	VIDEO: “The Lost Worlds of Planet Earth” – Cosmos ASpacetime Odyssey.	Slater Lecture Hall
12:15 p.m.	“WHAT CITIES CAN LEARN FROM TREES” - Nathan Phillips, Department of Earth and Environment, Boston University, Boston MA. Sponsored by the Charles Albert Read Trust.	Veterans Hall
1:40 p.m.	“HOW AND WHY DO LANGUAGES CHANGE? INSIGHTS FROM SPANISH IN BOSTON” – Daniel Erker, Department of Romance Studies, Boston University, Boston MA. Sponsored by the Charles Albert Read Trust.	Veterans Hall
3:05 p.m.	VIDEO: “The World Set Free” – Cosmos A SpacetimeOdyssey.	Slater Lecture Hall

	FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2015 - Biology Alumni Day
7:50 a.m.	VIDEO: “Killer Typhoon – The Aftermath of Cyclone Haiyan” – NOVA.	Slater Lecture Hall
9:25 a.m.	"FROM THE FARM TO THE TABLE: HOW CLIMATE CHANGE IS ALTERING THE FOOD WE EAT” – Colin Orians, Department of Biology, Tufts University, Medford MA. Sponsored by the Charles Albert Read Trust.	Veterans Hall
10:50 a.m.	VIDEO: “Surviving Ebola” – NOVA.	Slater Lecture Hall
12:15 p.m.	"DEEP GENOME SEQUENCES FROM MORE THAN 100 DIVERSE HUMAN POPULATIONS AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO ARCHAIC HOMININS" – Shop Mallik, Department of Medical Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston MA. A Keville-DePalma Founders Lecture.	Veterans Hall
1:40 p.m.	VIDEO: “Killer Landslides” – NOVA.	Slater Lecture Hall
3:05 p.m.	VIDEO: “Ape Genius” – NOVA.	Slater Lecture Hall
Founded By:  Philip A. DePalma and Virginia F. Keville
Darwin Festival home    History of the Darwin Festival    Links and References Salem State University Biology    Salem State University Home Page
If you require interpretative services, please contact the Office for Students with Disabilities at TTY (978)-542-7146 or osd@salemstate.edu. To help us best meet your needs, please notify us of your requirements at least 2 weeks in advance. All videos are close-captioned. Veterans Hall is located on the 2nd floor of the Ellison Campus Center. Dr. Schuyler G. Slater Lecture Hall (MH 444) is located on the 4th floor of the Frederick A. Meier Arts & Sciences Hall. The Festival is open to the public. All events are free. The location for all events is Salem State University's North Campus, 352 Lafayette St., Salem, Massachusetts, 01970. For directions, go to www.salemstate.edu or contact the Biology Department (978-542-6236). Major funding for the DARWIN FESTIVALSM has been provided by the Salem State University Administration, the Charles Albert Read Trust Fund, the Student Government Association through the Biological Society and the Scuba Club, the Keville-DePalma Darwin Festival Endowment Fund, contributions from Hayden McNeil Publishers, Pearson Higher Education, Wiley, and other individual contributions. Darwin FestivalSMCommittee: Susan M. Case (Coordinator), Juditha C. A. Burchsted, Ryan Fisher, Lynn Fletcher, Ethel Gordon, Paul Kelly, Sheila Schreiner, T. Nelson Scottgale, Alan M. Young and Noelia Fernandez (President, Biological Society). Founded in 1980 by Philip A. DePalma and Virginia F. Keville.

Communication from Christian Gfatter in Indonesia

I was aboard the Bintang Sedang live-a-board vessel from July 10th to 15th conducting “reef checks” at sites near Wanci, a town on the island of Wangi-Wangi (The “Wa” of WaKaToBi National Marine Park). A 100m transect tape was set at 5m and 10m depths and the team collected indicator species counts of fish and invertebrates along with substrate “0.5m point” data.  The information will become part of “The Global Survey of Coral Reefs” which is used to determine the health of global reefs.

Since then, I have been a Research Assistant (RA) for two dissertation students (1/week).   I also assisted several other dissertation students by: collecting live food (crabs, shrimp, and fish) to feed samples of species such as lionfish being studied in the wet lab; trekking to the mangroves to assist with site characterization, collect sample species (mudskippers), and take photographs; and fixing software issues.  I  have offered the use of my equipment to help dissertation students and researchers with their projects, and this has been especially helpful to the one I am currently serving as RA since her camera has malfunctioned (she uses my underwater GoPro system to video her transect and take photographs) .  Unfortunately, one of the groups that departed Hoga Island took several of my items from the computer room, one of which was the battery charger for my underwater light so it is no longer of use while here.

I have attended multiple lectures and presentations, and look forward to more.  I also continue to prepare for graduate school by reading and watching videos.  At the moment, I am somewhat neutral about my experience so far, in part because my expectations were different; I’ll discuss this after I return, but I’d like to note that the staff and dive masters have been great.

Upcoming weeks (likely schedule):
Unit 7: Coral Reef Monitoring (video transect and utilize software to analyze the video)
Unit 8: Research Assistant
Unit 9: Scope out sites

Special thanks to Arni for helping me get this e-mail out.

Christian

NMT Students at the Society of Nuclear Medicine's 2014 Spring Symposium

Congratulations to Yanitza Espinal and Christy Vo, 2014 Graduates from SSU’s Nuclear Medicine Program. Yanitza and Christy had the pleasure of presenting their NMT research at the Society of Nuclear Medicine's 2014 Spring Symposium in Portsmouth, NH on March 28th and 29th. The Symposium is an annual meeting that the NMT students attend with fellow SSU alumni, as well as students and technologists from all over New England. The Students not only present their research but are able to attend a student NMT board exam review session, and the technologist/physician presentations on current events and concerns in Nuclear Medicine.

From left Professor Mindy Walker, Yanitza Espinal, Christy Vo in front of their posters at the spring symposium

A fun field trip to Genzyme on Monday 3/17/2014!

Here's a photo from our fun field trip to Genzyme on Monday 3/17/2014! 

Thomas Vermette (left in photo) is the wonderful SSU BIO alum ('91) that hosted us for an awesome tour of Genzyme's Allston plant! He taught us a lot of science in this one trip--- details about recombinant protein expression of Cerezyme in Chinese-Hamster Ovary (CHO) cell Bioreactors, secretion signals, His-Tags, serum-free media, ion-exchange protein purification, and FDA-mandated Good Manufacturing Procedures (GMP).  We are excited that Tom has tentatively agreed to come as a visiting speaker for a few lectures on GMP within our Fall 2014 (new) Biotechnology course!

Special, special thanks to Kaitlyn Hurley and Angelique Kim of Career Services (not shown) for co-organizing this trip. And thank-you's for expert van driving by Longinus and Jebson.

Dr. Tracy Ware

Mini-grant Awarded to Dr. Sheila Marie Schreiner

Dr. Sheila Marie Schreiner was awarded a mini-grant entitled "Detection of Cry1Ab Protein in Local Propolis Compared to Commercially Available".  The project aims to examine the levels of Cry1Ab in local and commerically available propolis through ELISA and western blot analysis.  Cry1A is a delta endotoxin produced by Bacillus thuringiensis, a Gram positive bacterium.  Cry1A, which is found on the spore coat of the bacteria, is toxic to insects.  Several agriculture crops, such as corn and cotton, have been genetically modified to express Cry1A so that the crops are resistant to insects, such as Helicoverpa armigera,which is commonly called cotton bollworm or corn earworm.  However, a number of studies have shown that exposure to Cry1A can effect the honey bee (Apis mellifera) behavior and potentially be a cause of colonly collapse disorder (CCD), which has lead to large-scale and unexplained loss of honey bee colonies.  Propolis, or bee glue, is a hard, resinous material made by honey bees to seal openings in their hives and prevent microbial infections in the hive. It contains pollen, waxes, resins, and flavonoids which are specific to the region the bees are housed in.  Due to its antimicrobial properties, propolis is commonly prescribed in animals that are undergoes antibiotic therapies, i.e. tetracycline, in veterianary medicine.  This application is not as widely used in human medicine.  Jaclyn Smith (’13) worked on developing protocols to assess the antimicrobial properties of propolis.  Adam Williams, who is graduating this May, will be working on the Cry1Ab project this semester.

Darwin Festival 2014 ended a few minutes ago!

Photo credit: Noelia Fernandez

Darwin Festival Ends Today at Salem State University

Photos credit: Dr. Alan Young

Happy Valentine's Day from Amy Sprenkle's BIO406 Micro Lab!

Amazing Nutrient Agar art by our Microbiology students using 3 different bacteria. Image by Noela Fernandez

Internship Opportunity at the NAFO Secretariat

A NAFO Intern Program allows students, post graduates or early career individuals from NAFO member countries an opportunity to improve their skills, enhance their experience and learn about NAFO and its activities. Interns will work at the NAFO Secretariat in Dartmouth, NS, Canada. Since the start of the program 4 interns have been hosted form USA, Canada, Russia and the EU. Applications are encouraged from all NAFO Contracting Parties. The results from the Internship Program have been very successful but due to budget restrictions the program will only be available for a three (3) month term in 2014.

Applications are being accepted now for placement beginning in 2014. Please download and complete the Application Form (rich text format). If you have already applied please indicate your continued interest and your availability for the upcoming term (in 2014).

http://www.nafo.int/about/frames/intern.html

My Climb to the Green Crab Summit

Since last August, I have been assisting Dr. Alan Young in all aspects of a grant-funded year-long research project exploring the population dynamics of the invasive European Green Crab (Carcinus maenas). The position (inherited from Ethan Fertsch - thanks, Ethan!) includes monthly deployment of baited green crab traps from a variety of docks located in Salem, Beverly and Danvers. All crabs collected during the course of a week are frozen for future determination of size, sex, and color (while the dorsal surface remains fairly consistent, the ventral surface changes to yellow, orange, and finally red during the molt cycle). In just one semester, I have learned a lot about the green crab in addition to various research methods. The project has also presented me with new opportunities outside of Salem State University.

In the midst of a chaotic finals week, Dr. Young and I attended the first Green Crab Summit organized by Maine Sea Grant, Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR), and Maine Coastal Program held at the University of Maine in Orono, Maine (Thanks to the Biology Department and the Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences for providing funding). The meeting was arranged primarily to examine the impact of the invasive species on commercial fisherman (clammers), but there were also many scientists that came to discuss research being conducted. In fact, over 300 people attended the conference, with about 350 people tuned in to the live broadcast of the presentations. That is really quite a turnout given the time of year and the isolated location plagued by the harsh Maine weather. Data in the survey I am participating in is still being collected, so Dr. Young and I were merely audience members.

Still, my first conference was certainly thought-provoking. There were science related talks, starting off with the ecology of the green crab, all the way to using a genotype as a mode of tracing the path they have taken in the last 200 years since arriving in New Jersey. In contrast, there were several policy related talks directed more towards the fishermen. These were largely entertaining debates between fisherman and scientists regarding shellfish municipal programs, licensure, and costs.

On the topic of controlling the omnipresent crustacean, a number of different speakers suggested that the green crab should be utilized as fishmeal and fertilizer for farming and aquaculture. This would not only rid the hindrance on shellfish production, but also enhance economic function in the fisheries. One talk given by Dr. Denise Skonberg from the University of Maine focused explicitly on the commercialization of green crabs for hu*man consumption. In the study, Dr. Skonberg used a traditional “deboning machine” to shuck crabs at a more efficient rate than shucking them by hand. The mechanical separation technique yielded a meat puree that had a repulsive appearance. So in collaboration with a culinary arts student, Dr. Skonberg decided to have a panel sample the meat slurry concealed in a pleasant looking empanada. The results just met the standard scores of acceptance recommended for new products. This talk was exhilarating for me, because I have been pondering the idea of human consumption of green crabs for the past few months. As found in Dr. Skonberg’s study, green crab meat tastes exceptionally sweet (yes, I have eaten it) and I believe that there would be no problem finding a market for them; however it is the small size and unpredictable molting cycle that discourages a market for human consumption. Dr. Skonberg’s study inspired me to continue research to see if it would be possible to manipulate the molting cycle by a biological means, such as a hormone. If so, could an open aquaculture system be set up for them?

I’ll get back to you on that.  All the deliberations resulted in an eagerness to continue research. Seeing that many people congregate to solve a universal problem gave me a supplementary reason for committing to the field of marine sciences. All in all, the Green Crab Summit was an excellent source of networking and education and I hope to be a part of similar experiences in my academic career.

James Elliott

A Snowy Owl Spotted at Cat Cove!

A snowy owl was spotted at Cat Cove Marine Laboratory on Thursday, December 12, 2013.  Here are 2 photos taken by Scott Weston.