The ProjectLab: AY2011-12 MQP Opportunities

What is the ProjectLab?

The Biology & Biotechnology ProjectLab provides MQP opportunities for students to work on projects directly affiliated with faculty research in the department's MQP lab on campus. The lab will be located in Goddard Hall along with the rest of the teaching labs starting in the 2009-2010 academic year. This year 6 projects are available to multiple student teams and approaches span from animal to plants as areas of study. Each project is proposed and sponsored by a Biology & Biotechnology faculty member and designed so that the data from the project will contribute directly to that faculty member's current research. Daily work on the project will be overseen by the Project Lab Director (Mike Buckholt). Weekly meetings of the teams, the lab director, and the faculty sponsor will allow students to present their work to the group and to understand how their findings, along with those of other students working on the project, contribute to the overall research goals. Projects will run throughout the academic year and may start or continue into E term if student interest warrants. Not all students need to be registered for every term. Varying schedules of terms and credits can be accommodated.

Students interested in working in the ProjectLab should apply to Mike Buckholt at mbuckhol@wpi.edu using the ProjectLab form.

The Projects

Genetics of Candida Infection

Infection by the yeast Candida can be a serious health issue for many people.  The infection is difficult to treat with current drug therapies. Understand what makes Candida invasive and infectious would be a great help in discovering and designing treatments for Candidiasis. This project will further the understanding of Candida infection using the flat worm C. elegans as a model system to screen for C. elegans mutants that are resistant to Candida albicans infections.  Candida kills worms in about 48 hours.  The protocol would involve growing worms synchronously to the L4 stage, transferring them en masse to Candida-containing plates, and observing worms to see if any survive.  These can be picked and characterized.  These surviving worms can be used to identify genes that, when mutated, confer resistance to infection.  Lots of genes are known that cause susceptibility to infection when knocked out, but very few mutations increase resistance.  In other words, anything discovered by this project is likely to be interesting. 

Techniques: genetic screens, phenotype characterization, microscopy, PCR, sequencing. Number of students: 6-8 (BIO-N, BIO-O, BIO-G)
Project Code: MB2-CC11

The Crayfish and Water Projects:

Crayfish are found in fresh water throughout the world. Several different species can be found right here in Massachusetts including two different species in Institute Pond. They can be used to study molecular phylogeny, behavior, and water quality issues. The Crayfish Project examines all of these lines of research both singly and in combination.

Sentinel species for water quality:

Crayfish can also be used as a model organism to examine local water quality. Nearly all of the chemicals we use, whether residential or industrial, eventually end up in the watershed and in particular the sediment in the bottom of lakes and streams. Animal like crayfish that live in that environment can serve as excellent sentinel species to track accumulation of toxins. Students choosing to work on this part of the project will collect animals from a local watershed and then analyze the water samples, sediment samples, and crayfish tissue using a number of chemical techniques including sample extraction, and gas chromatography or HPLC.

Techniques: gas chromatography, HPLC, field collection, tissue extraction Number of students: 3-4 (BIO-N, BIO-E, BIO-O)
Project Code: MB2-WQ11

Behavioral Studies:

Interactions between native and invasive species (species introduced outside their natural ranges by human activities) are thought to be important drivers of biodiversity loss.  Direct experimental investigations of invasive populations as causative agents in those declines are relatively rare. If replacement of native taxa by invasives is driven by an external factor or factors, such as environmental changes, that trigger decreases in native populations, then the prevalence of invasive taxa is a symptom, rather than a cause, of biodiversity changes. In North America, freshwater faunas are particularly vulnerable to ecological changes, because of heavy manipulation of habitats by human activity. In addition, North America harbors a substantial majority of the world's boidiversity in freshwater crayfish, many of which are considered to be species of conservation concern. Furthermore, biodiversity in this group may be poorly understood; in southern New England, we are recently characterized and described a new species, Orconectes quinebaugi, which apparently occurs only in this region and may thus be relatively rare. It has been confused with O. virilis, a widespread species that is invasive in New England. We propose a series of experiments to investigate interactions between these two species. First, we will investigate reproductive interactions; hybridization between invasives and native species can have important implications for the evolutionary trajectories of both taxa. Second, we hypothesize that the two taxa are ecological competitors through two mechanisms. We predict that the presence of the other species will alter life history characteristics (i.e., growth & resproductive rates, size at sexual maturity) of each; Students doing this MQP can choose to examine these possibilities and this prediction in several ways 1) carrying out field investigations in natural streams in both sympatry and in allopatry (for both species) and 2) carrying out common garden experiments (setting up controlled populations and observing them) 3) Study of Crayfish reproductive morphology and size relationships. This project or parts of it can be started in E term.

Techniques: field collection, behavioral observation, dissection, microscopy, electron microscopy, molecular genotyping. Number of students: 3-4 (BIO-N, BIO-E, BIO-O)
Project Code: MB2-CB11

Molecular Phylogeny:

Crayfish are quite mobile within a watershed but not necessarily between watersheds. This geographic separation can lead to populations that are reproductively isolated from each other, making the study of crayfish population genetics very interesting. Native populations can be subject to competition by invasive species that have either migrated or been artificially introduced into an environment by humans. The molecular component of the project examines and begins to define the population structure and relatedness of both native and invasive species. Students in this project will collect specimens, extract DNA, perform PCR amplification, and send samples for DNA sequencing and analysis. The project may also include microsatellite and AFLP generation and analysis. Data generated will be used to examine the genetics of the crayfish population in question.

Techniques: Field collection, DNA extraction and analysis, PCR, and Sequencing Number of students: 4 (BIO-E, BIO-G, BIO-N, BIO-O)
Project Code: MB2-CM11

The Horseshoe Crab Projects:

Limulus polyphemus is remarkable in that its form differs so little from other horseshoe crabs that lived 300 million years ago, as if its evolution practically stopped back then. How can it be, then, that the way their muscles contract is more mammalian than crustacean, and how can their nerves be making growth factors that are involved in goldfish learning? Our best guess: conservation of traits that have existed since the Cambrian.

Effects of goldfish neurotrophic factor, ependymin, on regeneration, growth, and nervous system development in horseshoe crab:

The sequence for ependymin, a neurotrophic factor necessary for memory consolidation in goldfish, is conserved across many taxa. Cruikshank et al. (MQP 1993) found 86% homology in Limulus DNA with a 99-bp region from goldfish EPN. Antibody against an 18-aa fragment from the carboxy terminus demonstrated immunoreactivity in embryonic Limulus CNS (Barosso, WPI MS thesis, 1998) and in the blood of animals with healing wounds (Costigan and Gallant, MQP 2004). An 8 aa fragment (called 8933) of the 100+ aa full-length protein has all the neurotrophic effects of the intact protein when used in neuroblast cultures. We have an EPN antibody (anti-KKETLQFR).

The 2008-09 teams injected anti-EPN into stumps of amputated limbs of juvenile horseshoe crabs that were compared with controls injected with rabbit serum. Effects on regeneration were documented photographically using whole mounts and serial sections. Embryos, larvae, and small juveniles that the team cultured/collected received in vivo injections of anti-EPN and effects on growth and nervous system development were compared against controls. The antibody was also used to look for sites where KKETLQFR either binds or is made. Next year's team will extend this work.

Techniques: dissection, histology, 2° antibodies tagged with fluorochromes, HRP, or immunogold will be used as appropriate for light and electron microscopy. Number of students: 1-2 (BIO-N, BIO-O, BIO-G)
Project Code: MB2-HC11

Phytoestrogen project:

Phytoestrogens are plant compounds that can mimic the effects of human steroids. Since traditional hormone replacement therapies for post menopausal women have several associated health concerns, including a potential increase in the risk of breast cancer, phytoestrogens are often marketed as a safe and natural alternative to estrogen. However, these products vary considerably and are not well characterized or tested. Using a well characterized estrogen responsive breast epithelial cell line, we will test the effects of available phytoestrogen products on cell growth. We will also begin to characterize the products, separate the components and test them individually and in combinations using the cell model system. Preliminary studies suggest that some of these compounds may have anti-proliferative or pro-apoptotic effects, which may make them attractive from a therapeutic standpoint.

Techniques: Cell culture, Plate assays, Protein assays, Western Blotting, Protein gels, HPLC
Preferred team size: 1-3 students
Project code: MB2-PE11