Gettysburg College professors are directly engaged in grant-funded research—making significant contributions to their field, while at the same time providing the opportunity for students to gain invaluable hands-on scientific research experience. Check out three biology research projects currently underway on campus.
On the Road: Spotted Salamanders and Green Algae
In the spring of 2015, Biology Prof. Ryan Kerney’s research on amphibian development took him and two Gettysburg students on the road. Jasper Leavitt ’15 and Huanjia Zhang ’17 piled into a Winnebago full of lab equipment and trekked over 1,000 miles across the country with Kerney to collect salamander embryos in Washington and Oregon.
Ambystoma maculatum, the eastern spotted salamander is studied by Levitt, Zhang, and Hill.
The trip was funded by a two-year $33,369 grant from the National Science Foundation’s EAGER funding mechanism in collaboration with the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). Today, Kerney and his team are investigating the symbiotic relationship between spotted salamander embryos and green algae to better understand how the two interact.
“Basically on a lark, I looked at a later stage embryo with the fluorescent microscope and it was really surprising to see that there are algae cells embedded inside the embryo itself,” Kerney said. “That cell within a cell relationship occurs in giant clams, it occurs in corals, it occurs in sea slugs, but there are no other real known examples of a symbiont entering into the cells of a vertebrate.”
Based on this discovery, Kerney and collaborators sequenced salamanders’ RNA at the Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics. They are currently analyzing the data with Gettysburg students Zhang and Elizabeth Hill ’17 to identify the way algae impacts host cells. Kerney also conducts international research, with recent discoveries in India.
In the Field: The Future of Food Safety
Prof. Nikki Shariat is known for creating an environment of experiential learning for her biology students – even engaging first-year students in fieldwork on their very first day at Gettysburg College.
Shariat was recently awarded a $128,599 National Institute of Food, USDA, grant for her research, which aims to investigate populations of the bacterial pathogen Salmonella in poultry, and determine the presence of antibiotic resistant Salmonella. Two first year students, Cameron Thompson ’19 and Dorothy Vosik ’19, are collaborating with Shariat in her lab and will continue their research over the summer.
Shariat collaborates with Vosik and Thompson in her lab.
This is the first time Gettysburg College has received a research grant from the USDA, which has a very competitive funding rate. “I think they were excited about incorporating undergraduate students in agriculture-based research,” Shariat explained, noting that the larger land-grant schools typically favor graduate students and postdoctoral researchers, with fewer opportunities for undergraduates.
“The opportunity to do research as a first year student was one of the main reasons that I was initially interested in attending Gettysburg College,” explained Thompson, who will be visiting poultry facilities with Prof. Shariat this summer to collect Salmonella samples.
Immediately after stepping onto Gettysburg’s campus, the biochemistry and molecular biology (BMB) major took the initiative to seek out those research opportunities and spoke with Prof. Shariat during Orientation. It became apparent early on to him that Gettysburg is a supportive and close-knit community, where mentorships between students and professors are commonplace.
“When I was an undergraduate, there were two professors that took the time to train me,” Shariat reflected. “I am very cognizant of giving that back to my students here at Gettysburg."
Across Borders: Forging International Connections
In collaboration with the University of Kansas and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Biology Prof. Paula (Alex) Trillo received a National Science Foundation’s EAGER grant to conduct research on insect ecology and evolution at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama. The $16,985 award includes funding for Gettysburg students to conduct research at STRI, alongside Panamanian undergraduates.
Trillo has a long-standing partnership with STRI, one of the largest and oldest research institutes in the tropics. With her current grant, Trillo will use the framework of an important hypothesis in the field of ecology and evolution, the “escape and radiate” hypothesis, to investigate the role of chemical defenses on the diversification of tortoise beetles. The “escape and radiate” hypothesis posits that novel anti-predator defenses allow species to escape their enemies, increasing their survival and the likelihood for these species to diverge into new species.
Trillo leads a group of students.
Siomko examines a Trachops cirrhosus bat, or the fringe-lipped bat, in the Panama rainforest.
Trillo designed the bi-national internship, which piloted in the summer of 2015 with Gettysburg student Samantha Siomko ’17 and Panamanian undergraduate Sara Vasquez. “These internships allow students to start international collaborations early in their careers,” Trillo said. “Research opportunities abroad exist for faculty and at a postdoctoral level, but it is rare that undergraduates can gain experience and develop contacts in the international scientific community.”
“Because the students are invested in a scientific project together, the bond they develop is really special and they not only learn about research but also about intercultural relations,” the biology professor explained. “Samantha was exposed to a depth of Panama’s culture that wouldn’t have been possible without her connection to Sara.” Trillo hopes to expand the program in the future to incorporate even more student researchers.
