I am very pleased and honored to know that the lab will be funded by an NSF CAREER Award (DEB-2046797). The award will support ongoing collaborations with Yellowstone National Park for the next five years! During this time we will use dietary DNA metabarcoding to analyze the diets and microbiomes of migratory large mammals and connect this information with what we learn from ecological field experiments to better understand plant-herbivore interactions in this amazing ecosystem. We are excited to support many, many students and early career researchers in the classroom, laboratory, and at Yellowstone in ways that foster growth and improve representation in the field. This award complements and extends what we hope to accomplish through our ongoing NSF EPCSCoR (OIA-2033823) award and increases our current level of NSF support to four active awards.
I will post information about the first new opportunities to join the lab and work on projects like this one over the course of this summer.
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While everyone in the lab continues to be impacted by the global pandemic, we also pause to appreciate our increased opportunity to begin resuming research and to extend our welcome to the new lab members who are joining us this summer.
We are fortunate once again to have had an opportunity to work with some AMAZING researchers who are now graduating.
Congratulations to Amanda Lyons '20 Honors '21 MSc for completing her 5th year Master's degree! Amanda has been leading the northeastern terrapin genetics project in our lab for the past few years. Amanda's Honors thesis included some really insightful RADseq data obtained in collaboration with a whole host of governmental, non-profit, and academic partners. We expect the output to have a significant impact on conservation strategies and priorities for the turtle in the region. Congratulations to Camille Tulloss '21 for earning Honors and a Senior Biology Prize for her graduation! Camille's thesis focused on the microbiomes of wild bison migrating across Yellowstone National Park. The work was a scientific and visual masterpiece, that seamlessly melded Camille's passion for research, scientific education, and illustration. We look forward to collaborating with Camille on this topic for years to come. A quick note about our posts: Our lab's response to the pandemic was to focus in on supporting ourselves and one another. As a result, I have not been very good about publicly posting these sorts of milestones and accomplishments for the amazing people in the lab this year. The situation is still fluid, both locally and globally, but I aspire to post more regular updates going forward.
The lab has much to celebrate as we close out another semester, even despite the disruptions of COVID-19.
Honors and awards are rolling in... Congratulations to Bianca Brown for a 2020 Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship Honorable Mention!
Congratulations to Courtney Reed for a 2020 Animal Behavior Society Student Research Grant! Chrishen Gomez is the recipient of a prestigious 2019 Merdeka Award Grant from Malaysia, which was established “to reward citizens and organizations who have made outstanding contributions in their respective fields to the people of Malaysia.”
Chrishen joins the lab for three months as a Visiting Research Associate affiliated with EEB. During his visit, Chrishen will collaborate on DNA-based analyses of animal diets and genetics. Chrishen aims to apply these approaches and his affiliation with the Bornean Carnivore Program to establish a conservation genetics research program that focuses on the Sunda Clouded Leopard in Malaysia. Check out Chrishen's Merdeka Award acceptance speech to learn about his amazing research and conservation efforts in Borneo!
A pair of recent papers from the lab were highlighted for the creative use of DNA metabarcoding to solve problems and ask new questions in fields that span ecology and biomedical science.
1. Our recent paper documenting variation in diet-microbiome linkages in African megafauna was highlighted on the cover of PNAS, Brown University's news, The Division of Biomedicine's 'Kudos' memo, and in the media. This open access paper reflects the results of a long-term collaboration with Rob Pringle from Princeton, Paul Musili from the National Museums of Kenya, a creative honors thesis by Julianna Hsing, and the microbiome-bioinformatics chops of current grad student Bianca Brown. 2. Our recent paper in mSystems creatively translated the DNA metabarcoding approaches that we've been using for wildlife research into a biomedical context to evaluate the plant component of human diets. Using DNA-based evidence of human diet composition could be highly complementary to the current standard of asking human subjects to maintain diet logs in research on human health and nutrition. The paper was highlighted as Editor's pick in the area of Clinical Science and Epidemiology by the journal, as well as in a thoughtful commentary by Frank Maixner, who further highlighted the connections between this work and the fields of archaeology and ancient DNA. The paper was co-led by Aspen Reese based on samples from a prior experimental study investigating the influences of diet interventions on human gut microbiomes, which was led by Lawrence David. The lab was thrilled to host a special set of seminars by Prof Karen Warkentin this week. The special seminars were co-organized by EEB and oSTEM, Brown's chapter of the national non-profit professional society that aims to empower LGBTQIA+ folks working in STEM fields. At Brown, 24% of undergraduates and 18% of graduate students reported that they identified as LGBTQ+, according to the 2018 climate survey.
The EEB-hosted seminar focused on adaptive variation in hatching time by tropical frogs -- "Proximate and ultimate causes of plastic hatching timing" -- a classic system in evolutionary ecology, and a connection to our lab's research roots in the wet tropics of Central America. The oSTEM-hosted seminar told -- in part -- Prof Warkentin's personal story and perspective on the value of diversity in STEM. It was modeled after the Opening Plenary at the 2019 ESA meeting, and entitled "Different people ask different questions: A queer perspective on studying diversity in life history and behavior." Videos of the ESA plenary and related talks can be viewed here. Both seminars were attended by a broad cross-section of folks at Brown. Thank you, Prof Warkentin, for making the visit! Thank you, oSTEM, for partnering with our group and EEB to make this special visit such a success! |
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