Category: Students Page 38 of 42

Grad Student Sees Yawning Gap in Animal Welfare

On January 18, 2013

In Animals, Behavior/Psychology, Biology, Field Research, Students

by Ashley Mooney

Sometimes a middle-school nickname becomes a career.

Graduate student Jingzhi Tan, yawned loudly during a quiet class in middle school in China, garnering the nickname Hippo. So now he’s at Duke, studying yawning behaviors in bonobos.

Jingzhi “Hippo” Tan is a graduate student working on bonobos’ love of strangers.

So-called ‘contagious yawning’ has been found in many species besides humans and other great apes, including baboons, monkeys and dogs. Tan found that bonobos are more likely to yawn along with strangers than they are to yawn with animals they already know. (They also prefer to share food with strangers first.) In the future, he hopes to do a similar study with chimpanzees, but must first modify the structure of the experiment.

“The bonobo study that we just did is technically unethical to do with chimps—you can’t put two strange chimps together because they’re going to kill each other,” Tan said. “Later we’re trying to develop a task that is chimp-friendly and we’re going to use it for comparison between a variety of species.”

His studies on great apes, he said, will hopefully reveal more about the human mind and aid wildlife conservation efforts.

Tan noted that there is no better way of understanding the human mind than studying its evolution. Through his studies, Tan hopes to uncover the constraints of human problem-solving abilities, which will help solve problems relating to conservation.

“There is a gap between people who want to conserve nature versus people who are making decisions and policies. Usually what they do is alienate each other,” Tan said. “You can’t actually do something unless you really understand the mind of people.”

Likasi, a resident of the Lola ya Bonobo sanctuary in Kinshasa, where Hippo does his work. (Jingzhi Tan)

As an undergraduate at Peking University, Tan studied under the only cognitive evolution professor in all of China. He is now the first Chinese person to study great apes in Africa.

Tan said he is concerned that chimps are apparently being illegally exported to China, where they end up in the entertainment industry. Tan said there is one reality show that features three chimps—dressed in human clothes—choosing fruit at a supermarket. Another pair of infant chimps were forced into a fake wedding, complete with a wedding dress, and received national media attention.

China needs stronger animal welfare laws, Tan said. “Going back to the big picture, in the next decade, if you want to help bonobos in Africa or any other animals in Africa, we have to get China involved. Right now it’s just completely empty and blank.”

SNCURCS "Snickers" Conference Brings NC Undergrads Together

By sa160@duke.edu

On November 26, 2012

In Neuroscience, Students

By Nonie Arora

Duke student Katie Shpanskaya is excited about how education can change our brains. She had the chance to share her work with other students in a poster session at the State of North Carolina Undergraduate Research and Creativity Symposium (SNCURCS).

Hundreds of undergraduates from several North Carolina universities came together to talk about research at SNCURCS (pronounced like Snickers, the candy bar) hosted by Duke University on November 17th.

In the lab of Dr. P. Murali Doraiswamy, Shpanskaya studies the effects of education on Alzheimer’s disease. Originally from Raleigh, Shpanskaya is a sophomore in Trinity College studying Neuroscience. When she’s not in classes or working in the lab, she tutors through UNITED (a high school tutoring organization that she is the president of) and mentors others through the Women’s Mentoring Network.

In Alzheimer’s, the part of the brain called the hippocampus experiences great neuronal cell death and amyloid plaques accumulate throughout the brain, Shpanskaya said. The hippocampus is important for memory, and Alzheimer’s disease is characterized by progressive memory loss. In the brains of patients with Alzheimer’s, the protein amyloid-beta builds up whereas this protein is normally broken down, Shpanskaya clarified.

Shpanskaya explained that the study she is working on has found that patients with higher education (17 or more years) had greater hippocampal volume size than those with less education (less than 12 years). Those with more education also had less overall loss of hippocampal volume. Shpanskaya also said that those who challenge themselves cognitively benefit: they retain more functionality when afflicted by Alzheimer’s.

MRI image depicting the hippocampal region of interest used in computing hippocampal volume. Courtesy of the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI).

“Education likely acts through neuroprotective mechanisms, thereby decreasing volume loss to delay cognitive decline. This is supported by our results,” said Shpanskaya.

At the conference, students also had a chance to interact with faculty members from other institutions, and attend “Lunchbox Learning” sessions on topics such as avoiding research misconduct and applying to graduate school.

Overall, students appreciated the opportunity to attend the symposium and meet students from around the state. “I thought SNCURCS was a great symposium that really did a good job of bringing together students from all sorts of research backgrounds together to learn from each other and share their work,” said Trinity sophomore Akhil Sharma. “SNCURCS really showed a good sample of the great research institutions North Carolina houses and it was a great feeling to be a part of it all.”

A Passion for Research

By Prachiti Dalvi

On November 19, 2012

In Biology, Cancer, Genetics/Genomics, Students

By Prachiti Dalvi

Akash Shah, Trinity ’13

“Research enables me to think about a question that excites me and helps patients,” says Trinity senior Akash Shah. A biology major, philosophy minor, and a candidate for the Genome Sciences and Policy Certificate, Akash became interested in genomics as a freshman in the Genome Focus. Originally from Fullerton, CA, Akash was drawn to Duke because of its its immense biomedical research enterprise. He also loved the fact that at Duke, the medical school, law school, and business school were on the same campus as the undergraduate campus.

Intrigued by the research his professor Dr. Hunt Willard was conducting, he asked to get involved. His work in Dr. Willard’s lab dealt with artificial human chromosomes. More specifically, he was working with others in the lab to identify which regions of the chromosome would be deleted when transformed into human cells.

Now, Akash works in the Nevins Lab, where he looks at candidate genes in the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) pathway: an important pathway in many cancers. When growth factors bind to the external portion of the receptor, the receptor becomes activated. Side effects of receptor activation include tumor growth and metastasis. When scientists target genes associated with this pathway, they can increase tumor cells’ sensitivity to pathway inhibitors and better prevent tumor cell reproduction.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zE4BkAw_lL4

The advent of computational genomics has allowed for major advances in the field. Fifteen to twenty years ago, cloning genes was considered a PhD project, and now, it is something an undergraduate can do.

Akash’s favorite aspect of research at Duke is its collaborative nature. Faculty members work with another and across departments. His research is not limited to labs at Duke. In fact, he as also worked with professors at UCLA and Harvard. The culture of research varies from one university to the next; thus, Shah encourages undergraduates to do research at different institutions. “It gives you a chance to succeed in different cultures.”

When he is not in the lab, Akash enjoys playing cricket and exploring local restaurants with friends. During his time at Duke, he has been involved with numerous organizations, and has become an integral part of the Genome Research and Education Society (GRES). During his sophomore year, he founded a program in which undergraduates shadowed other undergraduates doing genomics research. In order to make research more accessible to undergraduates, Akash has helped organize career talks, including MD/PhD information sessions. After graduating from Duke in the spring, Akash hopes to begin medical school, and eventually pursue a career in academic medicine so he can continue conducting research. He has worked extensively in cancer genomics research and hopes to explore cancer stem cells in the future.

Soft Matter, Or Just Marshmallows?

By Ashley Mooney

On November 16, 2012

In Chemistry, Science Communication & Education, Students

By Ashley Mooney

When a chemist whisks cake batter, he’s not just thinking about the deliciousness that awaits. Whisking can actually induce chemical reactions integral to the texture of the dessert.

In a class being taught next term, Patrick Charbonneau, assistant professor of chemistry and physics, will help students apply science to creating edible masterpieces. For example, they will make two traditional Quebec desserts as an experiment in phase transitions. The ingredients in both are essentially the same, Charbonneau said, but one requires whisking while the other rests as it cools.

Students will measure the stiffness of marshmallows using chocolate bars, maybe it will end in a gooey s’more.

“By whisking you actually induce micro-crystallization and in the other one you remain in the glass phase, so the texture is completely different,” he said. “They’re going to be cooking—these are real desserts and real recipes—but the science is very controlled.”

Charbonneau works in a sub-discipline of chemistry called “soft matter,” but this doesn’t just mean marshmallows. The subject combines aspects of chemistry, physics, chemical engineering and material sciences—and fits perfectly with the science of cooking.

“The demos [in the class] are centered on food, so one of the cool ones is this material properties experiment measuring the [stiffness] of marshmallows using a chocolate bar,” Charbonneau said. “The chocolate bars are calibrated—you know their weight—and you just need a ruler to measure how much the marshmallow compresses.”

Although Charbonneau usually teaches an advanced physical chemistry course, he said he rediscovered old cuisine—and the science behind it—with the help of his friend from college and chef Justine de Valicourt, who is a visiting artist at Duke. De Valicourt has an undergraduate degree in biomedical sciences, but opted for culinary school rather than medical school. She will teach the cooking components of the seminar.

The class will meet once a week in spring semester for two and a half hours, with the first half dedicated to theory and food-centric demos, followed by cooking experiments and a dinner run by de Valicourt.

While cooking may make science more appealing to the non-scientists at Duke, Charbonneau said a basic understanding of chemistry is required in order to discuss the material in detail.

“Sure there’s the detailed chemical reaction when you’re browning something, but browning is not the entire thing,” he said. “There are some structural issues, and taste is something that is much more complicated than just a chemical that touches a receptor—there’s a texture, there’s a look.”

Since there is limited space in the kitchen—and thus limited space in the class—Charbonneau said he hopes he can make the topic more accessible to the Duke community through de Valicourt’s office hours and a final banquet.

“The students from the class will help with the cooking and serving of the banquet,” he said. “It’s the chef’s job to be able to teach them (how to cook properly) and to supervise them, so that should be fun. Hopefully we’ll be able to reach as many people as possible. We got amazing support from everybody in the administration that we talked to. I’m very grateful.”

Since bringing together a chef, a chemist and class space took a “special alignment of the planets to make it happen,” the class—which is being taught for the first time in the spring—may also be its only run.

“The chef is here for a semester, and I would never have dared—because I’m a theorist—to do a thing like this without her or the TA’s,” Charbonneau said. “I do hope though that some of the material we’ve built up will be able to be used as a special topic in general chemistry. I would like to have a module where I would be able to reuse the demonstrations and the content, and maybe even bring in a local chef at that point who would be interested. That’s one way to project it in the future.”

For those interested, the course is called Chemistry and Physics of Cooking, listed as Chem 89.

“It’s listed under chemistry, but it’s really about chemistry and physics,” Charbonneau said. “We’re looking at more physical chemistry—physics processes, denaturing of proteins. We’re also looking at the material science idea, such as viscosity, elasticity—viscoelastic moments, which chemists would never talk about… in a general chemistry class.”

Wimberley LEAPED into Action with Refugees

By sa160@duke.edu

On November 7, 2012

In Field Research, Students

By Nonie Arora

Wimberley in front of Egyptian post-revolution graffiti, Courtesy of Wimberley

Many Duke students are unaware of the significant refugee population in Durham. But this is not true of the twelve students who brought back the stories of many Iraqi and Bhutanese refugees from Egypt and Nepal last semester.

DukeImmerse LEAPED (the Law, Ethics, and Political Economy of Displacement) provided students the opportunity to immerse themselves in another culture, both at Duke by taking four related courses and abroad in Cairo, Egypt or Damak, Nepal. Trinity sophomore Ronnie Wimberley was one of the lucky twelve. Wimberley, originally from Detroit, MI but most recently from Columbus, Georgia has lived in four different states and has attended ten different public schools, so he was already accustomed to acclimating to new environments.

He heard about the program because he had already been involved with The Kenan Institute for Ethics through the Ethics, Leadership, and Global Citizenship FOCUS program. Wimberley is actively involved with Duke’s Debate team, is a Duke Colloquium Fellow, and works closely with the First Generation College Student Network.

While in Cairo, Wimberley had the chance to work with the UN Refugee Agency in Cairo, Egypt (UNHCR) and NGOs working with refugee communities. Duke students travelled to homes to interview refugees in groups of two accompanied by a translator.

Wimberley recounted how many refugees were ripped from their home environments in Iraq – as it was bombed severely – and sought refuge in Egypt. The Egyptian government did not support the refugees.

Some of his experiences were completely unexpected. “In Egypt they are a lot more patriarchal. I was the only male in the Egypt group, so they would assume that I was the leader of the group. They would divert from her [the translator] and come talk to me, even though she was the one who understood Arabic better. That was the most shocking part for me. I wasn’t prepared for that,” he said.

The view from Wimberley’s apartment depicting refugee apartments, Courtesy of Wimberley

After the trip, the students chose the most compelling stories to present to local Durham schools (watch online) and to publish in the magazine Uprooted/Rerooted. Wimberley focused on the ways in which people’s ideas of masculinity changed after displacement. He said that displacement “changed power dynamics in the home, such that the men wanted to maintain control and influence, but they expressed concern about losing control of their children.”

His desire to combat the inadequacies of UNHCR and focus on international aid and development led him the following summer to the Duke in Geneva study abroad program, where he took classes in the political philosophy of development and international business to develop his analytical skills.

After Duke, Wimberley wants to work with the International Monetary Fund and learn how to move money more effectively to serve people. He said that money is not always effectively used, even by the United Nations, and he wants to tackle that problem.

Science Under the Stars!

By Pranali Dalvi

On October 23, 2012

In Biology, Chemistry, Science Communication & Education, Students

By Pranali Dalvi

The 8^th annual Science under the Stars, held in the lower lobby of the French Family Science Center, brought together several Duke departments, research groups, and organizations. Kids of all ages were busy participating in hands-on science activities.

Bioluminescence demo by Dr. Hendricks

Lab administrator Dr. Diane Hendricks had a station to illuminate the bioluminescent properties of Pyrocystis fusiformis, a marine dinoflagellate. Dinoflagellates bioluminesce when their cell wall is exposed to sheer stress, which triggers the light response. When asked why dinoflagellates glow, some kids hypothesized that dinoflagellates glow to look larger and more threatening so they can ward off predators. Scientists mistakenly thought so for a while, too. However, scientists now favor the burglar alarm hypothesis, based on the idea that the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

“Rather than trying to scare away the predators, they are actually attracting the predators of their predators,” Dr. Hendricks explained. Because the color blue is most easily seen in the ocean, many sea creatures bioluminesce blue. As a memento of Dr. Hendricks’s demo, kids were able to take home glowsticks of various colors!

The physics department showed students how to make Oobleck. Oobleck is a mixture of 2 parts corn starch and 1 part water. It displays shear thickening behavior, meaning that its viscosity – or resistance to flow – increases with shear rate. When the shear rate is low, the corn starch grains can easily move past one another and oobleck flows easily. However, under high shear stress, the corn starch grains pack tightly together and prevent the flow of grains past one another.

The process of preparing oobleck

Oobleck is an example of a non-Newtonian fluid. Non-Newtonian fluids are those whose resistance to flow changes according to the force that is applied to the fluid. One application of non-Newtonian fluids is in the soles of running shoes. The sheer thickening fluid hardens in response to the forces exerted during running or walking.

A favorite stop for the kids was CSI Durham presented by the Department of Evolutionary Anthropology and Anatomy. Students were required to perform cranial, pelvic, and femoral assessments to identify who the “missing victim” was. The skull and pelvis have distinct features in males versus females, and the femoral head and length diameter predict stature pretty accurately.

The event was sponsored by the Chemistry Department and organized by Dr. Kenneth Lyle.

Student Cameron Kim, Working to Reprogram Cells

By sa160@duke.edu

On October 8, 2012

In Biology, Biomedical Engineering, Engineering, Students

By Nonie Arora

Meet Cameron Kim – a Pratt Engineering student working on synthetic biology who also officiates for the Duke Quidditch team. Originally from Brandon, Florida, Cameron became interested in molecular biology and engineering in high school.

Kim Observing His DNA Gel Credit: Cameron Kim

“I see most people identify biomedical engineering as biomechanics, neural engineering, and electrophysiology,” he says, “but there’s really this other side growing quicker and quicker, which is using the tools of molecular biology to control how we as humans function and interact with the environment.”

In Dr. Charles Gersbach’s lab, he has been working to create artificial transcription factors. Being able to control gene expression through transcriptional factors is vital to modulate cell behavior and human functions, Kim says.

Kim drew an analogy between a transcription factor and a light switch dimmer, saying that transcription factors allow for a range when turning on and off specific genes. He says that artificial transcription factors would allow him to influence a cell’s own genome without having to add extra copies of a gene. The goal is to develop a tool to reprogram cells that his lab can use to study muscle development and to hopefully repair muscles. His lab is looking at different ways to develop therapies for Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Kim thinks that engineering design principles that he has learned through his Pratt coursework are really important to his project. “When I explain my research to a lot of people, they think I’m just doing molecular biology,” he says, “but by knowing the parts and understanding my materials, I can design biological molecules and tools do what I want them to do.” While we may traditionally associate engineers observing factors like the terrain or landscape to build a bridge, he looks at factors like energy barriers and cell functions to apply design principles to molecular biology.

Kim Presenting at the Howard Hughes Research Symposium Credit: Cameron Kim

Research is full of challenges, and Kim’s projects have been no exception. He says it has been challenging to develop his tool. While it looks great in one test, it does not work with another one. He is still investigating whether he should be looking for other factors to control or whether the challenges are due to biological limits.

When asked what advice he would give to other undergrads excited about delving into research, Kim said to recognize that “you’re not going to know everything and even brightest minds in the field don’t know everything,” and to also “find out more about whatever you’re interested and take advantage of wide base of knowledge around you.”

His project initially came out of the Howard Hughes Research Fellows Program, which he encourages first-year students to consider. Kim says, “An immersion program in research can be a just as exciting new environment as an immersion language program in another country.”

After Duke, Kim hopes to pursue medical research. He wants to ask questions like: “How can I bridge the gap from bench to bedside? What tools can I develop to reach a clinical applications?” He feels lucky to have been mentored by excellent scientists and would like to do the same for others in the future.

Football Player Makes an Impact

By Ashley Mooney

On September 19, 2012

In Biomedical Engineering, Medicine, Students

by Ashley Mooney

One Duke football player is making an impact, both on and off the field, on the health of his teammates.

Senior Conor Irwin, an evolutionary anthropology major who is also an offensive lineman on the varsity football team, has done research regarding joint replacements and athletic injuries during his time at Duke.

In summer 2011, Irwin worked at the K-Lab, which focuses on understanding and preventing athletic injuries. There, he studied pressure distribution on the foot during unanticipated cutting—a maneuver where the person changes directions quickly.

To test this, subjects wore pressure sensor insoles in their shoes to show the distribution of stress in their feet during the task, which involved running in a straight line and then planting and cutting in the direction of a flashing light.

Irwin also collected data on hip, knee and ankle replacement patients who came into the lab for evaluations.

“As I understood it, Duke is one of few institutions to perform ankle replacements, and this [data] was being used to evaluate the different surgical techniques for ankle replacement,” Irwin said.

Beyond his work in the K-Lab, Irwin conducted an independent study with the advice of Dr. Claude Moorman III, director of the Duke Sports Medicine Center and head team physician, and John Anderson, a sports medicine fellow. He reviewed different surgical techniques for repairing a ruptured medial collateral ligament in the knee.

“The frequency of MCL injuries in football players—particularly offensive linemen, which is what I play—made me interested in a project dealing with the MCL,” he said.

MCL ruptures do not often require surgical interventions, however, there are certain cases where it is necessary. Irwin studied the progression of MCL treatments as well as current techniques.

Although the paper is still in the editing stage, Irwin noted that they plan to submit it to the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. They will also submit a video of an MCL operation on a cadaver as a separate publication.

Monkey Marketing and Poop-Dodging

By Ashley Mooney

On September 12, 2012

In Animals, Behavior/Psychology, Business/Economics, Neuroscience, Students

by Ashley Mooney

Have you ever thought of advertising to a monkey?

Junior Yavuz Acikalin, an economics and neuroscience double major, is doing an independent research project with the Platt Lab that deals with just that—monkey advertising. Acikalin’s project deals with whether or not one can influence primate reward preferences by branding rewards. Branding involves using associations between brand logos and images of female monkey perinea—“sexy images” for monkeys in his words—and high status male faces.

“Finding similarities between how mainstream methods of marketing affect humans and monkeys can lead to a better understanding of the evolutionary factors that affect consumer behavior,” he said. “Experiments on monkeys can help us better understand the irrationalities that happen in the markets, and more importantly, the brain mechanisms that underlie the effects of advertising on consumer behavior.”

The lab, run by Michael Platt, director of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences and Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, studies how the brain decides between different actions. A main focus of the lab is on value-based decision making, and the brain mechanisms responsible for these processes—in summary, neuroeconomics, Acikalin said.

His daily duties include writing Matlab code for the touch-screen interface that the monkeys use, he said. He also writes code for data analysis and runs the experiments.

Acikalin noted that he loves animals and cannot live without having multiple pets at home, making his time with the monkeys rewarding. His research, however, does come with its downsides.

“My least favorite part is dealing with all the biohazard on a daily basis—or more precisely, monkey poop,” he said.

A Different Kind of "Knock Out Mouse"

By Ashley Mooney

On August 30, 2012

In Animals, Behavior/Psychology, Neuroscience, Students

by Ashley Mooney

What is the best method to test anxiety in mice? I spent my summer at home in Portland, Ore. figuring out just that.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, one in five adults in the United States have an anxiety disorder, but only about a third of those people are receiving treatment. In order to develop better medications, we wanted to understand the mechanism by which injuries—such as traumatic brain injury—lead to anxiety disorders.

The "guillotine" I helped build to model traumatic brain injury in mice

The lab was using six tests on mice, including the elevated plus maze, acoustic startle response and the “hyponeophagia test”—which examined how long it took a mouse to consume a new food. My boss, a postdoctoral researcher, ran a series of correlations on test results to find that some are not as effective in testing anxiety as scientific journals say they are.

I helped build two of the other tests that were new to the lab. One of them was a guillotine of sorts to test traumatic brain injury. While the guillotine does not do anything gruesome to the mice, it does give them a minor concussion to model the type of injury that many people experience in sports, car accidents and other mishaps.

We were looking at whether traumatic brain injury increases your chance of developing anxiety. To do this, we conditioned 80 mice and put them through mazes before and after knocking them on the head.

Although the mice kept me pretty busy, the head veterinarian of the research institute allowed me to shadow him in the mornings and help out with the pigs and rodents.

And a lesson from all of my maze-building experiences: chloroform is useful for more than knocking people unconscious—one can use it to bind plastic together and create a plethora of fun experiments for mice to run around.