Student Research

The Department of Biology offers summer research opportunities in the areas of cellular and molecular biology. This program, supported by the Dr. Arnold T. Borer Summer Research Endowment, provides selected students with a stipend, free room and board, and a travel allowance.

• 2009 Borer Scholars
• 2008 Borer Scholars
• 2007 Borer Scholars

We are working with a species of green algae that can make and store large amounts of oils. The oils can be converted into biodiesel just as soy bean and other crops are done currently. The benefit of growing algae instead of food crops for renewable energy would not only be a lower carbon footprint, but also a way to lower other types of pollution. Nitrogen and phosphate are common water pollutants from a variety of human activities, and algae require the nutrients nitrogen and phosphates for growth. By examining the growth and oil production process of the algae, information can be developed to build a system where algae is used to recycle carbon dioxide and produce value-added products including biofuels. In obtaining as many products from the algae as possible, the cost effectiveness of the process is improved.  So besides looking at oils being converted to biodiesel, the polysaccharides within the cells are of interest to us as they can be fermented into ethanol.

• Spring 2010 – Neil Batta, Shikha Gupta, Divya Kurian
  The students this semester worked jointly to determine the timing of lipid storage after induction, and to follow any changes in both lipid and polysaccharide levels.  The levels of nutrients in the growth media for the cells were carefully measured to more fully understand the tipping point of the induction process.
   
• Fall 2009 – Neil Batta
  One of the problems of obtaining products from algae is that they can be difficult to break open and extract.   Therefore Neil looked at enzymes that will digest components of the cell wall – two polysaccharides – cellulose and pectin.  This process appeared to be of benefit in that the enzymes generated addition simple sugars for fermentation to ethanol.
   
• Summer 2009 (Borer Fellowship) – Tommy Zaikos 
  Much of the oil in the species of algae we worked on is composed of triglycerides. Tommy looked at the process of nutrient depletion leading to lipid storage, and found that in addition to the know response to nitrogen, that phosphate depletion also induced triglyceride storage.  Since one of the problems of using nutrient depletion on a large scale was that the cells stop growing, Tommy’s research showed that by providing the cells with low levels of both nutrients at the same time, cell growth was maintained and lipid storage still took  place.
   
• Spring 2009 – Matthew Flint 
  The algae we worked on were well known for the amount of lipids they could store, but specific types of polysaccharides within the cell had not been investigated. Using several different techniques – cell staining and amylase digestion – Matt demonstrated that starch was also a component of the cell and would be available for conversion into ethanol just as has been done for corn starch.

Embryonic mammary gland development is an intricate process that starts with the initial formation of the mammary milk line between the limb buds. These cells then coalesce along the line to form mammary buds, which will eventually become a mammary ductal tree that fills the mammary fat pad.

The mammary gland remains like this until puberty where hormones become the more dominant signal in mammary gland development. The molecular mechanisms involved in the initial formation of the mammary gland are not well known. Further, there are indications that these same molecular mechanisms play a dominant role during breast cancer and lung development.

Therefore, my lab is focused on studying molecular mechanisms at these stages, to further understanding in the field. Students' research projects are chosen to complement each other, so that we can build on the knowledge we acquire from our experiments.

Presently, we are focused on determining the role of cadherin-11 during mammary gland and lung development. Cadherin-11 is an adhesion molecule that has been implicated to play a role in the epithelial-mesenchymal transition in breast cancer, but its role during development is not well understood.

• Summer 2009 (Borer Fellowship)
  • Ashish Kumar
    Our objective is to examine the role of cadherin-11 in mammary and lung development in cadherin-11 knockout mice. Wild-type and cadherin-11 knockout mice lungs and mammary glands are being examined at different time points in development for changes in transcription of molecules known to be involved in mammary and lung development. We additionally are examining transcriptional changes in genes involved in development of the lung and mammary gland.  We are using whole mounts of the mammary gland at different time points to examine changes in organ morphology.
     
• Fall 2008 and Spring 2009
  • John Nuttall
    Canonical Wnt signaling is required for the initiation of mammary gland morphogenesis, but the downstream effects of this pathway during mammary gland development remain unclear.  The objective of this study was to examine the role of canonical Wnt signaling in the regulation of CDH11 during mammary gland morphogenesis. We used a pharmacological activator of Wnt signaling, LiCl, on the mesenchymal cells, C3H10T1/2, and murine mammary bud cultures and then examined transcriptional and translational changes in CDH11.
  • Alyssa Sparatta
    Previous research demonstrated that BMP4 is involved in mammary gland development. During development, BMP4 appears to be involved in nipple skin formation and repression of hair follicles through MSX2. The objective of this study was to examine whether BMP4 regulates cadherin-11 during mammary gland morphogenesis. We examined both transcriptional and translational changes in cadherin-11 using Real-time PCR and Western blot in C3H10T1/2 cells.
     

• Summer 2008 (Borer Fellowship)

  • Allison Gould
    To further our understanding of the molecular mechanisms involved in mammary gland development, we examined whether PTHrP directs the transcription factor, LEF1, to genes active in mammary development using chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP).
     

• Spring 2008
  
  • Michelle Spears
    The hematopoetic stem cell niche is the essential microenvironment where these stem cells reside, proliferate, and differentiate in bone and bone marrow. Although the niche has been difficult to define, osteoblasts expressing cadherins have been shown to be a crucial part of the environment. Cadherin-11 was shown to be up regulated in osteoblast differentiation. We examined whether PTHrP altered cadherin-11 expression in osteoblasts in the pre-osteoblastic cell line, 3T3-E1 using cell culture, real-time PCR, and Western blot.
  • Emily Tanski
    Mammogenesis in the mouse involves a multitude of signaling pathways between the mesenchyme and epithelium layers.  Canonical Wnt signaling was shown to be required for the formation of the mammary gland and PTHrP signaling was necessary for mammary bud outgrowth. We used the mesenchymal cell line, C3H10T1/2 cells, to examine whether PTHrP and Wnt signaling interact at the transcriptional and translational level.