My honors thesis, “The Upstream Regulation of Xmsr, A Gene Involved in Vascular and Neural Development,” will focus on how Xmsr is regulated, via elements located upstream of the coding region of the gene, in neural (specifically retinal) development in Xenopus laevis (aka the African Clawed Frog).  Xmsr, which stands for “Xenopus mesenchyme serpentine receptor,” is a gene which codes for a G-protein coupled receptor that is important in vascular and neural development in vertebrates.  While its role in vascular development is well characterized, not much research has been devoted to understanding how Xmsr is regulated in neural development.

That’s where I come in.

In order to study Xmsr’s regulation, 2,200 nucleotide bases of the upstream region were cloned and incorporated into a transgene to drive expression of GFP (Green Fluorescent Protein).  This transgene was then injected into frog sperm nuclei to create special transgenic frogs, which are easily distinguishable from wild type, endogenous frogs by their green glowing nervous systems.  I have compared the expression of GFP in the transgenic frog embryos to the expression of Xmsr in endogenous frog embryos.  The visible differences in expression patterns suggest that key regulatory elements of Xmsr are absent within the 2,200 base upstream region driving the transgene.  Starting this summer and continuing throughout the year, I will attempt to identify the(se) regulator element(s), using a bioinformatic and transgenic approach.

Wish me luck!

Aly

Roberts International Airport

I have been in Monrovia for about a week now, and my research is progressing quickly. In addition to getting settled and adjusted to life in Liberia, I have had the opportunity to meet with many of the high-ranking officials who oversee the fishing industry in Liberia. With the help of my main contact in Liberia, Sheck Sherif, I had the chance to meet with the Coordinator of the Bureau of National Fisheries (BNF), William Y. Boeh, and many other BNF staff members on Tuesday, May 14. After explaining my study and receiving their approval, the BNF graciously offered me office space in their building and two staff members who will work full-time on my project.

Meeting at the Bureau of National Fisheries with Coordinator William Y. Boeh (far left), my main contact Sheck Sherif (far right), and other BNF staff members.

With the bureaucratic approval behind me, I have made major strides in collecting background information about the seven fishing communities in Montserrado County. Professor Roessler and I have analyzed the data and decided that five of the seven communities in Montserrado are similar enough for random selection. Starting next week, I will visit one of the communities not chosen for the study to do some ethnographic research and try to get a better sense of what life is like for them, how they conceive of fishing productivity, and how the solar lights will help. Next, I will pilot two different versions of the Liberia Energy Network’s solar lights with a random fisherman from the same village to determine which model of the light should be used for the study. At that point, I will be ready to randomly select my 75 participants and implement the baseline survey.

Outside of my research, I have had the opportunity to do some exploring in Monrovia. While it is clear that the 14-year civil war (1989-2003) has had devastating effects on the city’s infrastructure and formal economy, the people appear positive and eager to see Liberia develop. The streets are flooded with markets and Liberian taxis, and everyone is constantly communicating via their mobile phones.

Pen-Pens: Liberian taxis

Aside from my communication with the employees at the BNF, I have not interacted with the locals as much as I would like. However, Sheck’s younger brother, Solo, plays for a semi-profession soccer team in Monrovia, and he has offered to bring me to their practices this weekend. Not only will these practices give me the chance to meet more Liberians, but they also provide me an opportunity to show them that Americans can play football too!

That is all for now. By the time I write my next post, the solar lights should be in the hands of the two treatment groups and the study will be underway!

Will

My advisor, Professor Joanna Schug, is one of the pioneering researchers of  new cross-cultural psychology paradigm called relational mobility. Relational mobility describes the degree of fluidity in social bonds within a community. When relational mobility is high, it is easy to form new relationships and leave old ones, and when it is low, relational groups change much less often and easily. A particularly stark difference in relational mobility has been found between America (very high relational mobility) and Japan (very low relational mobility). Professor Schug and I have since been interested in uncovering some of the social implications of relational mobility. So far, relational mobility has been found to affect similarity of relational partners, the degree of small talk, trust in strangers, and willingness to divulge personal information.

The way that relational mobility affects social norms governing interactions with strangers is the most relevant implication to my honor’s thesis. Many psychology studies in America have found that people respond in particular ways when presented with a visual image of a stranger’s face, particularly a face showing intense emotion. These reactions are then often generalized as being automatic and universal human traits. This is problematic, because psychological tendencies found in one culture do not necessarily apply to other cultures as well. A pioneering 2010 study by Henrich, Heine, and Norenzayan found that people in other countries responded very differently to standard psychological tests, such as the Asch conformity task, than American participants. Yet most psychological research is still performed on the very homogenous population of American undergraduate students.

In collaboration with colleagues in Japan, I will be conducting a study examining how American and Japanese students respond to facial images of strangers. Because America and Japan have such different levels of relational mobility, which influences how people interact with strangers, it is possible that the human response to emotional faces is more culture- and context-dependent than previously thought.

For my research project this summer, I propose to analyze the life and work of three twentieth century Spanish poets, Miguel Hernández, Marcos Ana, and Ángeles García-Madrid. All three poets supported the democratic Republican cause during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and worked as political activists and volunteers. After the victory of Francisco Franco’s nationalist forces however, they used their art and writing to record and criticize the grand injustice of the regime. Theorist José Ignacio Álvarez Fernández proposes that the numerous testimonies written by political prisoners of the Franco regime represent a “community of memory,” which preserves the personal and collective history of the republican side of the Spanish Civil War. I will analyze how the poetry of Ana, García-Madrid, and Hernández helps to form this “community of memory.” I will further analyze how their poetry and art works within this community to preserve the history of the “losers” of the war and honor their memory.

This research represents the culmination of my past three years of study within the Hispanic Studies department at WM. I was introduced to the work of Hernández as a freshman and have maintained a strong interest in his life and work ever since. I cannot wait to get started!

Cheers,

Jacob Sprang

Through organic synthesis and molecular biology techniques, I am working towards developing various photo-caged bioactive compounds.  Essentially, I am taking active molecules and synthesizing them with a photo-protecting group, rendering the molecule inactive.  Then, upon UV-light exposure the photo-protecting group is removed and the molecule regains it’s functionality.  This type of technology has potential in drug therapy because it provides an added degree of special and temporal control, eliminating the unfortunate side effects caused by current chemotherapeutic agents.

For example, theophylline, is a small organic ligand that is capable of binding to an RNA ribozyme and induces self-cleavage to release a microRNA.  MicroRNA are relatively short, single stranded RNA fragments capable of suppressing the translation of a specific protein by complimentary base-pairing to messenger RNA. Therefore, in the presence of free theophylline, the microRNA is produced and the expression of the particular protein is suppressed.  However, if a photo-protecting group is present on the theophylline molecule, this mechanism is inactivated until the system is exposed to UV-light.

Additionally, I have been using this technique to synthesize unnatural amino acids.    Unnatural amino acids serve as a mechanism to expand the genetic code and study the effects of diverse functional groups on proteins.  Site-specific incorporation of these newly synthesized protein building blocks involves significant manipulation of translational machinery. For example, a photo-caged amino acid with an alkynyl group can serve as a handle for “click” reactions. Thus, a therapeutic agent, such as an antibody or miRNA, can be conjugated into the protein and also be readily photo-cleaved with light.

Thank you for following my blog, I’m excited to get working on these projects this summer.

- Jackie