A group of Michigan State University Department of Theatre students created a series of new audio plays, each connected to themes of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). All five “Audio Anthology” plays, along with a student-produced documentary short, are now available online at theatre.msu.edu/dei_audio.

When the health and safety response to the COVID-19 pandemic caused the Department of Theatre’s entire 2020-2021 production season to be canceled, students were invited to audition for a series of experimental, devised, and novel theatre projects all rooted in topics around DEI.

“Necessity is the mother of invention and having all of these limitations created opportunities,” said Deric McNish, Assistant Professor of Acting and faculty coordinator on the project. “This is not something that is done in the traditional theatrical model. It’s something that is genuinely the creation of the people in this ensemble that everyone has equal ownership over.”

The Audio Anthology project was unlike anything the students had worked on before.

“We were all cast in this project without knowing what it was. Usually, you get cast, and you get handed a script and you rehearse,” said Sam Carter, senior BFA Acting and the anthology’s assistant director. “With the Audio Anthology, we all got the chance to be actors and directors and playwrights, devising a piece about something we were passionate about.”

As a starting point, the group read and discussed dozens of poems from diverse artists, which evoked frank and honest conversations about race, gender, and sexuality as well as personal experiences about how these issues impact the way the students move through the world today. From this experience, they created scenarios and improvised scenes until the basic structure for each play began to take shape. Individuals and groups of students then took on the challenge of weaving these experiences into cohesive audio dramas.

Nealmonté Alexander, a senior dual Fine Arts candidate in Acting and Apparel and Textile Design, took a notably personal approach to the project. He liked the poems the team shared, but did not feel connected to them, so the poetry he used to inspire his play was his own.

The audio play, “Missing Link,” tells the story of a student in a therapy session who discusses issues of ethnicity, identity, intimacy, community, mental health, and being a mixed-race person. The student, Alexander says, is him.

“I had to revisit things in my past, but if I stay silent, I’m doing everyone a disservice and I am hurting myself by not talking about it,” Alexander said. “The character is absolutely me. The experiences that the character goes through are not made-up experiences; they are authentically and personally mine. I’ve experienced the exclusion and feeling disconnected from people for reasons around race, gender identity, and sexual orientation. Making a conscious choice to share this has made it more comfortable for me to talk about it in general.”

For sophomore English major Mary Claire Zauel, the mystery project was a dream opportunity that merged all of her areas of interest.

“As someone who wants to be a playwright, I was excited to combine my passion for poetry and theatre,” said Zauel, whose play, “For Detroit” is inspired by “There Are Birds Here,” a poem by Jamaal May that addresses the uninformed and biased perception that many Michiganders have of Detroit and its citizens.

Zauel read the poem in a class during her freshman year. “As soon as I read it, it quickly became my favorite poem. It really opened my mind,” she said. “When I was given the opportunity to write the play, I felt very honored. It was an emotional experience at times because I felt that I shouldn’t have been the one to write the piece. I’m not from Detroit, I don’t share the same experiences as people who are from Detroit and the character in the play. But the group had a lot of faith in me, I felt very supported by the other cast members and everybody else in the creative team.”

Even after the scripts had been developed, the experience continued to be atypical of what the students had grown to expect from their involvement in past theatre productions.

“Before the plays were cast, we got the opportunity to express which roles we were really excited about or strongly identified with,” Carter said, “which is something an actor never gets to do in a typical audition.”

The art of directing an audio play was also inherently unique, says Zauel. “One of the really positive sides of directing just for audio is the amount of impact that a voice can have, which is something that can be overlooked in physical theater because we’re so focused on where our hands go and how we need to move around the stage.”

Carter agreed, adding that she found physicality to still play a critical role in voice acting. “My characters were in a coffee shop, so I directed the actors to put a coffee in their hands, eat something, take a sip. You could hear that movement in their voice, and it painted a better picture overall.”

The students all agreed that beyond the experience of writing, acting, and directing, the biggest takeaway was the creative bond they’ve formed as a group. For Carter, the anthology brought a newfound confidence as a writer. “I’d never written a script before and all the people who had experience in that area gave me feedback in a super respectful manner that made me feel like I was so capable.”

For Alexander, the lessons learned from the project have already made an impact in his personal life. “When I first submitted my script, I was so nervous. I didn’t know how people would take it. I didn’t think people would like it, but I received validation and positive feedback from Deric and my peers. We discussed how to tackle that kind of vulnerability and it has absolutely helped me in classes and other facets of my life going beyond the project. It’s opened me up to so much.”

McNish hopes that those lessons will now extend from the students to the audience. “If one person listens to these plays and becomes a little more empathetic, a little more kind, maybe if they just listen a little bit better knowing the struggles that people are carrying around with them, then this will be time well spent.”

Visitors to the anthology at theatre.msu.edu/dei_audio will find an audio file of each play, along with the poems that inspired them, links to a transcript of each play, and additional resources and information relating to the themes and topics explored.

To hear a podcast with Alexander, Carter, and Zauel about the experience of creating the anthology, visit theatre.msu.edu/aud.

Written by: Michigan State University
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The humane use of animals to help characterize and design treatments for infectious diseases and genetic disorders is a common research strategy. This practice stems from the concept of “animal models,” which is based on the premise that similar conditions that occur in other evolutionarily related species can broaden the investigative scope of the corresponding human illness. Genetic disorders, in particular, make up about 20% of congenital conditions babies suffer from at birth or shortly thereafter. For the past 35 years, University of Portland’s Biology Associate Professor, Dr. Amelia J. Ahern-Rindell has been working on a sheep animal model of a genetic disorder known as GM1 Gangliosidosis to better understand what is going wrong at the molecular, cellular, and organismal levels. It is only when there is a thorough knowledge of the genetic mutation responsible for causing a genetic disorder, that one can hope to correct the condition and ameliorate the pain and suffering of patients.

GM1 gangliosidosis (GM1) is an autosomal recessively inherited lysosomal storage disorder resulting from a decrease in beta-galactosidase activity. Mutations in the GLB1 gene, which codes for beta-galactosidase, is responsible for the disorder and therefore, contributes to the build-up of GM1 ganglioside in the lysosomes of cells. GM1 ganglioside is a component of the neuronal membrane, and thusly its storage leads to severe neurodegeneration. This is a debilitating and fatal genetic disorder that currently is not treatable. As a result, animal models of GM1 are used to learn more about the condition, especially at the molecular level. The research conducted in Dr. Ahern-Rindell’s laboratory on this sheep GM1 variant has shown this ovine model to be similar clinically, genetically, and pathologically to human GM1. Subsequently, she found that this ovine variant has a single base substitution in the GLB1 gene, which may be the mutation responsible for the decrease in beta-galactosidase activity and the accumulation of GM1 ganglioside found in sheep cells and tissues. If the mutation resulting in this ovine GM1 variant can be confirmed, the sheep model can be used for additional research leading to an eventual treatment, or even a cure.

Research conducted currently at the University of Portland’s laboratory by a senior biology major Christina Buselli, utilizes the new gene-editing technology called CRISPR, Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, to help verify that this suspected base substitution in the GM1-affected sheep is the disorder-causing mutation. Dr. Ahern-Rindell and Buselli are using CRISPR (according to our Institution’s Biosafety Committee guidelines) to introduce edits to the GLB1 gene of unaffected ovine fibroblast cells to reproduce the sequence variation seen in the GM1-affected sheep DNA. Their research goal is to optimize CRISPR editing efficiency in the genetically altered sheep fibroblast cells and then test for a decrease in beta-galactosidase activity. This would provide direct evidence that the base substitution is the causative mutation for this sheep GM1 variant. By utilizing this new CRISPR gene-editing technology coupled with widely practiced cell-culture techniques, Dr. Ahern-Rindell and Buselli hope to make advancements in the study and treatment of the GM1 genetic disorder. However, with this new CRISPR technology comes great responsibility and ethical concerns.

Therefore, Dr. Ahern-Rindell and Buselli applied to the University of Portland’s Dundon-Berchtold Program in the Application of Ethics to also explore the moral use of CRISPR as a gene-editing research tool. The proposed project will help them to conduct scientific research in an ethically acceptable manner and to determine how well-informed the student population is regarding the use of CRISPR to study genetic disorders and its application to treat these fatal conditions. Dr. Ahern-Rindell and Buselli received funding for this academic year as a faculty-student team to design a survey to give to students to assess their knowledge about CRISPR and its use to treat patients with genetic disorders. They received approval from the University of Portland’s Institutional Review Board for the proposed survey and student consent form. Buselli will analyze the survey data and incorporate these findings along with her laboratory research results into her Senior Thesis that she will complete in Spring 2022. She will also give a Seminar Presentation during the University of Portland’s Founders Day celebration in Spring of 2022 when classes are canceled and graduating seniors share their research experiences with the entire campus community. In addition, Buselli will give a presentation at the Dundon-Berchtold Reception in April regarding the CRISPR survey project findings. If possible, Buselli will also attend and present at a national discipline-specific or undergraduate research conference. Hopefully, this senior year of planned activities will make up for the online year Buselli and Dr. Ahern-Rindell persevered through while pursuing the primary literature and coming to better understand the theory behind the methodology they are now employing.

Written by: Amelia Ahern-Rindell and Christina Buselli
Biology Department, University of Portland, Portland, Oregon

Whether it’s the shifting of shadows around a sundial, the tick-tock of clock gears or the beep of a digital watch, we use man-made devices to tell time. But how do we perceive time? 

That was the question graduating senior Tristan Aft set out to better quantify with research that looks at how rats process time. Under the guidance of physics professor Sorinel Oprisan, Aft studied how rats perceive time using predictive models based on data from experiments conducted with rats at the University of Utah.

Aft created a complex mathematical model to gauge how rats trained in timed behavioral tests respond based on changes to the hippocampus, an area of the brain associated with memory. The results showed that depending on the location of pharmacologically induced changes, a rat’s perception of certain time values (10 seconds, 20 seconds, 30 seconds) either increased or decreased – meaning they did their trained task earlier or later.

“It, in part, shows how the sense of timing is organized in the brain,” says Aft, a double major in math and physics with a concentration in computational neuroscience.

That’s heady stuff.

But Aft wasn’t always so focused on space and time. He started out his college career wanting to major in biochemistry. After touring research labs across Germany as part of a study abroad neuroscience seminar with biology professor Christopher Korey, his interests began to change. And when Korey connected Aft with Oprisan, the stage was set for the ambitious student’s switch from biochemistry to physics and math.

Aft worked on his research regarding time perception with Oprisan for three years, an effort that paid off when he won the best poster award for the Department of Physics and Astronomy in the School of Sciences and Mathematics Undergraduate Research Poster Session in April 2018.

“I was really surprised that I won [for physics research],” says Aft, noting that the type of research in the neuroscience concentration is very niche within the realm of physics. “I’m not looking at the molecular structure of a solid. I’m not looking at stars.”

Oprisan was instrumental in shaping him as a researcher, says Aft, who was also published in 2017 as a co-author on related research in the Journal of Theoretical Biology.

“I feel like he’s been pretty important in terms of my growth as a student,” says Aft. “I have developed as a researcher, becoming someone who can ask questions and push forward with experiments to find answers.”

As a student in the College’s 4 1 program, earning both his bachelor’s and master’s in mathematical sciences, Aft will remain at the College after graduation this week to complete his master’s degree.

The big question will be what does he do with his time when he leaves CofC? Long-term, the Florida native wants to pursue a doctoral degree in either math or physics. Either way, Aft likes the idea of solving complex problems.

“It’s nice feeling like you understand something,” he says.

Only time will tell what that something is.

Written by: Amanda Kerr for The College Today

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Two Maryville College students have been granted a total of more than $9,000 through the Appalachian College Association’s (ACA) Ledford Scholarship to fund summer research projects. 

Named for Colonel Lee B. Ledford, the scholarship program offers financial assistance for students who are enrolled at ACA member institutions and conducting summer research in the fields of laboratory and field work, interviews, analyzing special collections and participant observation.

“I’m pleased and proud that the ACA awarded Ledford Scholarships to two of our students. We’ve received several over the years, in fact. But I’m always grateful for more support.” said Dr. Dan Klingensmith, vice president and dean of the College. “Undergraduate research is a great way of learning problem-solving skills and critical thinking – and patience, too! Experience in research at the undergrad level also gives students an advantage in applying to graduate school.”

A total of 42 students enrolled at 16 ACA institutions were awarded scholarships. The student will present the outcomes of their research at the annual ACA Summit in the fall. 

Lamb studying terpenes in fermentation process

Mackenzie Lamb ’23, a chemistry major from Powell, Tenn., was awarded $4,600 Ledford Scholarship to research terpenes, or the aromatic and flavor compounds, in hops. 

“I’m looking at the bioconversion of terpenes in the fermentation process, but I’m specifically looking at the hops rather than the beer itself,” said Lamb, who is working under the supervision of Dr. Nathan Duncan, associate professor of Chemistry at MC. “Right now, I’ve been running lots of extractions on different strains and varieties of hops.”

The primary goal of this project is to determine if and what extent new terpene compounds are formed when various hop terpenes are introduced to a fermentable environment consisting of a basic media of yeast and sugar, according to the project proposal. Secondary goals are to determine what affects changes in temperature, pressure, and yeast strain have on terpene bioconversion and production during fermentation. 

Lamb said she approached Duncan about research opportunities, and when he told her about the beer project, she found it really interesting. She hopes to keep working on it throughout her time at MC and “make it almost three years’ worth of work as a Senior Study, ” and she hopes to be able to publish her results following the completion of the project. 

“I’m starting to fall in love with this side of it because it’s not something that I’ve been exposed to – in general chemistry and organic lab, you don’t really get that full lab experience – now that I’m in the lab every day, I just love it, ” she said. “I’m getting so much instrumentation experience that a lot of people don’t even get as an undergrad, not to mention just the research experience itself. All these things that I can add onto a resume whenever I’m applying to grad schools and different jobs, too. I think it’s going to be huge for me.”

Brown analyzing Arctic ocean bed sediments

Arianna Brown ’24, a rising sophomore who is double majoring in biochemistry and exercise science, received a $4,600 Ledford Scholarship to study the potential effects that climate change will have on the biogeochemical cycling of nutrients – and how that will affect microbial communities living in the Arctic. 

She is working under the supervision of Dr. Jow Buongiorno, assistant professor of environment biology at MC, who collected Arctic ocean bed sediments in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard during previous research projects.

“I am analyzing sediment of Svalbard fjords and how benthic microorganisms rely on terrestrial nutrients for their metabolic processes, including carbon demineralization through iron and sulfate reduction,” said Brown, who is from Maryville, Tenn. “In addition, these microorganisms are key players in alterations of reactive pools of iron, which has direct implications for the delivery of biolabile iron for primary productivity on the shelf. This is important work in terms of climate change because the Arctic has experienced changes in glacial hydrology, including ice thinning and glacial retreat because it is warming at a rate two to three times faster than the rest of the globe.”

Brown said she became interested while reading Buongiorno’s published journal articles on research preceding this project. 

“Microbiology never seemed to interest me much before, because I found it difficult to connect procedures in a lab to the real biological processes and their impacts in the real world,” said Brown. “Dr. Buongiorno’s papers helped me to see how the smallest DNA fragments can provide us with so much knowledge about the processes happening in arctic fjords thousands of miles away, and what those processes mean about the changing world. I wanted to be a part of a deep dive into one of the many effects of climate warming and was excited to start with this project.”

Brown said the Ledford Scholarship will allow her to fain experience in many lab processes and data analysis, such as the quantification of bacteria and archea using qPCR – and understanding and being able to perform this test and many others is “essential to my growth as a scientist, ” she said. This scholarship will allow her to collaborate with students at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, who are working on similar projects. 

“This collaboration along with learning more about working in a lab and biogeochemistry and microbial communities will provide me with invaluable experiences and knowledge to prepare me in my education journey going forward,” she said. “I have fallen in love with the work that I am doing, and the work of scientists who have and are working on similar projects. I could continue to do research on different projects similar to this one for my Senior Study, but being an upcoming sophomore, I am open to other learning opportunities as well.”

With aspirations to attend medical school after graduating Maryville College, Brown said her research experience will be invaluable during the medical school application process, as well as her time in medical school.

“Going into medical school requires one to be well-educated in many different sciences and be well versed in the scientific research literature, ” she said. “Research during undergrad is favored for candidates applying to medical school. An example of processes applicable to the medical field is qPCR, which is the most reliable test for COVID-19 testing. This test and others have many applications that will be central to developing my lab skills. Because this is my first experience being able to learn one-on-one and having independence in a lab, this opportunity provides me with the ability to learn and develop my research skills with Dr. Biongiorno’s guidance.” 

Written by: MC News 

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As the novel coronavirus pandemic began shuttering many business operations worldwide in March 2020, uncertainties abounded. There were more questions than answers, from personal and community health concerns to navigating new restrictions in the workplace.

Like many scientists, Jen Owen, an associate professor in the Michigan State University Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, endeavored to continue her research uninterrupted. She wondered how it could be done safely to avoid data gaps.

“We have a long-term dataset, and if we took a year off because of the coronavirus, it could leave significant knowledge gaps,” Owen said. “We had to come up with a solution quickly, which increases the pressure on everyone. Thankfully, I have a great group that took on the challenge.”

Owen, who also holds an appointment in the Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences, and her team study behavior and disease ecology in migratory birds. She has collected more than a decade’s worth of data through bird banding. Using this essential tool, scientists can learn about population size, dispersal, behavior, disease prevalence and life span, among other information.

Necessity is the mother of invention

For the uninitiated, bird banding is a fascinating spectacle to behold, one that requires a keen eye and a practiced hand. The very nature of it complicates safety matters during a global pandemic. That’s because the primary bird handler collecting data must remain maskless.

To identify a bird’s fat storage — a key health indicator — specially trained researchers use their mouths to blow apart feathers, looking for small yellow sacs of fat located underneath. Determining other traits such as sex may necessitate blowing to separate feathers as well.

“This isn’t a normal laboratory situation where I can simply tell people to wear masks and stand six feet apart,” Owen said. “Blowing on the birds is really the only way to determine fat storage, which is one of our most important pieces of information on each bird. It tells us a lot about their overall health and whether they are getting fat enough to make their migratory journey. We had to come up with a way to allow the bander to be maskless while other field staff wearing masks were still around to record data and help with the process.”

Owen asked her team for ideas, and what emerged was a practical, elegant solution: Build a three-sided structure in which the bander can sit at a table without a mask. The wooden frame is fitted with plexiglass sides, and a small hole allows for birds to be released after measurements are taken. Two wooden poles with pulleys extend from the back of the box, allowing masked individuals outside to attach bags that each contain a bird. When ready, the bander uses the pulley system to bring the next bird inside. Modifications have been made to improve the design, such as a microphone for communication with those outside of the box. Other bird banding stations have taken notice.

“We posted photos and a description of the box on Facebook and immediately received positive feedback,” Owen said. “We’ve had bird banding stations reach out to us and ask about the design. All stations were concerned about a lost season, so seeing something that allowed us to do the research resonated with them.”

Pursuing a passion

Leading the design efforts for the bird banding box were two fisheries and wildlife undergraduate students, Hannah Landwerlen and Evan Griffis, who each brought excitement and a different skill set to the process.

Landwerlen, who has since graduated with her bachelor’s degree in fisheries and wildlife, was a member of Owen’s research team for the majority of her undergraduate tenure.

As a freshman with her sights set on a degree in zoology and eventually veterinary school, Landwerlen began browsing MSU websites for potential research opportunities.

“I saw a doctoral student of Jen’s working with West Nile virus in American robins. I applied to be a part of that project, and it was the beginning of seeing career possibilities I didn’t know about,” Landwerlen said.

Extracting birds from mist nets was one of the initial tasks to master. She excelled and wanted to know more about birds and the banding process. As a sophomore, Landwerlen became a mist net intern, handling birds for a variety of banding projects. A conversation with Owen prompted a change of major to fisheries and wildlife.

“I’ve learned so much about bird banding and disease ecology from Jen and appreciate working with her,” Landwerlen said. “She had a huge impact on my career choice, which I believe sets me up to do any number of things in the future.”

Griffis, who grew up in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, was confident that fisheries and wildlife was the major for him. His enthusiasm for birdwatching began when he was a teenager, rapidly shifting from hobby to career goal.

“The extensive bird research was the initial draw to MSU for me,” said Griffis, now a sophomore. “Being a field technician has allowed me to get involved with all sorts of activities, such as building the banding box. I enjoy building things, so this was a good chance to practice those skills in a very practical way.”

Griffis put his construction expertise on display with his thoughtful design contributions and carpentry acumen. He helped compile a list of needed materials for the banding box and did most of the building alongside Landwerlen.

Owen marvels at the drive shown by Griffis to learn and grow, both as a team member and scientist.

“I’m really fortunate to have talented and passionate students, and Evan is the perfect example of that,” she said. “We couldn’t have made the progress we have with banding…. I am excited that Evan is around for another couple years to contribute to our migratory bird research, but I also really look forward to seeing how his experiences at MSU shape the path he follows after he graduates.”

Written by: MSU Today | Cameron Rudolph, Media Contact

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