A team of Syracuse University researchers have published a study exploring how genomic diversity of acetic acid bacteria can alter properties of sourdough. Pictured are sourdough starters grown up from experimental communities (from the left: control [no microbes added], yeast only, yeast plus lactic acid bacteria, yeast plus lactic acid bacteria plus acetic acid bacteria).

When millions of people��went into lockdown��during the��pandemic, they went in search of new at-home hobbies to help cure their boredom. Among them was making sourdough bread. In addition to being sustainable for its use of natural ingredients and traditional methods which date back thousands of years to ancient Egypt, it also is valued for its nutritional benefits. For example, studies have shown that sourdough contains more vitamins, minerals and antioxidants compared to many other types of bread. For people with mild sensitivities to gluten, sourdough bread can be easier to digest since much of the gluten is broken down during the fermentation process. What’s more, many lactic acid bacteria species, which are foundational to sourdough, are considered probiotics, associated with improved gastrointestinal health.

A Flavor Profile Years in the Making

The process of making sourdough bread begins with a sourdough starter. These starters are created when microbes–communities of bacteria and yeast–stabilize in a flour and water mixture. Known as a microbiome, this community of wild yeast and bacteria is what makes sourdough bread rise and contributes to its taste and texture. Sourdough notably differs from most bread because it relies on this starter of wild microbes to help it rise instead of baker’s yeast packets.

Many sourdough starters are preserved over generations, with some samples dating back thousands of years. To maintain a sourdough starter, you extract a sample from a previous dough and mix it into new flour and water. With enough transfers of the sourdough starter, the microbial community will be composed of the yeast, lactic acid bacteria (LAB), and acetic acid bacteria (AAB) that are best adapted to the sourdough environment. What makes different sourdough starters unique are the varying strains of yeast and bacteria that produce the distinctive sour flavor.

Testing Genetic Diversity

Advances in sequencing technology have enabled researchers to rapidly profile microbial communities, such as the sourdough microbiome. In the College of Arts and Sciences, members of biology professor����lab have been studying acetic acid bacteria to determine how genetic diversity of AAB impacts sourdough communities.

Professor Angela Oliverio (left), Nimshika Senewiratne (middle), a Ph.D. candidate in Oliverio’s lab, and Beryl Rappaport (right), a Ph.D. student in Oliverio’s lab, co-authored a study which characterized acetic acid bacteria (AAB) from 500 sourdough starters to better understand how genetic diversity of AAB influences characteristics of sourdough.

While previous research has focused more on lactic acid bacteria and yeast, the ecology, genomic diversity and functional contributions of AAB in sourdough remain largely unknown. Beryl Rappaport, a Ph.D. student in Oliverio’s group, recently led a paper published in , a journal of the American Society for Microbiology, where she and other sourdough scientists, including Oliverio, Nimshika Senewiratne from the Oliverio lab, SU biology professor��, and professor Ben Wolfe from Tufts University, sequenced 29 AAB genomes from a collection of over 500 sourdough starters and constructed synthetic starter communities in the lab to define the ways in which AAB shape emergent properties of sourdough. The team’s work was supported by a��awarded to Oliverio earlier this year.

“While not as common in sourdough as lactic acid bacteria, acetic acid bacteria are better known for their dominant roles in other fermented foods like vinegar and kombucha,” says Rappaport. “For this study, we were interested in following up on previous findings which stated that when present in sourdough, AAB seems to have a strong impact on key properties including scent profile and metabolite production, which shape overall flavor formation.”

Plates testing for presence or absence of microbes grown in synthetic sourdough communities.

To assess the consequences of AAB on the emergent function of sourdough starter microbiomes, their team tested 10 strains of AAB, some distantly related and some very closely related. They set up manipulative experiments with these 10 strains, adding each one to a community of yeast and LAB. They kept a separate community of just yeast and LAB to serve as the control.

“Since we can manipulate what microbes and what concentrations of microbes go into these synthetic sourdough communities, we could see the direct effects of adding each strain of AAB to sourdough,” says Rappaport. “As we expected, every strain of AAB lowered the pH of the synthetic sourdough (associated with increasing sourness) since they release acetic acid and other acids as byproducts of their metabolic processes. Unexpectedly, however, AAB that were more closely related did not release more similar compounds. In fact, there was high variation in metabolites, many related to flavor formation, even between strains of the same species.”

Lauryn Gouldin (Photo by Marilyn Hesler)

, Crandall Melvin Professor of Law and a 2022-25 Laura J. & L. Douglas Meredith Professor of Teaching Excellence, is one of three researchers on the��project, “.”��She and , assistant professor of computer science at the University of Virginia (formerly of Syracuse University) and , associate professor of computer science and engineering at Washington University in St. Louis received a $600,000 National Science Foundation (NSF) grant for the research. They are examining three issues: the uniformity and fairness of criminal court-date scheduling processes, if individual circumstances are considered when setting court dates, and whether a “smarter” computerized system can produce more equity and efficiency in those processes.

Ensuring that defendants who are released before trial return to court as scheduled is one of the primary goals of the pretrial process, Gouldin says. “Fortunately, data across jurisdictions suggest that most defendants show up for court as required. With bail reform efforts in many jurisdictions leading to higher rates of pretrial release, courts are focused on ensuring that pretrial appearance rates remain high,” she says.

Scheduling court appearances on dates and at times that work for defendants will help keep pretrial appearance rates high and avoid court system inefficiencies, she believes. Many factors—often legitimate hardships—can influence whether a defendant appears in court when scheduled. Gouldin says those factors are not consistently considered by courts and there is little uniformity in how appearance dates are scheduled from court to court.

The researchers are working to produce a system that predicts dates and times when defendants are more likely to appear versus being assigned an arbitrary court date or time. They believe having that knowledge, along with more flexibility in scheduling court dates—such as setting evening or weekend appearance dates—could improve pretrial appearance rates and create a more equitable scheduling process overall.

No-Show Factors

“Whether a defendant can appear in court when assigned depends on individual circumstances. Some may have work or school obligations or need to find childcare or arrange transportation. Others having substance addictions or mental health issues may be more at risk to miss dates; some defendants just don’t understand the court system; and people with disabilities may face specific challenges getting to court on time. In addition, some defendants who must repeatedly return to court can wait all day for their cases to be called, then find out the proceedings are postponed for a month,” Gouldin says.

But criminal courts can be inflexible, she adds. “Maintaining a perfect attendance record under these circumstances, and when so many court appearances are adjourned seems especially unreasonable. I believe courts can likely improve pretrial appearance rates by developing more flexible scheduling practices that account for these challenges.”

Data Input

This summer, Gouldin is working with research assistants to develop partnerships with judges, court administrators, pretrial service offices and criminal defense organizations in Syracuse and across New York State to collect data on the information that courts consider and the processes they use to schedule criminal cases.

Fioretto and Yeoh will take that data and apply what they call “” a scheduling approach that integrates machine learning algorithms with mathematical optimization and computerized logical reasoning. The AI-based approach aims to predict dates and times when an individual would be more likely to be able to appear in court. The researchers will incorporate defendants’ potential constraints into the date predictions and then develop mechanisms to ensure that court appearances are scheduled fairly for defendants of different races and genders.

Time, Money Costs

Fairness is an important consideration because judges can impose consequences for missing scheduled appearances even when defendants have justifiable reasons for not showing up, according to Gouldin. “Judges often make high-stakes decisions that implicate fundamental liberty interests, such as detaining defendants before trial or imposing bail, electronic monitoring, pretrial supervision or curfews. Failures to appear also become part of a defendant’s court record and may impact future pretrial liberty.”

The researchers are also mindful of the court’s administrative efficiency goals. Missed court dates mean inconveniences and costs of time and money for judges, attorneys, court personnel, witnesses and other defendants whose cases may be delayed as a result, as well.

Phase 2

Gouldin hopes eventually to gather court appearance data that will include defendants’ demographic details to assess whether specific factors affect the ability or inability to meet a pre-set court appointment. That step could reveal further ways to increase fairness in scheduling, she says. Having individuals return for their court appearances is more important than ever now, Gouldin says, because pretrial reforms in the U.S. over the past 10 years have overhauled traditional money bail systems so that more defendants are released before trial.

Gouldin’s pre-trial appearance work has been cited in federal court decisions, in state and federal amicus briefs and in testimony to the House Judiciary Committee. In 2022, she served as a consulting expert for federal litigation where a Tulsa County, Oklahoma money bail system was eventually deemed unconstitutional. Her article, “Keeping Up Appearances,” an analysis of law and policies governing pretrial appearance, which has been developed in part with the support of the NSF grant, is due to be published in the University of California Davis Law Review later this year.

Angela Oliverio

Each fermented food—kombucha, sauerkraut or sourdough bread—is the result of an active, unique microbiome, which is the microbial community in a particular environment. A sourdough starter, for instance, is a distinctive community of yeasts and bacteria that ferments carbohydrates in flour and produces carbon dioxide gas, making bread dough rise before baking.

Microbiomes often bump into each other, such as when two people shake hands. They can trade microbes while keeping their original integrity intact. However, microbiomes can be accidentally or purposely mixed, creating new microbial systems and functions. Agricultural soils and their microbiomes are often blended and reassembled to improve crop productivity.

Scientists term these mixing events as community coalescence, but little is known about this process or its outcomes.

“We have a poor understanding of community coalescence,” says��, an assistant professor of biology. “We lack a theoretical framework to help predict what happens during coalescence, and we lack model systems to test its effects.”

Oliverio has been awarded a����to study the mechanisms of community coalescence in synthetic microbiomes constructed in the lab. Her team uses microbial model systems that are easy to culture and replicate.

“We aim to learn how microbiomes reassemble when they mix,” Oliverio says. “We want to see how mixing events impact the function of microbiomes and how often new communities with novel functions form.”

The Olivero lab houses a library of 500 global sourdough starter samples previously collected from community scientists globally. Her co-investigator at Tufts University has developed a library of kombucha samples.

The researchers are addressing fundamental questions about how complex systems work.

“We are culturing different isolates from these wild samples that we can then put together in synthetic communities and coalesce them with each other,” Oliverio says. “We will use genomics tools to see if there are attributes at the genome level that we can use to predict how coalescence will occur.”

Oliverio’s team plans to use RNA tools to understand how the transcription of communities shifts when they encounter another community or microbiome.

Samples of microbial cultures from Oliverio’s lab.

“These genomic tools could offer us hypotheses about how this process occurs at a metabolic level, so we can predict which community components will be successful,” says Oliverio. “But we also think we can develop useful tools for microbiome engineering with a potential to improve manipulation of microbiomes that are relevant to medicine and industry.”

Oliverio plans to take advantage of the appeal of fermented food systems to increase public interest in microbiology.

“People have questions about food, especially sourdough starters, and that’s a good way to connect with people and perhaps get them excited about microbiology,” she says. “Everyone wants to tell me about their sourdough starter, and that’s a starting point for a conversation.”

She is developing an undergraduate course in computational biology and genomics, using sourdough starters as a “charismatic tool” to learn those topics.

“The idea is that students will start their own sourdough culture, isolate microbes from it, sequence those microbes, and then learn how to assemble and analyze genomes from their own sample.”

Story by John H. Tibbetts

David Althoff

is an associate professor and associate chair of the Department of Biology in Syracuse University’s College of Arts and Sciences. He answers six questions about the upcoming cicada season and what it could mean for plants and predators that feed on these insects. He is available for interviews.

Q: Can you talk a bit about what’s expected with the emergence of the two cicada broods this spring?

A: Each brood will produce millions of adult cicadas across their ranges in the Midwest and southeastern U.S. The noise made by calling males will be intense given that males of both broods will be calling for females.

Q: What the commonalities and differences between the rare broods of cicadas hatching this spring, and the annual cicadas we normally see?

A: The periodic cicadas that will emerge have adapted to emerge based on length of time rather than growth rate of their larvae, in contrast to the annual cicadas that emerge once they reach a certain size.�� Otherwise, in terms of their natural history the cicada types are quite similar.

Q: Your research focus includes the interactions among plants and insects. How could this massive awakening of cicadas impact plant life in the affected areas?

A: Adult cicadas will be siphoning nutrients from trees and depending upon how many are on a single tree could cause damage to the tree.�� This could be particularly important for younger and smaller trees.�� Conversely, when the adults die, they fall to the ground and release nutrients back into the soil.

Q: What about the impact on other insects and animals in places where the cicadas will hatch?

A: For the most part, cicadas will not impact other insects much.�� They will, however, fill the bellies of predators that feed on them. In some cases, this can lead population increases in predators in subsequent years following a large emergence.

Q: Has there been any conversation around or evidence that the warming climate is having any sort of impact on these insect events?

A: I haven’t heard of any direct tests of the effects of global warming on periodic cicadas as they emerged based on length of time.�� For annual cicadas, warmer temperatures could potentially lead to faster growth and emergence.��

Q: Based on your own perspective and research – what interests you most about this expected cicada event?

A: Cicada emergences like this always remind about how incredibly prolific insects can be and how they are an integral part of natural communities.�� It is also amazing to think that these millions of cicadas were living most of their lives right under our feet.�� I like how such events really get the public engaged with their natural surroundings and learning a bit about insects in general.

To request interviews or get more information:

Daryl Lovell
Associate Director of Media Relations
Division of Communications

M��315.380.0206
dalovell@syr.edu |

Syracuse University

Accomplishing that feat every year requires extensive time, dedication and expertise, and in the NIH’s own wording, only those who have “demonstrated competence and achievement in [their] scientific discipline as evidenced by the quality of [their] research accomplishments, publications in scientific journals and other significant scientific activities, achievements and honors,” are invited to take part.

Carlos Castañeda (left) and Jessica MacDonald

Two associate professors of biology in the College of Arts and Sciences, ��and��, joined their ranks beginning this summer, having accepted standing memberships in the�� and the , respectively.

A standing membership represents a significant commitment of professional time and dedicated energy—one that can be tricky to balance with teaching and research workloads. A member typically spends several weeks reviewing 10 to twelve applications of 60-100 pages each before each meeting, and then prepares a detailed written report and presentation in order to discuss the application with the rest of the committee. Castañeda accepted a six-year appointment, with a commitment to join two of the section’s three meetings each year; MacDonald’s membership is for four years, meeting three times each year.

In return for that commitment, of course, the work promises significant rewards—in the opportunity to contribute to the nation’s biomedical research efforts, while raising the research profile of Syracuse as an institution as well as advancing the professors’ own scientific goals.

“I’ve often found that evaluating and reading grants lets you see what’s happening at the edge of science,” says Castañeda, who joined the Syracuse faculty in 2014, appointed jointly to the departments of biology and chemistry after earning a Ph.D. in biophysics from Johns Hopkins University and doing postdoctoral work at the University of Maryland College Park. “[It’s useful to see] what are new and up-and-coming techniques, and to track where the field is going and what is pushing the next set of scientific questions.”

The section that he is a part of is unique in that it exclusively reviews����grants, which fall within the purview of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) and provide funding for laboratories doing broad-based biomedical research. “A lot of basic science grants are reviewed at that institute,” Castañeda says. “My [section] is focused on biochemistry and biophysics, such as understanding how proteins and other macromolecules work.”

MIRA grants are intended to fund a lab for a period of five years, for both established and new- or early-stage investigators. Introduced in 2016, the MIRA program was created to provide funding stability, greater flexibility and higher acceptance rates than more typical R01 project grants. There has been a shift within NIGMS to this model, with an increasing number of MIRA grants funded each year.

MacDonald’s standing membership in the DBD Study Section, which reviews grant applications to study the factors that lead to abnormal brain development and function, dovetails with her own work focusing on how disruptions in genetic and epigenetic mechanisms cause neurodevelopmental and cognitive disorders. The applications reviewed investigate a mix of pre-clinical research on brain development and clinical studies involving human patients.

Before joining the Syracuse faculty in 2015, MacDonald was a postdoctoral fellow in stem cell and regenerative biology at Harvard University; she earned a Ph.D. in neuroscience from the University of British Columbia.

While the specific grants she reviews fall into her areas of expertise, every member of the section sees and hears the details of each application presented. “It gives me a very different perspective on the research,” she says. “My lab is a basic research lab focused on understanding mechanisms of brain development and disorders. Participating in this study section allows me to better understand how to translate our research into clinical studies.”

Both professors have been recipients of NIH funding themselves: MacDonald a����from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke supporting her ongoing research into Rett Syndrome; Castañeda a�� enabling him and his team to investigate the underlying cell mechanisms linked to neurodegenerative diseases such as ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease). As a pragmatic advantage, they note that participating in the review process helps them to gain a better understanding about what makes a successful grant application—wisdom they can share with their colleagues.

“It’s helpful in the sense that [reading grants] helps you write grants,” Castañeda says. “You can see the best way to tell a story. And as we learn what works and doesn’t work, we can tell other people here at [Syracuse]. Hopefully that will raise everyone’s research profiles.”

Story by Laura Wallis

During two days of talks, poster sessions and presentations, the symposium will showcase the work of undergraduate and graduate students, doctoral associates and faculty affiliated with the University-based research institute. The event is free and open to the public. .

We sat down with , BioInspired Institute director and professor of in the , to learn more about the projects and activities that will be featured at the symposium.

Amanita muscaria, an ectomycorrhizal fungus, is shown from the B4WARMED experiment. These types of fungi play an important role in forest health and may be in danger under current levels of climate warming. (Credit: Louis Mielke)

Children are taught to leave wild mushrooms alone because of their potential to be poisonous. But trees on the other hand depend on fungi for their well-being. Look no further than ectomycorrhizal fungi, which are organisms that colonize the roots of many tree species where the boreal ecosystem (zone encompassing Earth’s northernmost forests) and the temperate ecosystem (zone between the tropical and boreal regions) meet. This area features a mix of boreal trees, including needle-leaved evergreens and temperate tree species, including maple and oak.

Just like a healthy human relationship, trees and fungi work well together because they help one another. When the ectomycorrhizal fungi attach themselves to tree roots, they acquire carbon in the form of sugars from their tree hosts and in turn provide the trees with important nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorous. It’s an important symbiotic relationship that drives ecosystem function and resilience.

But as climate change and global warming cause higher temperatures and amplified drought, little is known about how these important fungi will respond. Additionally, there are lingering questions about how climate warming will impact the underground threads—known as ectomycorrhizal networks—formed by fungi that connects trees and facilitates the transfer of water, nitrogen and other minerals.

To investigate this issue, a research team from Syracuse University and the University of Minnesota conducted a climate change experiment where they exposed boreal and temperate tree species to warming and drought treatments to better understand how fungi and their tree hosts respond to environmental changes.

The study, led by , assistant professor of biology in the College of Arts and Sciences, was recently published in the journal . Their findings revealed that the combined effects of warming and water stress will likely result in major disturbances of ectomycorrhizal networks and may harm forest resilience and function.

The team conducted their work at a long-term climate change experiment called (Boreal Forest Warming at an Ecotone in Danger) in Minnesota. The experiment features plots where both boreal and temperate tree species have been planted and exposed to warming and drought treatments. This allows researchers to explore how the ectomycorrhizal fungi and the networks they form with their tree hosts respond to environmental stressors.

The B4WARMED experiment features forest plots warmed with infrared lamps and soil heating cables allowing researchers to study the effects of climate warming. (Credit: Louis Mielke)

Fernandez, whose research aims to understand processes involving plant, microbial and ecosystem ecology, says their study revealed that composition of ectomycorrhizal fungal species changes dramatically with climate change. Specifically, they saw a shift from species commonly found in mature forests that have high biomass mycelium (the thread-like body of the fungus that explores the soil and that is likely important for network formation) toward low biomass species that are generally found in highly disturbed ecosystems.

“There is a supported hypothesis that these low biomass species probably do not provide the host much benefit in terms of nutrition compared to high biomass species,” says Fernandez. “We found that the networks formed by these fungi that ‘connect’ the trees shifted from relatively complex and well-connected networks to ones that are simpler with less connections.”

Henderson has served as associate director of BioInspired for the past three years, working in conjunction with founding director , the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Physics in the College of Arts and Sciences. Henderson assumed the director role July 1.

Brown also announced that , Renée Crown Professor in the Sciences and Mathematics and associate professor of biology at the has been appointed to succeed Henderson as associate director of the Institute.

New BioInspired Institute leaders Jay Henderson and Heidi Hehnly

BioInspired is an interdisciplinary research institute whose members examine complex biological systems, developing and designing programmable smart materials to address global challenges in health, medicine and materials innovation. The Institute supports researchers from life sciences, engineering, physics and chemistry disciplines who work on complex biological systems focused on ,����and��.

BioInspired projects have included collaborations with the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, SUNY Upstate Medical University and other educational institutions and industry partners. Syracuse University is completing a substantial renovation of laboratory space in the Center for Science and Technology that will provide physical space for new and existing collaborations.

“Syracuse University is enthusiastic to support the BioInspired Institute’s faculty, its world-class research projects and the new initiatives and opportunities that will flourish under Jay Henderson’s leadership. We are also very pleased to have a researcher of Heidi Hehnly’s acclaim join with him to help lead the Institute,” Brown says. “We are also extremely grateful to founding director Lisa Manning for her innovative and tenacious leadership in launching BioInspired efforts and maintaining robust research activity for faculty and students despite the challenges of the COVID-19 years.”

Jay Henderson has been named director of the BioInspired Institute. (Photo by Alex Dunbar)

Henderson joined Syracuse University in 2008 as a member of the Syracuse Biomaterials Institute. He has been a member of the BioInspired Institute’s executive committee since 2019. He holds a courtesy appointment as an associate professor in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Biology and as an affiliate at the Syracuse VA Medical Center. He has been part of the University’s Aging Studies Institute since 2014. For several years he directed the graduate program in bioengineering and has been a member of SUNY Upstate Medical University’s Cancer Research Institute since 2010. His research group uses imaging, cell biomechanics, mechanobiology and computational tools to develop and apply functional pe-memory materials to mechanical and bio-mechanical cell and tissue function and repair.

Heidi Hehnly is the new associate director of the BioInspired Institute. (Photo by Marilyn Hesler)

Hehnly came to Syracuse University from SUNY Upstate Medical University in 2018 as an assistant professor of biology. She was promoted to associate professor in 2021 and was named one of two inaugural Renée Crown honors professors in fall 2022. Her research specializes in the mechanics of cellular division and how and when cells in the body choose to divide.

Brown says Manning has guided BioInspired “from its earliest stages to its current incredible level of nationally and internationally acclaimed scholarship and achievements. The Institute has become one of the University’s most successful and prolific research institutes and is a prime example of the value and promise of interdisciplinary, co-located labs and researchers.”

“I am very grateful for Lisa Manning’s support in aiding my transition to this position,” Henderson says. “Her expertise as an individual scientist and as a leader at BioInspired has helped establish one of the most successful research institutes on campus. I look forward to ensuring that investment in material and living systems through BioInspired continues to distinguish Syracuse University as a leading research institution.”

Hehnly says she “is honored to be offered the opportunity to help lead the BioInspired Institute. The Institute has been a great asset to the scientific community at Syracuse University in promoting research and education. As associate director, I aim to expand upon the good work that has already been done with the hope of creating more opportunities for scientific research to flourish here.”

M. Lisa Manning, BioInspired Institute founding director

“I was honored to serve as the founding director of the BioInspired Institute and help to launch��innovative interdisciplinary programs over the past five years,” Manning says. “I am really looking forward to seeing the Institute continue to grow and excel under the outstanding leadership of Professors Henderson and Hehnly.”

New Initiatives, New Spaces

Henderson says future initiatives include creating new lab spaces uniquely designed to enhance collaborative research by co-locating faculty from different departments and colleges. He also plans to work with the to establish a new model for core research facilities on campus and with nearby institutions.��Henderson also wants to pilot a new undergraduate program supporting underserved groups in STEM activities, research and education.

“The collaborative programs and labs from which this institute has been built have always provided a fantastic environment for training. These new endeavors will strengthen the University’s ability to offer undergraduate and graduate students and postdoctoral trainees a world-class, uniquely collaborative environment to pursue science interests in a way that isn’t possible at many places,” he says.

Key Achievements

Key Institute achievements of the last several years include bringing in more than $40 million in sponsored research, researchers receiving more than 45 patents and faculty having 650-plus peer-reviewed articles published in top journals.

Researchers have been named to journal editorial boards and as guest editors and have been awarded numerous prestigious grants and fellowships, including 10 National Science Foundation Early Career awards and Sloan Fellowships. Faculty have also been recognized for teaching excellence at departmental, university, and external levels and have been named to advisory boards of established and startup companies such as Ichor Therapeutics, Xeragenx, Balchem Corp. and the Central New York Research Corporation.

Ross and Wiles join a list of other distinguished professors in the College of Arts and Sciences who have been named AAAS Fellows over the past two decades, along with Alan Middleton (2016), associate dean of research and scholarship; George Langford (2013), dean emeritus and professor emeritus of biology; M. Cristina Marchetti (2013), a former professor of physics who is now at UC Santa Barbara; Donald Siegel (2012), professor emeritus of Earth and environmental sciences; and William Starmer (2011), professor emeritus of biology.

“Through their dedication to teaching, research and increasing diversity in STEM, Jennifer and Jason’s work is making a difference in our campus classrooms and labs today, and is also creating a path forward for future scientists,” says Alan Middleton, associate dean. “They are both extremely deserving of this prestigious scientific honor.”

Established in 1848, AAAS is the world’s largest general scientific society as well as the publisher of the well-known scientific journal Science.��Fellows are elected by the AAAS Council through a careful deliberation process to preserve the honor attached to this recognition. Each Fellow is acknowledged with a citation recognizing their contributions to the scientific community.

Jennifer Ross (AAAS Section Affiliation: Physics)

Ross’ citation reads: “For distinguished contributions to biophysics, particularly for experimentally elucidating regulatory mechanisms in intracellular transport.”

An award-winning biophysicist, Ross focuses her research on how cells produce motion and force. By harnessing the fundamental and autonomous physics principles of biological cells, her group is working toward designing and creating next-generation materials inspired and empowered by biology.

Throughout her career, Ross has also remained committed to diversifying STEM. She has been part of the EUREKA! summer program, working with middle and high school girls to teach them about science, health and self-care, and this past summer helped organize the��, which invited students and recent graduates from the Syracuse City School District to Syracuse University to take part in a six-week paid internship.

A faculty member at the University since 2019, Ross has been awarded grants by government agencies including the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and private foundations. Her awards and professional honors include Fellow of the American Physical Society, Research Corporation’s Cottrell Scholar, winner of the Margaret Oakley Dayhoff Award from the Biophysical Society, and winner of the National Science Foundation INSPIRE Award. Ross has also served as chair of the physics department at Syracuse University since 2020.

Jason Wiles (AAAS Section Affiliation: Education)

Wiles’ citation reads: “For distinguished contributions to science education, particularly for research on and advocacy for evolution education and innovative leadership in recruiting and retaining underrepresented populations in science.”

An internationally recognized researcher, Wiles has been involved in various projects to help recruit and retain underrepresented students in STEM fields through his work with programs and grants including an��NSF-funded ERRUPT grant,��SUSTAIN��and��. In the classroom, Wiles teaches core introductory courses for students in the life sciences, and upper-division courses exploring evolution and the intersections of biology and other areas such as politics, religion and education.

While primarily appointed in the biology department, Wiles also holds courtesy appointments in the����and the��. In recognition of his teaching, advocacy and research, he has been honored by the��Technology Alliance of Central New York, the Linnean Society of London, the����and the��.

Read more about the��.

Using the solutions observed in nature to address global challenges in health, medicine and materials innovation is at the heart of research by .��, assistant professor of biology and member of BioInspired, specializes in functional morphology—studying the form and function of animals and then applying it to bio-inspired designs in a wide range of applications.

Garner recently co-authored a paper in the exploring design principles on polar bear paws, which allow them to have better traction on ice compared to other bear species. The work identifies a new nature-based method that could be incorporated into human engineering challenges associated with traction, namely for products that slip on snow and ice such as tires and shoes.

Garner took part in the research as a Ph.D. student at the University of Akron. His collaborators were Ali Dhinojwala, the H.A. Morton Professor of Polymer Science in Akron’s School of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering, and Nathaniel Orndorf, a 2022 Ph.D. graduate from Akron who now works as a senior material scientist at the tire company Bridgestone Americas.

The team scanned bear paw prints using a surface profilometer to evaluate their features

They used actual samples and replicas of bear paw pads from museums, taxidermists and other collections, and imaged them using a scanning electron microscope and a surface profilometer, instruments that can measure surface texture and features. The team also created 3D printouts of the structures to vary diameter and height of features and tested them in the lab to see how they reacted to snow conditions.

The group specifically studied the hard bumps on the foot pads of bear paws called papillae, which have long been thought to help them grip ice and keep from slipping. The team discovered that the papillae on polar bears were taller than other species—up to 1.5 times. Importantly, the taller papillae of polar bears help to increase traction on snow relative to shorter ones.

Biology Professor Thomas Fondy retired this December after 57 years of teaching at Syracuse University.

Pursue your passion, and success and fulfillment will follow. This is a common aspiration for people when searching out a career, but also one that most would say is very difficult to attain. For Syracuse University biology Professor��, he knew cancer research was his calling from an early age and always remained committed to finding a cure.

From hearing stories from his parents about his grandmother who passed away from stomach cancer nine days before he was born, to witnessing his best friend lose both of her parents to cancer, to serving as a stem-cell donor to his brother who was diagnosed with lymphoma, Fondy felt a responsibility to help fight the disease, which is the second leading cause of death in the United States.

“I saw firsthand what cancer could do,” Fondy wrote in a 2007 memoir for a biology department newsletter. “We could be robbed of life, of dignity, of hopes, of even caring; waiting to die and wasting to a raisin of our former selves while nature took its (devastating) course.”

Through those early life experiences, Fondy devoted his career to cancer chemotherapy research. After 57 years as a professor in the , Fondy retired this December, marking a nearly six-decades-long career of research and teaching excellence in which he played a critical role in shaping the��.

A Young Researcher Lands in Syracuse

While he may be retiring from the Department of Biology, Fondy got his start as a chemist. “In college I actually studied organic chemistry,” says Fondy, who received a B.S. and Ph.D. in chemistry from Duquesne University. “In the early 1960s there wasn’t a whole lot known about biochemistry. It was just beginning to be understood what a protein was – that it was a sequence of amino acids and that it folded in three dimensions. Then little by little people started to understand biology in chemical terms.”

As Fondy wrapped up a post-doctoral position at Brandeis University outside of Boston in 1964, he was planning the next step in his career, hopeful to land at a top research university where he could pursue his interest in biochemistry. His mentor at Brandeis, Professor Nathan Kaplan, had just returned home from a seminar at Syracuse University and urged him to consider applying for a position there.

“Fondy, you gotta get a job,” he recalls Kaplan saying. “Syracuse is the place for you. They have this young guy, Dick Levy. It’s going to be a first-rate place in biochemistry.” Levy, who taught at Syracuse from 1963 to 2000 and also served as department chair, was the first biochemist hired in Syracuse University’s College of Liberal Arts (now the College of Arts and Sciences).

Tom Fondy in the lab in 1978. (Courtesy: Syracuse University Archives, Special Collections Research Center)

Fondy accepted a position in the Department of Zoology (now the Department of Biology) in 1965. He arrived just as a major change would shake up a few scientific departments. A committee was forming to discuss the merger of the Department of Zoology and the Department of Bacteriology and Botany. Fondy took up a role on the committee, which sought to unite departments with similar academic subjects with a goal of attracting greater federal funding with a single department of substantial size and scope.

“Unifying these sciences in some coherent fashion was very new at the time,” says Fondy. “Don Lundgren was the first chairman of biology in 1970, and that brought together some really quite separate strands of endeavor.”

He looks back on that venture as one of the most significant things to happen during his nearly six-decade-long career at Syracuse. The merging of those departments created an environment of collaboration and forged partnerships that had never been considered.

“People talked to one another that never would have before,” says Fondy. “We now have around 40 faculty in the biology department. Before the unification, we would have eight in one department, nine in another and then six in another, and they didn’t really interact. This changed all that. For example, people that are molecularly oriented were now aware of what was going on in environmental biology. There’s communication among the whole spectrum of biology people, and that was a really good thing.”

Cancer Research

Fondy would receive tenure in 1970, the same year as the new Department of Biology was officially formed, and he was promoted to full professor in 1975. He would go on to devote much of his career at Syracuse University to cancer therapeutic drug development.

During a visiting professorship at Yale in 1975-76, he worked with Professor Alan C. Sartorelli and graduate student Asterios S. Tsiftsogluo, testing the ability of a substance called Cytochalasin B to slow and potentially cure cancer.

Fondy and his collaborators used Cytochalasin B to disrupt actin microfilaments, which are abundant proteins that play a pivotal role in cellular proliferation of cancer cells. While the treatment was not curative, it showed great potential to slow certain types of cancer.

In his later research, Fondy found that it was possible to disrupt leukemia cells using cytochalasin molecules. When treated with cytochalasin, leukemia cells were unable to pinch off into two daughter cells, and the network of proteins that give cells shape called the cytoskeleton became grossly enlarged because they continued DNA and nuclear synthesis. This gave Fondy a clue toward a potential treatment.

“Cytochalasins change the shape of the cell and make it larger and multinucleated,” says Fondy. “They make it much more vulnerable to damage by different methods such as ultrasound.”

Like popping a fragile water balloon, Fondy hypothesized that the grossly enlarged cells would be much more susceptible to damage by sheer force. Collaborating with mechanical engineer Brett Spurrier G’06 on an ultrasonic approach that used sound waves to burst the inflated cancer cells, their research showed the potential for microfilament-directed agents to enhance the effectiveness of agents currently used in clinical oncology and introduced microfilament-directed agents themselves as a class of antineoplastic (chemotherapy drug) agents.

A Mentor to Many

During his career at Syracuse, Fondy taught and mentored thousands of undergraduate and graduate students. Among the classes he instructed were immunology, biology of cancer and research in biology. He says working with students and seeing them succeed was one of the most rewarding parts of being a professor.

Syracuse University mascot “Otto” visited Fondy and his students during his last class.

“I always cherished being able to see first-hand my students develop as researchers,” says Fondy. “Getting to know them and helping them get to the next stage of their career was particularly satisfying.”

Kamileh Rivera, a senior majoring in neuroscience and biology and minoring in public health, says that Fondy inspired her passion for cancer research and was a guiding mentor on her thesis project, where she explored how sound energy from different ultrasound frequencies affect human and mice leukocytes (blood cells that play an important role in disease and immune defense).

“Professor Fondy is a dedicated and passionate mentor,” says Rivera. “He wants his students to achieve and keep growing in their research field. I have gained valuable knowledge from him, and he even inspired me to pursue a Master of Science in cancer epidemiology and cancer prevention, and I eventually plan to go to medical school.”

Hugh Medvecky, a senior on the pre-med track majoring in biology and minoring in psychology and business, is thankful to have worked with Fondy. Medvecky conducted research alongside Fondy to investigate how cytochalasins and chemotherapy treatments could be combined with alternative high-intensity focused ultrasound leukemia therapy. Their work aimed to improve the ability of ultrasonic therapy to treat leukemia cell lines while limiting the effect on normal cells in vitro.

“He was extremely thorough and pushed every student surrounding him further,” says Medvecky. “Whether that was to investigate deeper, to give concrete reasoning behind their assertions and hypotheses, or to ensure every minute detail was not just spot on, but perfect. In that manner, I consider Professor Fondy one of my most influential mentors on the journey towards medical school and am exceedingly grateful for the guidance he has provided.”

Life Beyond the Lab

As Fondy looks back on his career at Syracuse University, he is thankful to have had the opportunity to work alongside many talented students, faculty and staff during his 57 years as a professor. While he was first attracted to the University for its reputation as a premier research institution, he grew to appreciate its geographic location.

“I’ve always loved it here because you’re sort of off the beaten path but not that much,” he says. “It’s on its way to places but it isn’t overcrowded like Boston or New York, and Syracuse University carries with it a name recognition around the world that brings in very high caliber students from many different countries.”

In his retirement, he plans to relax, spend time outdoors and devote more energy to his interest in writing. He specifically enjoys journaling about the long-term meaning of life and our shared time on Earth.

“One thing that I find fascinating is the dimensions of time and space,” says Fondy. “Our universe was born 13.8 billion years ago and we’re here together occupying the same 50 years or so. Thirteen and then a whole bunch of zeros and then there’s our 50 that we share. And that’s just time. Then there’s another whole dimension of place. We are one place of trillions upon trillion upon trillions of possibilities, and here we are. It’s quite remarkable.”

In a poem written by Fondy titled The Endless Mirrors, he considers the impact we as humans have during our brief time on the planet.

What will remain when our days are done?

What will matter when we are gone?

That we stalked the crumbled halls of power?

Were known by men long lost to time?

Famed in some forgotten hour?

Or that we wrote a song still sung?

Penned a verse that touches souls?

Shaped a cure to solace fears

To offer hope, to tarry death

For childhood’s child in endless years?

Birthed a thought that sired ten more?

Conceived a dream and passed it on?

Forged a link from gone to be,

And shined our candle in the endless mirrors

That reflect forever down the halls of time.

From helping to unify the biology department to advancing cancer chemotherapy research and mentoring countless students who are now making momentous discoveries, Fondy can leave Syracuse University knowing he made a lasting impact that will benefit generations to come.

---

Then and Now: Trends have changed a lot during Fondy’s career at Syracuse. Below is a snapshot of 1965 compared to today.

Kari Segraves, professor of biology, is helping shape NSF research priorities as a program director of NSF’s Population and Community Ecology Cluster.

Across laboratories in the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S), the cutting-edge research taking place is made possible with support from federally funded grants. In the last year alone, A&S researchers have received nearly $24 million in support from institutions including the National Science Foundation (NSF). For biology Professor��, the NSF has played a crucial role in her career, starting from her time as a graduate student all the way to her current position as a faculty member. Since joining the ��in 2005, Segraves has served as principal investigator (PI) or co-PI on five different NSF grants totaling over $2.2 million.

Support from the NSF has helped Segraves build a robust research lab which focuses on understanding how interactions between different species affect their ecology and evolution. Specifically, researchers in her group study mutually beneficial interactions, which occur when species trade resources or services in exchange for commodities that are difficult for them to obtain on their own. An example is the interaction between plants and pollinators, where the plant is pollinated, and the honeybee gets nectar as a food reward. Her group is working to advance understanding of these relationships because they are critical to the formation and structure of ecological communities, which are under stress around the world due to climate change. Studying these interactions give researchers a better understanding of how species are at risk.

Segraves will now pay forward the research opportunities granted to her through the National Science Foundation as she serves as a program director for the NSF’s����in the Division of Environmental Biology (DEB). The DEB supports fundamental research on populations, species and communities. In this role, Segraves will shape the direction of PCE research and help set federal research priorities in ecology.

The NSF requested that Segraves, a leader in the field of evolutionary ecology, apply for the position, where she will make funding recommendations for research proposals that fit into the PCE program and advance efforts to diversify STEM. She will also mentor principal investigators to improve their proposals and provide advice on funding opportunities for which they can apply. In addition, Segraves will work with other program directors across the foundation, including the Building Research Capacity program, which supports new faculty and focuses on diversifying research experiences. Segraves says fostering equity, inclusion, diversity, and accessibility is one of the more exciting aspects of the job.

“As a mentor of students from underrepresented groups in STEM and a woman in science, I deeply appreciate the need for us to level the playing field,” says Segraves. “I also argue that by doing so, we will witness an overall improvement in the quality of science because we will be melding diverse perspectives and learning better ways to approach problems.”

Segraves is on leave for the 2022-23 academic year while serving as a PCE program director in Alexandria, Virginia. She says helping to set the funding recommendations and seeing the latest in cutting-edge research from across the country will enhance her own work at Syracuse University.

“I’m excited for the chance to learn more about NSF and serve the broader scientific community,” she says. “I also think that this experience is going to rejuvenate my own research program. It will most certainly give me a unique perspective on the exciting research that is being done in the U.S. in the next 5 to 10 years.”

Biotechnology major Madison Montalvo uses advanced microscopy to view the carnivorous plant Cape Sundew (Drosera capensis).

In Bio-Art (BIO 400/600 and TRM 500), cross-listed between the (A&S) and the (VPA), STEM students join art majors in a first-of-its-kind course at Syracuse, ­­where students explore and create their own bio-art.

Offered for the first time in spring 2022 and co-taught by Biology Professor and Film and Media Art Professor , the course included students from VPA, the College of Engineering and Computer Science, A&S’ Departments of Physics and Biology, and from the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry. The unique collaborative structure promotes cross-pollination of skillsets—where scientists gain valuable tools from artists, such as art theory, semiotics, image processing and video editing, and in return artists learn new scientific methods from STEM faculty and students, including microscopy and genomics. The result is visually inspiring art rooted in science that tells a personal story.

The Motivation

Film and Media Arts Professor Boryana Rossa (left) and Biology Professor Heidi Hehnly co-taught Syracuse’s first bio-art class.

Bio-art first came to the University in 2018, when Rossa and Hehnly established the Bio-Art Mixer in collaboration with the in VPA’s Department of Film and Media Arts. The open forum includes faculty, graduate students and members of the general public from different scientific and artistic backgrounds who share innovative research, foster ideas for new art and research projects, and view new science-inspired artworks from leading bio-artists from around the world.

“Boryana and I believe that there is much benefit to bringing artists and scientists together in a public forum,” says Hehnly. Similar to how artists use imagination to conceive ideas for their work, she explains that scientists use creativity and self-expression when developing a hypothesis and carrying out studies.

“Scientific research is a form of creative expression, but much of the time communication of scientific data to the public typically emphasizes utility above aesthetics,” says Hehnly. Bio-art disrupts that notion, celebrating the physical beauty of science while providing a space for productive dialogue.

“Historically, arts and sciences have been always related,” Rossa says. “When an artist employs biological protocols and techniques used in the lab for the creation of an artwork, there are other layers of creative and intellectual exchange opened. Two fields that rarely look at each other are put in the same territory and can observe their field from a very different perspective and rediscover their terminology, which opens a gate for large debates and for collaborations.”

The growing popularity of the Bio-Art Mixer inspired Rossa and Hehnly to organize a class built on the same tenets. Hehnly says the ability to recognize alternative points of view is critical to scientists because it is fundamental for establishing successful communication of research to a wide audience.

“This is specifically important during the pandemic, when many people and societal entities question scientific research dedicated to the disease and to vaccine development,” she says.

The class was a chance for students to not only get excited about the natural world, but also work with their peers to view their own scientific research and art projects through a new and potentially unconventional lens.

Learning the Bio-Art Basics

The semester started with an introduction to the field of bio-art, where students learned about the work of acclaimed international bio-artists. They even sat in on a Bio-Art Mixer featuring Guy Ben-Ary, the inventor of cellF, which is the world’s first that contains a “brain” made of a biological neural network that grows in a Petri dish and controls in real time an array of analog modular synthesizers.

Rossa and Hehnly also welcomed visiting and showing artists to the class throughout the semester. Students participated in a workshop with artist Adam Zaretsky from Ionian University in Greece. Zaretsky had the class take on the role of bioethicists, science fiction writers and bio-art critics to write a short piece about advances in genetics. They were also introduced to the artist Paul Vanouse’s (University at Buffalo) award-winning work “Labor” 2019, which reflects upon industrial society’s shift from human and machine labor to increasingly pervasive forms of microbial manufacturing. Artist Jennifer Willet also presented her project “Baroque Biology,” a series of photographs in which microbial “actors” take part in “melodramatic ecological interspecies performances.”

After a handful of lectures and artist presentations, students conceived and pitched their own bio-art project ideas to Hehnly and Rossa, drawing inspiration from their journeys as scientists and artists. Their ideas were motivated by their own interactions with nature, perspectives on their own identity, struggles with human disease and their views of humanity, to name a few. Once project ideas were approved, the hands-on work began.

Madison Paris, a forensic science major, uses flowers as inspiration for her work, “Flower Portraits.”

Students used biological samples and techniques that can be found in advanced STEM fields and transformed them into traditional illustrations, paintings or murals.

The students learned the fundamentals of light microscopy in Hehnly’s lab with the help of researchers Mike Bates, Nikhila Krishnan, Favour Ononiwu, Abrar Aljiboury and Debadrita Pal. They captured stunning images from an array of samples, including those found in the natural world, research studies, aspects of their self or medicinal agents that occur every day in their lives. They also had access to advanced microscopy techniques in the and in A&S Professor Carlos Castaneda’s laboratory.

Once the microscopy work was done, students took part in drawing classes to illustrate the images they captured in the lab.

“Drawing has always been connected with biology and with other sciences, especially before the appearance of photo imaging,” says Rossa. “The process of drawing is a method of understanding what we see. It is a form of knowledge.”

In addition to helping students shape their projects into visual displays, Rossa instructed them on how to talk about their work publicly—something that may be common for art majors but was a new challenge for the STEM students.

“We had two very different types of presentations, that were nevertheless in a dialogue,” Rossa says. The art by STEM students was based off their original research, engaging general audiences in diverse aspects of science. The art students grew living organisms and used microscopy to explore questions of their interest concerning subjectivity, connection between people and environment, suffering, transformation, joy, identity and more.

The course culminated with the first on-campus bio-art exhibition at Syracuse that was part of a series titled “Chimera.” In Greek mythology, Chimera is a hybrid consisting of a lioness’ body, a head of a goat protruding from her back and a tail ending with a snake head. Rossa says this title embodies the chimerical manner in which arts and sciences contribute to each other in the displayed projects. The exhibition was on view in the Shaffer Art Building in April.

Views from Chimera

Biology doctoral student Elise Krespan’s triptych work titled “As above, so below,” shows “the unseen world of plants, mapping the architecture, transportation and residents within their cities. The complexity of the plant world mirrors and interweaves with the complexity of the human world…”

“A Self-Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man,” by photography graduate student Anshul Roy explores the “theme of selfhood and how we construct it by analyzing our bodies” by juxtaposition of microscopic and macroscopic self-portraits.

An Inspiring Journey

Renita Saldanha

Renita Saldanha, a graduate student in the Department of Physics, was intrigued to see how peers from different disciplines view the scientific images she works with on a daily basis.

“It was really fascinating for me as some of my colleagues from the course saw some details in the microscopy images which I generally miss out on because it may not be very important from a scientific perspective,” says Saldanha, whose physics research focuses on vimentin intermediate filaments, a network of proteins in the cell that protect the nucleus against deformation during cellular migration.

Saldanha’s project, titled “The Lab Notebook,” presented a behind-the-scenes look at a scientist’s diary—the daily log a researcher keeps which notes details of their experiments, successes and failures, and the progress that may lead up to an exciting discovery.

“The bio-art class allowed me to talk about the life of a researcher and the thought process which goes into building up a new idea,” she says. “As a passionate microscopist, I wanted viewers to appreciate the beauty of fluorescence microscopy, where you can visualize a cell with sub-micron-level (less than one millionth of a meter) detail.”

Saldanha’s project included two parts. The first was an excerpt from her written log noting her daily lab activities as well as ethical dilemmas that may arise while using live cell line cultures in research.

Saldanha’s project, “The Lab Notebook,” presented a behind-the-scenes look at a scientist’s diary.

The second part of Saldanha’s exhibition was a compilation of vibrant artworks of various shapes and colors that emanated from images captured by high-powered microscopes. Works included a collection of cells arranged as a symmetric flower with fluorescently labeled microtubules, microtubules in a cell arranged in the form of a mask, an image of a dividing cell with fluorescently labeled vimentin filaments and an original drawing of a motor protein transporting cargoes along the microtubules inside the cell, which she describes as a “molecular dance floor.”

The Body as a Landscape

For Oksana Kazmina ’24, an art video major in VPA, her mural titled “Dead(ly) Landscapes or I Myself Should Become All Places I Loved” depicted her body as a landscape, examining how the war in Ukraine and destruction of lands affect personal identity. The work was based off her personal artistic interest in exploring the human body as an unfolding event, conditioned by culture, class, geography, gender and other factors while also versatile and able to shift.

Oksana Kazmina’s mural titled “Dead(ly) Landscapes or I Myself Should Become All Places I Loved.”

Her project was inspired by images of bacterial colonies she captured from her body using high-powered microscopes in the lab. “The photographs reminded me of a photo of landscapes in Ukraine taken by military drones,” she says. For Kazmina, the dark and desolate images of bacterial colonies bore a marked resemblance to images illustrating the stupefying destruction and scorched landscape in Ukraine.

“The war (in Ukraine) is stealing our landscapes as a lot of places will be inaccessible for years due to the mines, while others are taken or erased,” says Kazmina, a native of Ukraine. “War is also stealing our time. When objects, places and people are destroyed, killed or violently extracted, emptiness is created instead.”

Kazmina says observing the daily growth of her bacterial colonies is confirmation that time exists, and that the physical and emotional emptiness in the wake of war is not permanent. Her mural mapped the journey of her mind through her body in what she refers to as an imaginary walk— a sensual experience of recognizing and remembering places and yourself in the places.

“Identity, which is a sum of some repeated bodily practices, rituals, experience, embodied memory, relation to space and time—past, present and future—all of this becomes emptiness [during war],” she says. By evoking memories through her art, Kazmina explains that her project is a way to affirm personal identity.

Diverse Perspectives

According to Hehnly and Rossa, one of their favorite aspects of the class was observing the dichotomy between how artists and scientists viewed and analyzed images. They say lively discussions would often arise among students concerning what “life” is or if scientific images are randomly colored or carry certain cultural, psychological or even physiological bias.

Hehnly recalls a moment of collaboration between a graduate VPA student and an undergraduate biology student who were imaging their samples together that exemplifies the goals of the course.

“Both (samples) were visually beautiful under the microscope, and the students were discussing their perspectives on how it looked and what it could mean, while also helping each other obtain images from their studies,” says Hehnly. “As a microscopist, there’s something special about showing your samples of an image that you may have never seen before. When you can share this experience with someone else that is experiencing the same thing it can induce an infectious excitement for understanding and visualizing the natural world. These are the interactions that I treasure from courses like this.”

Hehnly and Rossa are hopeful to once again offer the class in spring 2024 and encourage anyone interested in learning more about bio-art to attend an upcoming .

The bio-art exhibition and class were supported by a CUSE Seed Grant, the Department of Film and Media Arts and the Department of Biology.

, professor of biology in the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S), is the 2022 recipient of the .

A&S Dean Karin Ruhlandt formally conferred the prize on her at the Graduate School Doctoral Hooding Ceremony on May 13.

Eleanor Maine

The prize memorializes William Wasserstrom, a noted professor of English at Syracuse, who died in 1985. Every year since then, an Arts and Sciences professor is recognized who embodies Professor Wasserstrom’s approach as a graduate seminar leader, research and dissertation director, advisor and role model.

“Eleanor exemplifies Professor Wasserstrom’s outstanding success as a leader and mentor to graduate students. She is a model of academic and personal achievement,” Ruhlandt says.

Maine is a distinguished scholar with an internationally recognized research program. A faculty member at Syracuse since 1990, her research focuses on understanding the mechanisms regulating how different cells and tissues form during animal development, using the roundworm, Caenorhabditis elegans, as a model. She is a leader in the field as evidenced by her extensive publication and funding records, with nearly $4 million in federal funding over her career. Maine has also played a vital role in supporting up-and-coming researchers, having formally mentored 60 graduate students and assisting many more in her over 30 years at the University.

In addition to her work with students, Maine has served the biology department in various advisory roles, including as a member of the Graduate Student Recruitment Committee (1995-99), member of the Graduate Committee (2011-14) and chair/co-chair of the Graduate Education Committee (2017 to present).

Her nomination letter from the biology department’s executive committee notes that Maine has created an environment in her lab “in which students feel both personally and professionally supported as they accumulate both the technical skills and intellectual expertise to move them to the next level.”

“Eleanor is a role model within the department for graduate student mentoring, and every former graduate student we contacted responded with an enthusiastic recommendation letter for this award,” says Kate Lewis, professor and chair of biology. “She has positively impacted the training, success and happiness of hundreds of graduate students, helping them to achieve their potential and become effective professionals.”

Maine’s former students now in the workplace, in their nomination letters, attributed their success and accomplishments to the excellent training they received in her lab.

Yini Li, now at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, says, “Dr. Maine was my Ph.D. advisor, and she is an excellent research mentor genuinely supporting her students and an inspirational model on my science journey.” Li continues, “When I encountered scientific problems or obstacles, Dr. Maine was always available no matter how busy she was. The frequent interactions and guidance from Dr. Maine benefited me significantly in developing ability to draw logical inferences from experimental observations, which became an essential skill in my post-doctoral research work.”

David Pruyne, colleague and associate professor of cell and developmental biology at Upstate Medical University, says, “Professor Maine encourages students to use techniques that are novel, and even beyond the expertise of her own lab. This helps her students learn to step outside their comfort zone. Yet, this is always balanced with clear concern for how they are doing. She does not push them where they don’t want to go, or beyond what they can do. Instead, she inspires them.”

“What can physics offer biology?” This was how��, assistant professor in the College of Arts and Sciences’ physics department and a faculty member in the , began the explanation of why her physics lab was studying bacteria.

Serratia marcescens biofilms grown on soft (left) and stiff (right) polyacrylamide (PAA) hydrogels. These images reveal the conclusion that biofilms grow faster as substrate stiffness increases.

In a paper published by��, a new journal from Oxford Academic, Patteson and graduate student , along with the collaboration of Professor�� of the biology department, describe the surprising findings from their recent work with bacterial colonies that has potential to help shape further understanding of all living systems and improve outcomes in medicine and health.

Patteson and her team wanted to investigate what makes a biofilm—or a colony of microorganisms that bond together—grow and flourish on some kinds of surfaces but not others.

In the past, scientists investigating this question typically grew the colonies on gels made from agar, an extract of red algae. “It’s a substance popular in culinary applications because it makes things gelatinous and adds texture,” says Patteson. “We call it a complex material because it is a solid but has properties like a fluid.” This mixture of properties, she explains, means that teasing out exactly which aspects make the bacteria behave a certain way more difficult. “Are they sensing the solid part or the fluid part?” she says.

Tiny creatures, big surprises

“One of the things we found is that when a biofilm grows out, it’s actually strong enough to exert force on the substrate,” Patteson continues. “We typically think of biofilms as really slow-growing things, but if they’re on something soft, they can actually disrupt it.” This has implications for disease; it means that tissue damage during and following infection might not just be caused by reactions of the body’s immune system, but from the bacteria exerting strain on it.

The left image depicts how each small part of the hydrogel moved based on the movement of embedded fluorescent beads. To the right, a mathematical model of an elastic solid is used to calculate the stress exerted by the bacteria.

Besides design and manipulation of the gels, Patteson and Asp apply physics to biology in the ways that they process the images, measure the boundaries of the biofilms, and calculate how quickly the boundaries expand. “We study mechanics and soft matter systems, so we have equations that describe how something deforms under certain amounts of stress,” says Patteson. Unlike with the less controllable agar, Patteson’s team can now make calculations to measure the forces that the biofilms are putting on the gels. Indeed, by mapping the stress, the team was able to show how biofilms exert more pressure on a stiff surface than on a softer one. “It makes sense, in a way,” says Patteson, “if you tried to climb a sticky wall instead of a slippery wall, you could exert more force on it. We don’t exactly know why in the case of the biofilms, but it makes sense that they’re able to exert more force and move faster.”

“Bacterial organisms, by biomass, are the most predominant life form on the earth,” says Patteson, acknowledging this overlap in interest with Welch, from whose lab they procured the strains of bacteria. “We’re motivated to study them because they intersect with the human world,” says Asp. “Biofilms will grow and be very sturdy, sometimes in places that we don’t want them, whether that’s in patients with disease that are immunocompromised, or in water treatment plants, or on the hulls of ships.”

Pictured are spermatozoa of Drosophila melanogaster within a female’s specialized sperm-storage organ, where they await the opportunity to fertilize ova. (Image courtesy: Scott Pitnick)

A research team from the College of Arts and Sciences’����and Cornell University, led by Steve Dorus, associate professor of biology at Syracuse University, have been studying the life history of fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) sperm to better understand molecular continuity between male and female reproductive tracts. In other words, how the male and female reproductive tracts provide support to keep the sperm viable before fertilization. Their results, recently published in the journal����(PNAS), shed light on important events that may play a role in infertility that up until now have been poorly understood.

The team, which includes members from the University’s , explored the compositional changes in fruit fly sperm, beginning shortly after they leave the testis, following insemination and finally after protracted storage within the FRT. Fruit flies are powerful model organisms for investigations such as this one because they are easy to culture in the laboratory, have a short generation time and their genetics are richly understood. In their study, the group uncovered that the proteome, or protein makeup, of the sperm undergoes substantial changes after being transferred to the FRT.

For species with internal fertilization, a sperm’s developmental ‘journey’—on the way to its final destination of fertilizing an egg and beginning a new life—transcends both male and female reproductive tracts. After leaving the testis, sperm travel through the male’s seminal vesicles and descend through the ejaculatory duct, where they mix with seminal fluid proteins. The team found that many of these seminal proteins are progressively lost after sperm migrate beyond the site of insemination within the FRT. Conversely, female-derived proteins that may help the sperm with functions such as energy metabolism, begin to associate with the sperm immediately after mating, signifying a changing of the guard of proteins. After several days of storage within the FRT, the research team was surprised to discover that nearly 20 percent the sperm’s proteins had been replaced by female-derived proteins. The female contributions support sperm viability during the prolonged period between copulation and fertilization. This “hand-off” in the maintenance of sperm viability from males to females means that sperm are materially the product of both sexes, and this may be a crucial aspect of reproduction in all internally-fertilizing species, including humans.

By studying the intimate ways in which sperm interact with the FRT during the final stages of functional maturation, the team’s research advances understanding of animal fertility and the contributions of each sex to reproductive success.

Their research, which appears in the March 15 issue of PNAS, was chosen as that edition’s cover art, signifying the high impact of their work. The photo was captured by co-author and biology Professor Scott Pitnick, and provides a close-up view of sperm within an organ specialized for sperm storage in a female reproductive tract of Drosophila melanogaster.

In addition to Dorus and Pitnick, other co-authors from Syracuse University included former postdoctoral researcher Erin McCullough and doctoral graduate Emma Whittington. Co-authors from Cornell University were Professor Mariana Wolfner and postdoctoral researcher Akanksha Singh. The team’s research was funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and a gift from Mike and Jane Weeden to Syracuse University.

Read the team’s full paper, “.”>PNAS is the official journal of the����(NAS), and is an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans the biological, physical and social sciences.

George Langford and Virginia Burrus

Previously inducted members of the academy from Syracuse University include George Saunders G’88, professor in the Department of English’s creative writing program; the late Donald Meinig, professor emeritus of geography in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs; Catherine Ann Bertini, professor emeritus of practice, public administration and international affairs in the Maxwell School; and Jonathan Bennett, professor emeritus of philosophy in A&S.

The American Academy of Arts & Sciences was established in 1780 by John Adams, John Hancock and others to honor accomplished individuals and engage them in advancing the public good. The academy’s mission is to convene members from increasingly diverse fields to share ideas and recommendations in the arts, democracy, education, global affairs and science.

Nancy C. Andrews, chair of the board of directors of the American Academy, says, “We recognize individuals who use their talents and their influence to confront today’s challenges, to lift our spirits through the arts, and to help shape our collective future.”

This year’s cohort of American Academy inductees were grouped into 30 sections spanning the humanities and arts; social and behavioral sciences; biological sciences; mathematical and physical sciences; and leadership, policy and communications. Langford was one of nine inductees to the cellular and developmental biology section, and Burrus was one of eight members elected to the religious studies section.

“I am proud and delighted that George Langford and Virginia Burrus, both distinguished members of our faculty, have been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences,” says A&S Dean Karin Ruhlandt. “They have devoted themselves to advancing knowledge in the service of humanity, and their contributions to biology and religion, respectively, have earned them this well-deserved recognition. I congratulate them on this career-defining achievement.”

Burrus has taught religion at Syracuse University since 2013, specializing in the literary and cultural history of Christianity in late antiquity, with emphasis on issues of gender, sexuality, embodiment and ecology. Prior to her time at Syracuse, she taught at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey, from 1991 to 2013. She has written and co-authored 12 books and edited volumes, including “Ancient Christian Ecopoetics: Cosmologies, Saints, Things” (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019), winner of the Borsch-Rast Book Prize in 2019. She is active in professional societies and on editorial boards and has been the recipient of fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies, the European Institutes for Advanced Studies and the Cyprus American Archaeological Institute. She is currently a fellow at the Clark Art Institute, working on a book called “Earthquakes and Gardens,” dealing with destruction, resilience and what it means to cultivate relationships to places.

Langford, a member of the biology faculty in A&S since 2008, served as dean of the college from 2008 to 2014. His research is focused primarily on the cell and molecular biology of the actin cytoskeleton in health and disease. He is a member of many professional societies, including the American Society for Cell Biology, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science Education Advisory Board and many more. Langford is also a proponent of increasing diversity in STEM. He is program director of the project, which creates an inclusive environment for students from groups underrepresented in STEM, including minorities and first-generation students in courses in STEM departments.

Langford and Burrus join a list of distinguished academy members, including Benjamin Franklin (elected in 1781), Alexander Hamilton (1791), Charles Darwin (1874), Albert Einstein (1924), Robert Frost (1931) and Martin Luther King, Jr. (1966).

View the complete list of newly- and previously-elected members.

Two researchers from the Department of Biology in the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S) gathered student perspectives on the move to remote learning to determine best practices going forward. Eve Humphrey, a recent postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Biology and current at Lincoln University, and co-author Jason Wiles, associate professor of biology in A&S, recently published a paper exploring Syracuse University students’ experiences, along with a set of recommendations for supporting them in virtual learning environments.

To compile data for the study, Humphrey and Wiles distributed surveys to a group of students in a biological research course during their transition to online learning and again three weeks into virtual instruction. During the transition, students were asked questions, including: How has the pandemic impacted you and how have you responded? How do you plan to approach courses for the rest of the semester? Do you prefer online versus in-person?

Three weeks into virtual learning, students were asked: Do you believe professors have adjusted well to teaching online? Do you believe your level of learning is similar to being on campus? What changes can professors make to improve your learning participation?

According to Wiles, students acknowledged that their instructors had adjusted well to teaching online, but expressed several challenges associated with virtual learning from home.

“While students tried to maintain their regular academic schedules, this was difficult for students who had returned to other countries in vastly different time zones or for students who had conflicting family responsibilities or other unavoidable barriers to meeting synchronously or making deadlines,” Wiles says. “With all of the resulting frustrations and with the emotional and other strain brought on by the pandemic, maintaining motivation was a consistent issue for students.”

Based on their research, Humphrey and Wiles developed a list of recommendations for instructors to support students in virtual learning environments including:

• Clearly and consistently communicate expectations.
• During pandemic conditions, instructors need to explicitly acknowledge and discuss with students the potential for the health crisis to impact their productivity and mental health. Students need to be made aware of support mechanisms and coping strategies, assured that instructors understand their many stresses and informed about how difficulties in keeping up with class meetings and assignments will be approached.
• Where possible, make more opportunities for student choice in what, when and how they will learn. Allow students to be involved in the decision-making process about discussion topics and readings. The use of learning platform message boards can create a space for students to reflect and interact with classmates and instructors on their time. This will reduce stress and potential scheduling conflicts, while increasing engagement and motivation.
• Allow students ample opportunity to reflect on what they have learned and to make connections with their lived experiences. This allows them to realize the progress they are making and to see the practical relevance of what they are learning.

Their article, “,” published in the journal Ecology and Evolution, pays specific attention to disparities faced by students from underserved communities.

The effort was funded in part by an Inclusive Excellence grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, which supports A&S’ signature ��project. CHANcE provides professional development to college faculty to support and sustain an inclusive campus community.

Peter Robison ’78 Ph.D. has established an endowment in honor of professor emeritus Dick Levy to support student research in biology.

Peter Robison G’78 (Ph.D.) remembers joining professor emeritus of biology Richard Levy’s lab in 1974 during a particularly tumultuous time in our nation’s history. Richard Nixon had resigned from the presidency due to the Watergate scandal and students were feeling uncertain and even pessimistic about the state of the government and the country.

“Dick counseled us not to worry, telling us to stick with our studies and things would turn out fine—and it did,” Robison says. “He was definitely a family man and a father figure to us, and we regularly had lab events where our families were also invited.”

Robison, now retired in Florida, laughs when he thinks back on the numerous occasions bringing his two-year-old daughter into the lab on evenings or weekends, setting her up in a playpen, and letting her play with plastic beakers while he carried out experiments.

“I’m not sure if Dick knew, but if he did, I don’t think he had any problem with it,” he says.

Robison says Levy was a guiding mentor to many and motivated students through positive encouragement. He fondly recalls the camaraderie within Levy’s lab. “We had a summer graduate student-faculty softball league up at Skytop. While Dick might not have been an athlete, he was one of our biggest fans and came to support us at just about every game. Everyone working in his lab was like one big family.”

For those like Robison who worked closely with Levy, they got to know that his compassionate nature stretched far beyond the classroom. Joann Ingulli-Fattic, a technician and manager in Levy’s lab during the 1970s, says, “Dick always took the time and care to educate those who sought out his guidance on work-related matters, as well as on many other topics. Dick’s calm, logical and fair approach to situations was generally recognized and he was consulted for his sage advice.”

Enduring the Unthinkable

As a young Jewish boy living in Germany in 1938, Levy and his family were among the millions persecuted by the Nazis under Hitler. At nine years old, he was one of around 10,000 children under age 17 to be granted refuge in England—but he was forced to leave his parents behind in Germany. Levy was taken in by a British family who would also rescue 12 more Jewish children. Read more about Levy’s harrowing story in .

The memory of fleeing for his life and then being rescued through the generosity of another family stayed with Levy and shaped his moral view. Later in life, Levy paid his experience forward. He established a fund at the Central New York Community Foundation. The endowment supports Jewish organizations dedicated to preserving the memory and names of Jews murdered during the Holocaust as well as organizations that help refugee families reestablish their lives and overcome the barriers to successful integration in their new communities.

Levy’s positive outlook and unwavering commitment to helping others both at Syracuse University and beyond have inspired Robison to create an endowment supporting student research in honor of Dick Levy. His gift to the Department of Biology is part of the University’s Forever Orange campaign.

Dick Levy, professor emeritus of biology, in 1981. Photo courtesy of the Syracuse University Archives, Special Collections Research Center.

A Backbone in the Biology Department

For over 35 years, Levy was a pillar in the Department of Biology, which this year celebrates its 50th anniversary (the department we know today was formed in 1970-71, after the departments of zoology, bacteriology and botany merged). He served as department chair from 1993-99 and retired from the University with professor emeritus status in 2000. Levy, who still resides in the Syracuse area, is also the author of “Biology at Syracuse University: 1872-2010” (Syracuse University Press, 2012), a book chronicling the department’s growth and crowning achievements.

As a graduate student in biology, Robison studied under Levy, who specialized in enzymology, a branch of biochemistry that deals with enzymes, the catalysts that regulate chemical reactions in living organisms. Robison’s work with Levy at Syracuse was a springboard for a successful decades-long career in the oil industry.

After graduating from Syracuse in 1978, Robison accepted a postdoctoral research position at the University of Texas under the late��, a 1971 doctoral graduate of Syracuse University’s biology department. There Robison studied enzymology around carbon dioxide fixation, which he says Tabita best described as “the dark side of photosynthesis,” since it is the part of that process of converting inorganic carbon to organic molecules that doesn’t require sunlight. In 1980, he was hired by Texaco to help set up a biomass fermentation laboratory and from there spent the remainder of his career working in the oil industry as a researcher, environmental manager and fuel quality advisor.

A Chance to Give Back

Robison (right) with Levy at Robison’s doctoral defense in 1978.

Throughout his career, Robison never lost sight of his formative years as a graduate student at Syracuse University. “When I think back on my time spent in graduate school, I remember that it is a critical juncture in a person’s scientific career where they are really trying to figure out where they want to go,” Robison says. “I wanted to give back and be able to give back specifically, so I am supporting student research in biology.”

Robison’s endowment will be created with a gift from his estate. He is also making a difference now with annual gifts to the department, to be used for student research in Levy’s honor.

Katharine Lewis, the Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professor for Teaching Excellence and biology department chair, says, “This donation in celebration of Dick Levy is a wonderful way to continue Dick’s already very strong legacy to SU’s biology department. It will enable us to fund student independent research projects, which is obviously crucial for graduate student success and is also often a life-changing experience for our undergraduates.”

Lewis says Robison’s contribution has already funded students with stipends which helped them conduct full-time research over winter break. It will also cover the costs of supplies needed in order to conduct research projects, under the mentorship of biology faculty, this academic year. The department granted three stipends at the end of 2020 (two for $1,000 and one for $2,200) and they expect to make several more this summer.

“Later in life, I have become especially fortunate myself and have been looking for ways to share my good fortune,” says Robison. “I can think of no better way to recognize Dick Levy than by supporting biology student research at Syracuse.”

About Forever Orange
Orange isn’t just our color. It’s our promise to leave the world better than we found it. Forever Orange: The Campaign for Syracuse University is poised to do just that. Fueled by 150 years of fearless firsts, together we can enhance academic excellence, transform the student experience and expand unique opportunities for learning and growth. Forever Orange endeavors to raise $1.5 billion in philanthropic support, inspire 125,000 individual donors to participate in the campaign, and actively engage one in five alumni in the life of the University. Now is the time to show the world what Orange can do. Visit����to learn more.

Congenital heart defects are the most common type of birth defect, affecting nearly 1 percent of births in the United States each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Doctors have been unable to lower that number due to a lack of knowledge about their source. Thanks to a ��from the National Institutes of Health, an interdisciplinary team of researchers will work to advance the understanding of causes of birth defects.

Panel A shows the usual organization of the notochord (green) and the KV (red) in a developing embryo. In panel B, a laser was used to destroy cells in the notochord near the KV, to test the hypothesis that the notochord pushing contributes to KV motion.

The team includes principal investigator (PI) Lisa Manning, the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Physics and founding director of the BioInspired Institute; co-PI Jeff Amack, Upstate Medical University; co-investigator Heidi Hehnly, assistant professor of biology; and Paula Sanematsu, postdoctoral research associate, physics. Manning, Amack and Hehnly are all members of the��, an interdisciplinary team of faculty scholars that research complex biological systems and develop and design smart materials to address global challenges in health, medicine and materials innovation.

While past research has centered on the potential biochemical sources of birth defects, Manning says their research looks to pinpoint mechanical forces that could be causing defects during the early stages of embryo development.

“Our goal is to locate new targets for therapy,” says Manning. “Right now, it’s hard to know which drugs to use because researchers don’t know what’s causing the problem, and if you don’t know the cause then you don’t know how to fix it. If we can identify some mechanical mechanisms at play, in addition to the standard biochemical mechanisms, that could lead us to a whole new way of treating congenital heart defects.”

Panels C shows the same embryo in Panel A at a later stage, illustrating normal embryonic development, and Panel D shows the embryo in B at a later stage, highlighting a change to tail shape caused by the laser, but otherwise fairly normal development.

To understand what is happening, you must first go back to the very early stages of an organism’s development. Embryos start out as a simple pair of cells. As they grow, their cells multiply and start to take on specific functions. In order to make sure internal organs are positioned correctly, there is one organ responsible for what is known as left-right (LR) patterning in all vertebrates including fish, mice and humans. This organ ensures, for example, that the heart is correctly positioned on the left side of the body and the liver on the right. This is known as LR asymmetry.

The researchers have focused their studies on the zebrafish, which is a transparent vertebrate, making it ideal to study under a microscope. The specific organ responsible for LR patterning in the zebrafish is the Kupffer’s vesicle (KV), and microscope images from the Amack laboratory demonstrate that the organ moves through the body of the fish as it develops.

The team believes the mechanical forces of that organ moving through the tissue could change cell shapes and drive LR asymmetry in zebrafish embryos. Therefore, defects in this mechanical force generation process could prevent organs such as the heart from developing properly in some cases.

In Manning’s lab, she and Sanematsu have been developing computational models to explore what is happening from a mechanical standpoint during embryonic development. They are producing three-dimensional models of whole tissues to simulate the mechanical forces and determine how motions of the KV could generate shape change.

Paula Sanematsu, a physics postdoctoral research associate in Lisa Manning’s lab, runs computer-modeled simulations to determine what is happening from a mechanical standpoint during embryonic development. [Please note, this image was taken prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and does not reflect current public health guidelines.]

For Sanematsu, this work utilizes the skills she developed in scientific computing during her graduate school work and postdoctoral appointment at Louisiana State University. There, she developed computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations to describe nanoparticle transport in porous media, which is important in environmental problems like groundwater contamination. She shifted from fluid dynamics to soft matter when she joined Manning’s lab, but says those areas of research have surprising similarities.“I now work on models to study how cells and tissues behave during embryonic development,” she says. “These models are generally not used, if ever, in CFD, but there is actually a good blend of my previous experience because I am using a lot of the CFD tools to analyze how tissues can behave similarly to a fluid.”The team is now confirming their computer-modeled calculations using physical experiments to determine the effects of mechanical forces on an organism’s development.

The human body is made up of trillions of cells. Within each cell are proteins which help to maintain the structure, function and regulation of the body’s tissues and organs. When cells are under stress, as in response to heat or toxins, certain proteins within the cell condense into liquid-like droplets called condensates. These droplets can be thought of as a form of quality control allowing the cell to minimize the effects of the stress condition.

Carlos Castañeda (Please note, this image was taken prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and does not reflect current public health guidelines.)

Cases of abnormal condensate formation or persistence have recently been linked to neurodegenerative diseases like ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) and cancer. Thanks to a , Carlos Castañeda, assistant professor of biology and chemistry, and his team will investigate the regulation and dysregulation of condensates using biophysical and cell biology approaches. This research may lead to determining what causes diseases like ALS.

To function properly, cells depend on proteins to do their jobs. When a protein mutates, it can cause adverse medical conditions. The protein Castañeda and his team are studying is called Ubiquilin-2 (UBQLN2), which is part of many protein quality control pathways in the cell. Improper functioning of UBQLN2 can result in protein clumping or aggregation, which can potentially cause cells in the nervous system to die. These abnormal protein aggregates are markers for neurological diseases like ALS.

Mutations in UBQLN2 are known to be linked to ALS. Castañeda and his team, including Heidi Hehnly, assistant professor of biology, are hoping to learn how and if these ALS-linked mutations disrupt assembly and disassembly of UBQLN2-containing condensates in cells, as well as what regulates the liquidity of UBQLN2 condensates. By understanding the molecular mechanisms behind UBQLN2 condensates, the team could discover more about what leads to diseases like ALS— and potential ways to cure them.

Postdoctoral researcher Mayra Vidal with a tray containing a harvested community of yeast.

The sign of a healthy personal relationship is one that is equally mutual—where you get out just as much as you put in. Nature has its own version of a healthy relationship. Known as mutualisms, they are interactions between species that are mutually beneficial for each species.

One example is the interaction between plants and pollinators, where your apple trees are pollinated and the honeybee gets nectar as a food reward. But what makes these mutualisms persist in nature? If rewards like nectar are offered freely, does this make mutualisms more susceptible to other organisms that take those rewards without providing a service in return?

A team of researchers from the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S), including co-principal investigators Kari Segraves, professor of biology, and David Althoff, associate professor of biology, along with postdoctoral researcher Mayra Vidal, former research assistant professor David Rivers and Sheng Wang G’20, recently researched that question and the results were published in the Oct. 16 edition of the prestigious journal “.”

They investigated the abilities of simple versus diverse communities of mutualists, comparing how each deal with cheaters. Cheaters are species that steal the benefits of the mutualism without providing anything in return. An example of one of nature’s cheaters is nectar robbers. Nectar-robbing bees chew through the side of flowers to feed on nectar without coming into contact with the flower parts that would result in pollination.

The research team wanted to test if having multiple mutualists with similar roles allows the community as a whole to persist when cheaters take away the mutualists’ resources. The idea was to examine whether having more species involved in a mutualism, such as many pollinator species interacting with many different plant species, made the mutualism less susceptible to the negative effects of cheaters. They also wanted to analyze whether increasing the number of mutualist species allowed all the mutualists to persist or if competition would whittle down the number of mutualist species over time. In essence, the team wanted to understand the forces governing large networks of mutualists that occur in nature.

Wells of yeast in the top tray with only two mutualist species and a cheater showed higher extinction (indicated by the many dark wells). Yeast strains of complex communities and a cheater in the bottom tray showed better growth and less extinction.

A&S researchers tested their ideas by producing mutualisms in the lab using yeast strains that function as mutualistic species. These strains were genetically engineered to trade essential food resources. Each strain produced a food resource to exchange with a mutualist partner. They engineered four species of each type of mutualist as well as two cheater strains that were unable to make food resources.

The researchers assembled communities of yeast that differed both in the number of species and the presence of cheaters. They found that communities with higher numbers of mutualist species were better able to withstand the negative effects of cheaters because there were multiple species of mutualists performing the same task. If one species was lost from the community due to competing with a cheater, there were other species around to perform the task, showing that the presence of more species in a community can lessen the negative effects of cheaters.

“It’s similar to thinking about a plant that has many pollinator species,” says Segraves. “If one pollinator species is lost, there are other pollinator species around to pollinate. If a plant only has one species of pollinator that goes extinct, the mutualism breaks down and might cause extinction of the plant.”

Their results highlight the importance of having multiple mutualist species that provide similar resources or services, essentially creating a backup in case one species goes extinct. Segraves compares this phenomenon to the relationship between retailers and consumers. Communities typically have multiple banks, grocery stores, restaurants and hospitals to ensure that there are always goods and services available should something happen to one company or facility, or, as with COVID-19 today, grocery stores now have multiple suppliers to fend off shortages.

Segraves says future research will explore the possibility of a mutualist species becoming a cheater. The group is testing if mutualists that perform the same function might set up an environment that allows one of those mutualist species to become a cheater since there are other mutualists around that can fill that role. They predict that the mutualist species that is experiencing the most competition from the other mutualists will be the species that switches to cheating. They also hope to determine how the mutualists and cheaters evolved over time to provide a deeper understanding of the actual changes that led to differing outcomes in the communities.

The team’s research was funded by a $710,000,��three-year grant��from the National Science Foundation.

“Emergence is a very broad term that can be applied to many complex systems where they have many interacting parts, but yet a collective behavior appears,” says Patteson. “Despite the fact they are very complicated kind of networks, these interactions seem to be going on. The idea of emergence is an active area for the physics department here at Syracuse.”

Patteson’s research includes observing the bacteria Myxococcus xanthus exhibiting emergent behavior. Investigating living systems has led to interdisciplinary collaboration with the biology department. “We collaborate closely with biology professor Roy Welch on this project,” says Patteson. Welch and Patteson began collaborating shortly after she arrived in Central New York two years ago. “We were both interested in collective behavior and bacteria systems. I have physics approaches and he has biology approaches, but I think actually some of the questions we’re trying to answer are the same.” Welch helped review early drafts of the proposal submission and has an array of 3D-printed video microscopes that will allow researchers to observe and document collective behavior like swarming and predation.

Undergraduate and graduate students also have an opportunity to contribute to Patteson’s research. In addition to possibly crowdsourcing some aspects of data collection like having students review video, students are also helping speed the processing of data by writing code. Undergraduate students are aiming to automate observations by developing algorithms that will help recognize emergent behavior.

“Syracuse University is a place that’s really strong in this area. It is not surprising that I found people to work with,” says Patteson. “One of the reasons I was really attracted to Syracuse is because it is very supportive of interdisciplinary research.”

Professor Phillips answers 3 questions about curbing the spread of COVID-19:

What might scientists be doing right now to curb the spread?

Phillips says: “I think educating the public is very important. All of us are exposed to millions of different viruses every day, and these interactions between viruses and animal hosts have been going on for hundreds of millions of years. There will always be new viruses appearing because that is the nature of viruses – they evolve. This particular virus causes flu and/or pneumonia-like symptoms, which many people’s immune systems can handle naturally. Severely ill patients require medical care while their immune systems fight off the virus. Vaccinations prime the immune system so that it can fight off the virus more quickly, and antiviral medications keep the number of viruses in a patient at a low level so as to decrease the symptoms.

“Scientists are researching the nature of the virus, in order to understand what genes it has, how it interacts with cells and how it replicates. This research can help us find ways to curb the spread of the virus from 3 angles:

1. Creating rapid and reliable��diagnostic tests��that would detect the presence of the virus in patients
2. Developing and testing different types of��vaccines��that would allow the immune system to quickly neutralize the virus, before it can cause illness
3. Identifying��antiviral medications��that are able to stop the virus from replicating inside the cells it infects.”

From a biology perspective, why do we see surges of the virus in new locations outside mainland China?

Phillips says: “Biologically speaking, we should be aware that symptoms can range in severity, and only patients with severe illness have been diagnosed with the virus during the past few months. Actions have been and are being taken to isolate or quarantine these severely ill patients, but this is not always 100 percent successful. In addition, people with mild symptoms can carry and transmit the virus without being aware of it.”

What do you predict disease specialists are doing here in the U.S.?

Phillips says: “If you mean the medical community (as opposed to the research community), I would hope they are going to be prepared for an influx of patients and that they are building capacity to care for everyone that becomes ill, regardless of health insurance status.”

To request interviews or get more information:

Daryl Lovell
Media Relations Manager
Division of Marketing and Communications

T��315.443.1184 ����M��315.380.0206
dalovell@syr.edu |

The Nancy Cantor Warehouse, 350 W. Fayette St., 2^nd Fl., Syracuse, NY 13202
news.syr.edu |

Syracuse University

is an associate professor of biology at Syracuse University’s College of Arts and Sciences. She anticipates the new policy will negatively impact pollinator populations.

Segraves says:

“The release of the Environmental Protection Agency’s announcement is ironically timed with ‘’. Unfortunately, the new policy will have strong negative impacts on pollinator populations.

“Sulfoxaflor is quite toxic to native bees such as bumblebees that are key pollinators of many native and rare plant species as well as crop plants. Moreover, other pollinating insects and natural enemies of herbivores can also be affected.

“As pollinator populations decline, we will see cascading declines of fruit and seed production that could affect both natural areas and agriculture. Given that pollinator populations are struggling, now is the time to think about the future of these critical communities.

“We should follow the lead of the European Union and ban these chemicals.”

To request interviews or get more information:

Daryl Lovell
Media Relations Manager
Division of Marketing and Communications

T��315.443.1184 ����M��315.380.0206
dalovell@syr.edu |

The Nancy Cantor Warehouse, 350 W. Fayette St., 2^nd Fl., Syracuse, NY 13202
news.syr.edu |

Syracuse University