From The Ecosystems Center
Ecosystems Center researchers Joe Vallino and Ken Foreman are lead investigators on a Waquoit Bay demonstration project aimed to evaluate a novel nitrogen removal technology. Later this month, barriers designed to intercept and remove nitrates in groundwater along the shore will be installed at two Waquoit Bay field sites.
Vallino and Foreman will address research questions about the performance and function of the barriers, which contain a readily available carbon substrate (wood chips) to foster growth of microbes capable of intercepting and removing nitrate-nitrogen from the groundwater. It is hoped that the barriers might provide coastal communities and other areas affected by excessive nitrogen concentrations with the ability to address nitrogen removal requirements without the need for costly, disruptive, and widespread sewerage systems.
Vallino and Foreman are collaborating with the Boston-based environmental engineering firm, Lombardo Associates, Inc., and Will Robertson at the University of Waterloo in Canada. This project has been funded by NOAA’s Cooperative Institute for Coastal and Estuarine Environmental Technology, which seeks to team up basic researchers with commercial partners to demonstrate innovative and potentially marketable solutions to environmental problems.
From the Program in Molecular Physiology
Peter Smith hosted the first meeting of the Development and Polarity Module, which met on May 12. Attending PIs were:
- Ken Robinson (chair)—Purdue University—Early development and symmetry;
- Mike Levin—Forsyth Institute, Harvard Medical School—Mechanisms underlying left/right asymmetry;
- Richard Nuccitelli—Old Dominion University— Electrical currents in development and skin repair;
- Colin McCaig—University of Aberdeen, Scotland – Neuronal development and regenerative mechanisms.
The module consists of a group of developmental biologists working on biophysical aspects of polarity and patterning. Its goal is to promote this field of research and to achieve a greater exchange of results, methodologies, and approaches with the mainstream molecular/biochemical development community. Collaborative research programs, relying on BioCurrents Research Center technologies, will be conducted at the MBL throughout the year.
|
|
|
|
Publications:
Messerli, M.A., L. Amaral-Zettler, E. Zettler, S.-K. Jung, P.J.S. Smith, and M.L. Sogin. 2005. Life at acidic pH imposes an increased energetic cost for a eukaryotic acidophile. J Exp Biol. 208: 2569-2579. (This publication was featured in the Inside JEB section of the most recent issue.)
Li, R., M. Chase, S.-K. Jung, P.J.S. Smith, and M.R. Loeken. 2005. Hypoxic stress in diabetic pregnancy contributes to defective embryo gene expression and defective development by inducing oxidative stress. Am. J Physiol. In press.
MacLellan, J.D. , A. Gowing, M. Gerrits, P.J.S. Smith, W. Sivitz, M.B. Wheeler, and M.-E. Harper. 2005. Increased uncoupling protein 3 stimulates fatty acid, but not glucose oxidation, and decreases reactive oxygen species in muscle cells. Diabetes. In press.
Garber, S.S., R. Lewis, M.A. Messerli, K. Hammar, M. Hubert, E. Indyk, and P.J.S. Smith. 2005. Monitoring Cl- movement in single cells exposed to hypotonic solution. J Membr Biol. 203(2): 101-110.
Twig, G., S. Graf, M.A. Messerli, S.-K. Sung, P.J.S. Smith, and O. Shirihai. 2005. Chromogranin A acts through CD40 pathway, and synergizes with beta amyloid and INFg to elicit microglia neurotoxic response and mitochondrial depolarization. Am J Physiol Cell Physiol. 288: C169-175.
Beaulieu, V., N. Da Silva, N. Pastor-Soler, C.R. Brown, C.R., P.J.S. Smith, D. Brown, and S. Breton. 2005. Modulation of the actin cytoskeleton via gelsolin regulates vacuolar H+ATPase (V-ATPase) recycling. J Biol Chem. 280: 8452-8463.
From the Wernegreen Laboratory
Jennifer Wernegreen and Seth Bordenstein organized a symposium at the annual Evolution Conference in Fairbanks, Alaska that took place on June 10-14, 2005. The symposium was titled “Insect Endosymbionts as Targets and Agents of Evolutionary Change: Recent Insights and Opportunities.” The seminars spanned diverse topics including the evolution, cytology, and biomedical applications of endosymbionts. |
