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Winter 2007, Vol. 3, No. 1 | Index
Jennifer Wernegreen Receives Cornell Award to Study Helpful Bacteria
With all the germ-fighting products on the market these days, it’s easy to forget that many bacteria are actually vital to our own survival. Many organisms, including humans, develop mutually beneficial relationships with microbes. Bay Paul Center evolutionary biologist Jennifer Wernegreen studies these types bacteria-animal relationships. She recently received an award from the MBL that will help support her research.
Jennifer’s work focuses on the bacterium Blochmannia, which lives within the carpenter ant—an insect commonly found on Cape Cod. She hopes to determine which Blochmannia genes are active at different stages of the host ant’s life cycle and within different castes. She is especially interested in the genes responsible for producing amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. When ants are unable to obtain food, they depend on bacteria to produce the necessary amino acids. With the help of her fellowship, Jennifer and her colleagues are developing procedures to examine the bacterial genes active in each ant caste and to begin exploring the functions of those genes.
Jennifer’s fellowship honors the late biochemist Neal W. Cornell, a long-time summer investigator and visiting scientist, and an MBL senior scientist from 1988 until his death in 2000. Dr. Cornell and his wife, Molly, established the MBL Research Development Fund a decade ago to support year-round research at the MBL. At the time of his death, the Neal W. Cornell Endowed Research Fund was established in his memory. Both of the Cornell funds, which are intended to support scientists in the early stages of their careers, contributed to Jennifer’s award.
“Dr. Cornell had an important influence on my getting started at the MBL,” Jennifer says, “and through these funds, he continues to have a big impact on me and other young scientists.”
“Like many other scientists, my husband developed a great fondness for the MBL as a result of experiences as a young summer investigator,” adds Mrs. Cornell. “He knew from his own experience the importance of support to someone who is starting out on their own independent research. Neal would be very pleased that Jennifer was selected to receive these awards.”
Jennifer has given not only to the MBL but also to the community at large, participating in the Woods Hole Science & Technology Education Partnership (WHSTEP) as well as in a science fair mentoring program at the Lawrence School in Falmouth.
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