Biological Science Department Highlights
Allyson Weir Honored as 2018 American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) Conviron Scholar
Congratulations to Allyson Weir from the Department of Biological Science! Ally was selected as one of the 25 "exceptional undergraduate and graduate students studying plant biology" from around the world to be named a 2018 American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) Conviron Scholar. Ally is a graduating senior and MARC (Maximizing Access to Research Careers) scholar in the Sacco lab, where she has been doing research since she was a freshman. Ally's MARC thesis project investigates how infection of plants by different viruses of the genus Poleroviridae alters the genes that are expressed depending on whether the infection causes disease resistance that is accompanied by cell death or not. Ally hopes to enter a PhD. program in plant breeding and genetics after graduation to pursue her interests in research on the genetic enhancement of crop germplasm to create more sustainable crop varieties that reduce the needs for additives like fertilizers or pesticides.
Congrats David!
David Lin with his Ph.D. adviser Dr. Andrew Tai.
David Lin was an MS student at CSUF and pursued a Ph.D. Now, he is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Genentech (the first Genetic Engineering company).
oC Register's Titan Voice
Biology graduate student Alexis Barrera was profiled in the Orange County Register's Titan Voice section, in an article titled "Studying sea anemones gives CSUF grad student undersea surprises"
2019 Gans Award
Dr. Misty Paig-Tran was selected as the Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology's 2019 Gans Award winner.
She also has a new paper with graduate student Raj Divi as the lead author:
SACNAS
Photo credit: J. Burnaford
SACNAS club officers at the SACNAS Poster Practice Session on October 5, 2018.
Congrats Amy!
Amy Bui
Amy Bui was an undergraduate student researcher in Dr. Marcelo Tolmasky's lab and attended Harvard for a PhD. She was also a Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard. Now, Amy is working in a startup company called Goldfinch Bio.
presentations
CSUF SCERP scholars with SACNAS 2018 keynote speaker Dr. Ellen Ochoa, US Astronaut and former director of the NASA Johnson Space Center. Photo Credit: J. Burnaford
*CSUF Undergraduate Students
**CSUF Graduate Students
***Ph.D. students
- The Southern California Ecosystems Research Program was well-represented at the 2018 SACNAS National Diversity in STEM conference in San Antonio Texas. Ten SCERP scholars attended, accompanied by program advisors Dr. Jennifer Burnaford and Dr. Bill Hoese. Collectively the scholars presented five posters based on their original research projects (* indicates undergraduate student author, # indicates graduate student author).
- Cook, B,* MS Simenc#, H Hargarten, LA Honaas, and JP Der. Comparing apples to apples: enhancing reference genomes for cross-cultivar functional genomics.
- Dunn, SR, AM Jaramillo*, MK Koval*, KM Rodriguez*, AM Sanchez*, DR Sandquist, and P Stapp. Potential primary and secondary exposure of rodenticides in Southern California coastal sage scrub and riparian habitats.
- Koval, MK,* AM Jaramillo*, KM Rodriguez*, AM Sanchez*, SR Dunn*, JP Der and JL Burnaford. Stayin Alive? Assessing the ability of an intertidal seaweed to recover from repeated exposure to desiccation and high temperatures during low tide.
- Sanchez, AM,* KM Rodriguez*, SR Dunn*, AM Jaramillo*, MK Koval*, JL Burnaford and DR Sandquist. Surveying the effects of fire on a Blackbrush and Joshua tree woodland in the Mojave Desert.
- Suther, H* and KL Forsgren. Size matters: Comparative morphology of rockfish urogenital papilla.
- Two graduate students in Dr. Jennifer Burnaford’s lab also presented posters at the SACNAS conference.
- Alexis Barrera presented the results of her MS thesis work: Barrera, A.* and JL Burnaford. Clone Wars: Enemy Anemones in the Intertidal Zone.
- Angelina Zuelow won an award for her poster reporting the results of her undergraduate research at Humboldt State University: Zuelow, AN, AJ Jones, and PE Bourdeau. Effects of varying forces on aboral spine and body morphology of the keystone species Pisaster ochraceus in the northeastern Pacific.
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Four undergraduates from the Southern California Ecosystems Research Program (SCERP) attended the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology annual meeting in Tampa Florida, Jan 3-7. The students attended talks and poster and met with scientists from around the country. Andrew Jaramillo and Jacob Javier presented posters detailing the results of their CSUF research.
- JARAMILLO, AM*; KOVAL, MK; RODRIGUEZ, KM; SANCHEZ, AM; DUNN, SR; DER, JP; BURNAFORD, JL. Stayin’ Alive? Assessing the ability of an intertidal seaweed to recover from repeated exposure to desiccation and high temperatures during low tide
- JAVIER, JP*; PAIG-TRAN, EWM Filtration Along a Reticulated Mesh, Anatomy Predicts Feeding Ecology in Neonatal Whale Sharks, Rhincodon typus
SACNAS
Photo credit: J. Burnaford
SACNAS club officers at the SACNAS Poster Practice Session on October 5, 2018.
publications
*CSUF Undergraduate Students
**CSUF Graduate Students
***Ph.D. students
- Brettni Quinn*, Nyah Rodman**, Eugenio Jara, Jennifer S. Fernandez*, Jasmine Martinez**, German M. Traglia, Sabrina Montaña***, Virginia Cantera, Kori Place*, Robert A. Bonomo, Andres Iriarte & María Soledad Ramírez. “Human serum albumin alters specific genes that can play a role in survival and persistence in Acinetobacter baumannii” SCIENTIFIC RePoRtS | (2018) 8:14741 | DOI:10.1038/s41598-018-33072-z
- Montaña S***, Fernandez J**, Barenboim M, Hernandez M*, Kayriyama C, Carulla M, Iriarte A, Ramirez MS, Almuzara M. “Whole-genome analysis and description of an outbreak due to carbapenem-resistant Ochrobactrum anthropi causing pseudo-bacteremias.” Accepted to New Microbe and New Infect 2018.
- Phillips, M.A., Rutledge, G.A., Kezos, J.N., Greenspan, Z.S., Talbott, A., Matty, S., Arain, H., Mueller, L.D., Rose, M.R., and Shahrestani, P. 2018. Effects of evolutionary history on genome wide and phenotypic convergence in Drosophila populations. 2018. BMC Genomics. 19: 743.
- Shahrestani, P., Chambers, M., Vandenberg, J., Garcia, K., Malaret, G., Chowdhury, P., Estrella, Y., Zhu, M., and Lazzaro, B.P. Sexual dimorphism in Drosophila melanogaster survival of Beauveria bassiana infection depends on core immune signaling. 2018. Scientific reports 8: 12501.
