Abstract Submitted for Presentation

The project, “DragonFly”, began as an idea for a platform built on existing infrastructure, creating interventions along the Schuylkill River walking trail for experiential learning and creative thinking. Using a combination of digital media and physical interventions, “DragonFly” can engage with the citizens of Philadelphia in their own backyard and inspire them to seek adventure by discovering more about their own city’s natural wonders. These ideas work together to create new memories in a familiar area for many. As Drexel University continues to expand into West Philadelphia and is actively involved with development of other public spaces around campus, we see this as a natural extension to serve the community and engage with local residents in new ways. “DragonFly” will leverage the Academy’s immense natural history collections and local research efforts as well as Drexel’s commitment to its community and expertise in experiential learning to create this new platform. We want people to walk away with appreciation of the area so they will want to preserve it, but also bring it back home with them and begin their own urban ecology experiments. The panel presentation will cover our progress to date, including preliminary reports with faculty and administration and a synthesis of work done by students in ENVS 280 (fall 2014), a community based learning course developed by myself for this project. It will also discuss insights from student work in Iceland (fall 2015) on how to apply this project to other cities and promote global sustainability at a regional scale.

Event: CoAS Research Days 2014
Presentation Type: Poster
Title: Role of alcohol detoxification in preventing DNA damage
Abstract:

Acetaldehyde, the primary metabolite of alcohol, is responsible for hangovers and is a potential carcinogen due to its ability to induce cross-links in DNA. These cross-links disrupt the DNA replication process, causing DNA damage and genomic instability, which is a hallmark of cancer. Humans normally possess genes specialized for the detoxification of this harmful chemical into harmless acetic acid. However, a large percentage of the East Asian population has a variant of the acetaldehyde dehydrogenase gene ALDH2. These individual are unable to efficiently catalyze this detoxification reaction, resulting in an alcohol flush reaction, which is associated with reddening of the face due to capillary dilation brought on by the accumulation of acetaldehyde in the body, as well as increased risks of esophageal and intestinal cancers.   To investigate the effect of aldehydes in DNA damage response, we have identified and characterized three acetaldehyde dehydrogenases and three formaldehyde dehydrogenases in a model organism Schizosaccharomyces pombe. Cells with mutations in any of these genes displayed hypersensitivity to acetaldehyde or formaldehyde. When compared to wild-type cells, these mutants displayed a significant increase in DNA damage in response to aldehydes. These data indicate the requirement of alcohol dehydrogenase-related genes for preventing DNA damage.

Event: Drexel Department of Biodiversity, Earth, and Environmental Science Research Day 2016
Date: March 10th, 2016
Type: Poster 
Title: Brain investment in slave making ant workers

Abstract:
Among the thousands of social insect species worldwide, some ant species establish complex symbiotic relationships with one other. These relationships require specific brain investments, which are constrained by the costly production of neural tissue. With regards to social parasitism, specifically slave-making, we predicted that parasites that depend on hosts for cognition and survival would display reduced brain investments in certain regions. We investigated the differences in brain investments among slave-making Polyergus mexicanus ant workers and Formica fusca slave workers. P. mexicanus colonies rely completely on enslaved F. fusca hosts to forage, maintain the nests, and care for brood. By comparing brain volumes of these species, we found relatively lower investments in mushroom body calyx regions in P. mexicanus workers compared to F. fusca hosts. Free and enslaved F. fusca workers did not differ in brain investments, suggesting the enslavement does not alter their brain architecture.