Summertime science
RESEARCH & INNOVATION
Summer provides an opportunity for many University of Richmond students to further explore their academic interests with faculty mentors, including through on- and off-campus research opportunities.
Biology professor Priscilla Erickson worked with three students in her lab this summer to conduct research related to invasive species, Erickson’s primary area of scholarship.
Camille Walsh-Antzak, a biology major who graduated in May and stayed on campus to further her research before starting graduate school, studied parasitoid wasps — tiny wasps that lay their eggs inside fruit fly larva and eat the larva from the inside out. She investigated how these wasps affect the invasive African fig fly Erickson focuses on.
“Camille found that the wasps preferentially attack other native species of fruit fly over the invasive species,” Erickson said. “This helps give the invasive species a competitive advantage because they are not attacked by the wasps at the same rate.”
Walsh-Antzak and Erickson coauthored a paper on this work that is currently in review for the journal Ecology and Evolution.
Also in Erickson’s lab, junior Jerry He analyzed genome sequencing data from seven years of sampling of the invasive African fig fly species.
“This species is interesting to study because it comes back to Virginia every year after going extinct in the winter,” Erickson said. “Jerry found that in every year we sampled, there were predictable genetic changes in the invasive population after they colonized Virginia, which suggests that the populations are rapidly evolving and adapting to the new Virginia environment.”
Sophomore Alexandra Stellwagen explored gene expression data for the flies. While those results are preliminary, she found that flies collected in Florida and Virginia have differences in gene expression, suggesting that they show different adaptations to different environments.
Chemistry professor Christopher Shugrue worked with four students in his lab this summer on peptides research. Peptides are small proteins that are made from amino acids and have been recently explored in the treatment of many ailments, including cancer, diabetes, and infections.
“Peptides are chemically complex, and making structural modifications to improve their efficacies as medicines is challenging,” Shugrue said. “Peptides require water to dissolve and function properly, and many synthetic methods are not compatible with these conditions.”
That’s why Shugrue and his research students are focused on developing new chemical reactions that can modify the structures of peptides. They designed two new tools that will support enhancing their therapeutic activity.
“This research will not only allow students to contribute to the advancement of peptide therapeutics but also expose students to current challenges in synthetic methods, bioorganic chemistry, and environmental sustainability,” Shugrue said.
Science students also completed a field research experience at Carter Mountain Orchard, located in Charlottesville, Virginia. Students in the URISE program, which welcomes about 20 incoming students from groups traditionally underrepresented in science and math disciplines for a pre-semester experience, hung fly traps in various locations to test if the location affected the types of flies they were able to catch.
The students found that traps hung higher in the trees caught more of a species of fly that tends to attack ripe peaches, where the traps hung close to the ground caught more species that specialize on rotting fruit.
The URISE students will start their fall semester having already had both lab and field research experiences, relationships with faculty, and community with each other.