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Actually not easy to do. Those little guys do not normally have elevated cholesterol levels and their arteries stay unclogged. But with a little genetic engineering you can knockout the gene for the protein apolipoprotein E, which plays a role in clearing bad cholesterol - LDL - from the blood. The result is high levels of blood plasma cholesterol and the development of plaques that block coronary arteries. Why would you want to do this to a mouse? Well, Dr. Jonathan Smith of the Lerner Research Institute of the Cleveland Clinic is using these mice as a model to identify additional genes that are involved in atherosclerosis. He recently visited my Anatomy and Physiology class to tell us about this work. Ok, the visit was two weeks ago. I have just been a lazy blogger.

When these mice prone to atherosclerosis are bred to other mouse strains the offspring show different susceptibilities to developing arterial plaques. This suggests that other allelic variants (versions of genes) in these different strains influence plaque development. Quantitative trait locus mapping can then be used to identify variations in regions of the mouse chromosome that are correlated with increased amounts of atherosclerotic lesions. This may sound like genomic mumbo-jumbo, but it is an amazing way to relatively quickly identify putative chromosome regions that influence this disease. Now they have to find the specific genes.

Turns out we have a lot more to find out. This whole DNA/RNA thing was not wrapped up in the 1950s.

Two recent articles in the NY Times summarize some of the latest work on these two nucleic acids, and show that they are more impressive than we thought. RNA interference was discovered only about 10 years ago and has already earned two people a nobel prize. This work has opened up an entirely new world of RNA biology and promises to have large implications for basic biology and biomedicine.

After years of teaching students about junk DNA, the human genome project suggested that the large proportion of DNA that does not tell cells how to make proteins does have a function. In addition, it is now clear that proteins attached to our DNA not only affect how our genes are activated, but that these proteins and their effects may be inheritable. This definitely adjusts the basic dogma of DNA-RNA-protein, and what exactly constitutes our genetic material.

Dr. Tonia Hsieh from the University of Florida made a video appearance in my vertebrate biology course to discuss her 2004 paper on the biomechanics of running on water. Dr. Hsieh’s research attempts to understand how animals move by integrating engineering and physics with biology. She also considers the evolutionary history of her organisms to better understand how different types of locomotion have evolved. She spoke with us about a particularly cool example of movement - lizards running on water. Those are of course basilisks, or jesus lizards. My students had the chance to discuss the paper with Dr. Hsieh and hear some added background about how the research was done.

Dr. Hsieh and her collaborator George Lauder discovered that these lizards use a unique motion of their legs - they move them laterally through the water to keep their bodies from falling to the side, and then move them medially to keep them from toppling towards their opposite leg. At the same time they are producing forces that propel them forward.

We spoke together using Skype video - a great inexpensive (free) way to video conference.

My Vertebrate Biology students venture to Cleveland again, this time to take a behind the scenes tour at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo from Alan Sironen, the Curator of Carnivores and Large Animals (maybe the best job title ever). Alan showed us the stables, containing zebras (above) and two species of gazelle, including the endangered slender horned gazelle (pictured below).

He told us about animal care and the conservation efforts going on at the zoo. Several students in the class are interested in careers in zoo science, and one has already done a summer internship at the Dickerson Park Zoo in Springfield Missouri. They got some great advice about starting careers in the field.

We got to see the zoo’s longtime resident Nile Hippo in his “retirement pond”. He was brought to the zoo in 1955 and is now only rarely put on public display. The brother of one of my students is the architect who helped design the renovation of this facility, including this new pond.

He (the hippo) likes to show off.

Students in my vertebrate biology class made the trek up to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History to see Dr. Neil Shubin of the University of Chicago talk about his 2006 discovery of Tiktaalik, an important transitional fossil in tetrapod evolution. After reading some of his papers, chapters from his new book and seeing his interview on the Colbert Report, they were very excited to see him in person. Here we are asking some questions at the book signing. Dr. Shubin was kind enough to pose with the class.

AU was accepted to a National Science Foundation funded conference at Hope College in Michigan on institutionalizing undergraduate research . This was a great weekend organized by the Council on Undergraduate Research to help institutions build on their current undergraduate research programs by linking us up with facilitators with highly successful existing programs. This workshop will help us use our successful research model in the sciences to expand the mentoring of undergraduate scholarship throughout the College of Arts and Sciences. Check back to see what results.

Gordon Swain, Steve Fenster, Me, Perry Corbin

Dr. Radhika Atit from the Case Western Reserve University Biology Department visited my Anatomy and Physiology class to talk about her research on skin development. We also had students attend from other classes, and of course some faculty dropped in. Students were challenged and excited by the many molecular techniques used in Dr. Atit’s research, and also gained insight into the function of stem cells in the skin. They learned how the ability to manufacture human skin in the future will help treat burn victims and various skin diseases.

Students were interested to hear that much of Dr. Atit’s research is performed by undergraduate students. In fact, her recent research paper includes undergraduate researchers as co-authors.