School of Biological Sciences

Nobel winner Capecchi discovers new brain mechanism

June 13, 2023

The pandemic and its aftermath have raised anxiety to new levels. But the roots of anxiety-related conditions, including obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorder (OCSD), are still unclear.

In a new study, University of Utah Health scientists discovered insights into the importance of a minor cell type in the bra in — microglia —i n controlling anxiety-related behaviors in laboratory mice. Traditionally, neurons — the predominant brain cell type — are thought to control behavior.

The researchers showed that, like buttons on a game controller, specific microglia populations activate anxiety and OCSD behaviors while others dampen them. Further, microglia communicate with neurons to invoke the behaviors. The findings, published in Molecular Psychiatry, could eventually lead to new approaches for targeted therapies.

“A small amount of anxiety is good,” said Nobel Laureate Mario Capecchi, Ph.D., a distinguished professor of human genetics at the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine at University of Utah and of biology in the School of Biological Sciences. He is also senior author of the study. “Anxiety motivates us, spurs us on, and gives us that extra bit of push that said, ‘I can.’ But a large dose of anxiety overwhelms us. We become mentally paralyzed, the heart beats faster, we sweat, and confusion settles in our minds.”

“This work is unique and has challenged the current dogma about the role of microglia function in the brain”

Capecchi, who arrived at the University of Utah in 1973 did much of his early research, leading to his Nobel Prize, at U Biology where a permanent display of his original equipment involving gene-targeting is housed.

Read the full story by Julie Kiefer about this exciting new research by Utah’s Nobel laureate in U of U Health.

Humans of the U: Katya Podkovyroff Lewis

May 19, 2023

Growing up as a military kid, my family moved a lot and friendships seldom lasted.

My French mother—a teacher and musician—encouraged reading and creativity while my American father —a soldier working in field artillery—encouraged tinkering and what he called “real world skills.” My curiosity was often left free to roam, and led me to have plenty of imaginary friends and daydreams that would occupy my time. As I grew older, this imagination mainly translated to creative writing.

Moving to the United States felt like a culture shock even as an American citizen, and high school was an even harder adjustment. When my senior year rolled around, I felt like a first-generation student in many ways with a father who had never been to college and a mother who wasn’t familiar with the American college system. Thanks to military educational benefits, I was able to attend American University in Washington, DC – my dream school and “reach school” due to my family’s financial situation. I took on double major in journalism and international studies, with a concentration in environmental sustainability and global health, intending to focus my career on science writing or science communication.

After graduation, I began a communications internship in January 2020 writing stories about climate change and ended up writing articles on COVID-19, specifically regarding resources for journalists and the toll of reporting on the pandemic. The pandemic changed a lot of people’s plans, including mine—when I was laid off from my restaurant job in March of 2020 and had the impending end of my internship that June, I scrambled for journalistic freelancing opportunities. But I wasn’t content with just writing about topics I was so interested in—I realized that I wanted to do the work. I decided to go back to college for a second bachelors in biology with a minor in Earth science at the University of Utah, where my passions have since flourished.

Read the rest of of Katya’s story in@theU.

Revisiting Carbon Offset Protocols

April 17, 2023

Revisiting carbon off-set protocols

When you walk through a forest, you are surrounded by carbon. Every branch and every leaf, every inch of trunk and every tendril of unseen root contains carbon pulled from the atmosphere through photosynthesis.

And as long as it stays stored away inside that forest, it’s not contributing to the rising concentrations of carbon dioxide that cause climate change. So it’s only natural that we might want to use forests’ carbon-storage superpower as a potential climate solution in addition to reducing human greenhouse gas emissions.

But climate change itself might compromise how permanently forests are able to store carbon and keep it out of the air, according to a new study led by University of Utah researchers. A study of how different regions and tree species will respond to climate change finds a wide range of estimates of how much carbon forests in different regions might gain or lose as the climate warms. Importantly, the researchers found, the regions most at risk to lose forest carbon through fire, climate stress or insect damage are those regions where many forest carbon offset projects have been set up.

“This tells us there’s a really urgent need to update these carbon offsets protocols and policies with the best available science of climate risks to U.S. forests,” said William Anderegg, study senior author and director of the U’s Wilkes Center for Climate Science and Policy.

The study is published in Nature Geoscience. Find an interactive tool showing carbon storage potential in forests in the U.S. here.

 

Read about a multi-perspective modeling approach and what we still need to know about climate offset protocols in our attempts to mitigate climate change in the full story by Paul Gabrielsen in @The U

 

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Outstanding Grad Student

April 14, 2023

Dylan KlURE

Molecular Ecologist Wins Outstanding Graduate Student Award

Dylan Klure. Photo credit: Todd Anderson

At first glance, it might seem a circuitous route to study ecology through the DNA of a desert woodrat. But by using modern molecular biology techniques, Dylan Klure (Dearing Lab), a PhD candidate in the School of Biological Sciences, does just that and in a variety of compelling, integrated and collaborative ways.

To answer the question, “how does an organism interact with its environment?” an ecologist might traditionally study that organism’s behavior or its competition with other species and study its population trends over time. But Klure, who was awarded this year’s Outstanding Graduate Student from the College of Science at the University of Utah and considers himself a molecular ecologist, wants to know how that organism has changed over time and what adaptations that organism has at the level of its genome that allow it to live successfully in its current habitat.

In the case of the desert woodrat, populations in the southwestern United States have experienced gradual changes in climate over the last ~15,000 years since the end of the last ice age. This environmental change has led to the expansion of a highly toxic plant, creosote bush, across much of this region and now many woodrat populations must rely on this toxic plant as a food resource.  “Some woodrat populations have really experienced a lot of change in that time, and other ones haven't. So we can compare those two populations of woodrats and ask what's different or not different in their genomes in response to that environmental change.”

Certain populations of the desert woodrat, largely in the Mojave Desert, are able to consume large quantities of creosote bush, without becoming ill. Klure and his colleagues have found that these woodrats have evolved novel genes that code for enzymes in their liver that can degrade the toxins in creosote bush. Additionally, these woodrats have acquired beneficial microbes in their gut that also help degrade these toxins. These dramatic findings show how historic climate change has shaped the evolution of woodrats.

The implications of such discoveries are two-fold: first, by documenting how animals have responded to past climate change events, scientists can better predict how animals may respond to our current age of rapid climate change. Second, researchers are figuring out the link between what enzymes produced in the liver successfully degrades (or neutralizes) which types of toxins, something that is not well understood in humans.

“It’s complicated,” says Klure. “A single human can produce several dozens of unique enzymes in the liver in response to medicinal use or drug use. And knowing which of those enzymes are actually acting on which toxin or if they're acting sequentially” is a critical benchmark that might inform the development of future medicines.

A team effort that is both ongoing and built on the work of previous graduate students and post-docs, this research has led to multiple publications for the fifth-year graduate student. Articles in peer-reviewed journals have addressed not only how gut microbes in these woodrats allow them to feed on toxic plants, but more broadly, how microbes in the gut get there in the first place, what impacts the microbe community and what factors might predict what species of bacteria one finds in what animals.

Bryant's woodrat (Neotoma bryanti) feeding on the toxic creosote bush

Ecologists take into account how an organism interacts with its entire environment, but that can be complicated to measure. While the subject model for Klure might be woodrats, a “goldmine of knowledge” comes from their feces. “First of all, there is host DNA in feces”, says Klure. “Woodrats are shedding their own intestinal cells, so their DNA is in there. And whatever they're eating [that] DNA is in there. The bacteria in their gut’s DNA is in there. It's all in there.” From a single fecal pellet, scientists can determine who that animal is, what they are eating and what types of microorganisms they harbor in their gut.

It is these modern molecular approaches used to ask evolutionary and ecological questions that excites Klure the most. “I can start understanding how the organism is interacting with its environment, from a much more holistic view. Essentially, [I] don't have to just rely on what I can see with my own eyes.”

Klure and team employ techniques that range from DNA sequencing to gene expression assays and from pharmacological assays to test the activity of enzymes to “western blotting,” a technique used to characterize what proteins are in a sample using fluorescent antibodies.

Klure is slated to defend his dissertation in May and upon graduation will immediately begin work as a post-doctoral researcher in the Dearing Lab to finish up some of his research there. This will be followed most-likely by another stint as a post-doc elsewhere. He is planning to pursue a career in academia, where he would like to continue performing research alongside undergraduate students as this has been one the most rewarding parts of his graduate experience. He enjoys crafting research projects with undergraduate students that are feasible in scale so that they can contribute to the entire research process. Referencing his own experience as an undergraduate at the University of Redlands, he says, “it's cool to see that the students actually get to help design their own project and actually run it all the way to completion before they graduate.”

Biologist addressing young students at the Natural History Museum of Utah

Teaching kids at the Natural History Museum of Utah about the ecology of woodrats (photo credit - C. Hernandez)

With his partner, you can find Klure, a California native, with his spin rod, fishing in Utah’s outback, a welcome relief from the bench and fieldwork of all things woodrats. Outside the lab, the molecular ecologist has also found a home in advocating for the LGBTQ+ community that finds itself in STEM-related fields at the U. He co-founded the LGBTQ+STEM Interest group, alongside fellow graduate student Andy Sposato and biology professor Ofer Rog, and this work has proven gratifying the past few years. The goal of this organization is to foster professional development and community advancement for LGBTQ+ individuals pursuing careers in STEM.

“There really aren’t any LGBT resources for the most part at the grad-student-and-above level,” he says, remarking that most universities have some type of program and support system for undergraduates, but not for graduates, post-doctoral researchers and faculty. “That is where LGBTQ+ people are the most underrepresented.”

That Dylan Klure is recipient of the Outstanding Graduate Student award will only help elevate graduate students, like himself, and faculty who identify as LGBTQ+.

By David Pace

 

 

 

 

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Thure Cerling Awarded the Rosenblatt

May 20, 2022

Thure E. Cerling, Distinguished Professor of Biology, is the 2022 recipient of the Rosenblatt Prize for Excellence.

Cerling is also department chair of the Department of Geology & Geophysics, Francis H. Brown Presidential Chair, and Distinguished Professor of Geology and Geophysics.

The Rosenblatt Prize is the University of Utah’s highest faculty accolade and is presented annually to a faculty member who transcends ordinary teaching, research and administrative efforts. A group of distinguished faculty members on the Rosenblatt Prize Committee recommends esteemed colleagues for consideration and the university’s president makes the final selection.

“Dr. Cerling has made important and impactful contributions to science using isotope geochemistry to learn about natural processes,” said Taylor Randall, president of the University of Utah. “He’s multiplied that impact many times over by sharing his knowledge with graduate students and countless colleagues around the world. With demonstrated excellence in research, teaching and leadership as chair of the Department of Geology & Geophysics, Dr. Cerling epitomizes the ideals of the prestigious Rosenblatt Prize.”

About Thure Cerling

Through his pioneering scientific career and his decades of dedication to sharing his knowledge with colleagues around the world, Cerling, who began teaching at the U in 1979, has been instrumental in expanding the use of isotopes (What’s an isotope? Learn more here) as a tool in geoscience and biology.

“Thure Cerling never met an isotope he didn’t like!” one nominator wrote.

Using isotopes, he has devised innovative methods to understand the paleoecology of early human sites in East Africa, determined the timing of floods in the Grand Canyon, discovered a major global transition in vegetation types 7 million years ago, and has even analyzed his own beard hair to show how his diet changed over the course of a few days during a trip to Mongolia. By one metric of research publication impact, Cerling’s more than 300 scientific papers represent an exceptionally productive and remarkably influential career. His legacy includes graduate students who now are faculty at a number of leading research universities.

The impacts of isotope analysis go far beyond academic research, however. Cerling’s methods and expertise have also been used to identify ivory taken by poachers, determine if medicines are counterfeit, and help identify human remains. Cerling and distinguished professor of biology Jim Ehleringer co-founded a spinoff company, IsoForensics, in 2001 to bring the power of isotope science to criminal cases.

Cerling and Ehleringer also founded IsoCamp, an annual two-week short course that they started in 1996 to teach colleagues the theory and methods of stable isotope analysis. The course, which is now held at the University of New Mexico, has trained nearly 1,000 scientists from around the world in the use of stable isotopes for widespread applications in physical and life sciences; the cumulative impact on the scientific enterprise is incalculable. The American Geophysical Union recognized the unique contributions of IsoCamp with the 2017 Excellence in Earth and Space Science Education Award.

Cerling’s notable list of awards includes the 2020 Emile Argand Award from the International Union of Geological Sciences, awarded only every four years, the 2017 President’s Medal from the Geological Society of America, and the 2012 Utah Governor’s Medal for Science and Technology. He also shared in the 2017 Mineral of the Year award from the International Mineral Association with eight other coauthors for the discovery of the mineral Rowleyite and holds one patent for a “Device and system to reconstruct travel history of an individual.”

He’s also a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, the Geological Society of America, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Geochemical Society and the International Association of Geochemistry and Cosmochemistry. He served by presidential appointment on the United States Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board from 2002-2011.

When the U’s Department of Geology & Geophysics needed a new chair in 2016, Cerling placed his name in consideration. When a College of Mines and Earth Sciences administrator asked Cerling why he wanted to be considered for chair, Cerling replied “because it’s my duty, and my turn.” Having benefited from others’ leadership for many years, he felt that he could provide a platform for younger faculty to develop their own successful careers at the U.

He is nearing completion of his second term as chair, having instituted faculty mentorship initiatives, improved faculty hiring and department internal communication, and extended a hand of outreach to the community with a department Open House Night intended for K-12 students and their families, as well as a fellowship that sends Geology and Geosciences grad students into Salt Lake City schools.

Thure Cerling, featured speaker at the Frontiers of Science Lecture Series, College of Science, 2014
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Cerling “encouraged patience and creativity,” a nominator wrote, facilitating the development of digital resources like 3-D models of rocks and minerals and high-resolution photos of field sites that will continue to improve online teaching and accessibility of geological education into the future.

Cerling’s lifelong dedication to advancing scientific understanding and sharing that understanding with students and colleagues is encapsulated in the words of two nominators, who both described Cerling as “widely knowledgeable and endlessly curious.”

About the Rosenblatt Prize for Excellence

The Rosenblatt Prize for Excellence is an endowed award, given annually to a member of the faculty at the University of Utah “to honor excellence in teaching, research and administrative efforts, collectively or individually, on behalf of the university.”

The endowment was created to honor Nathan and Tillie Rosenblatt on the centenary of their immigration to Utah and in recognition of their legacy of civic leadership and generosity. Originally established in 1983, the award was later increased by Joseph and Evelyn Rosenblatt and their family. The endowment and its gifts ensure the annual award of $50,000.

Click here to learn more about the Rosenblatt Prize for Excellence. Click here to watch Dr. Cerling giving the 2014 Frontiers of Science lecture.

This story by Paul Gabrielsen originally appeared May 9, 2022 on @TheU.

Our Faculty

September 16, 2019

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