The Sci-Files on Impact 89FM

Emily Bolger on Understanding the Role of Machine Learning and Text Analysis in Systematic Literature Reviews

Impact 89FM | WDBM-FM — Sun, 23 Mar 2025 09:30:00 -0400

On this week's episode of The Sci-Files, your hosts Mari and Dimitri interview Emily Bolger. Emily Bolger is a 5th year PhD Candidate in the Department of Computational Mathematics, Science, and Engineering. She works in the Computing Education Research Lab (CERL) with Dr. Danny Caballero. Her dissertation research uses Natural Language Processing to identify and synthesize themes in Instructional Change Strategies in Undergraduate STEM Literature. Systematic literature reviews critically collect and evaluate findings from a specific area of research. In collaboration with her colleagues, the analysis seeks to identify themes in undergraduate STEM education specifically focused on literature highlighting instructional and curriculum strategies. Extending previous work conducted about 15 years ago, the team is repeating the analysis with new literature and assessing the integration of machine learning tools. With developments in Natural Language Processing, the field behind tools like ChatGPT, there are many techniques available for assisting our researchers in extracting information from the literature. The team explores how machine learning methods can provide new insights to traditional methods in systematic literature reviews.

Emily also works with her colleagues in CERL to develop curriculum materials for CMSE’s undergraduate Data Science and Computational Modeling courses, particularly assignments that focus on data ethics and algorithmic bias.

If you're interested in discussing your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Mari and Dimitri at thescifileswdbm@gmail.com. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter and Instagram!

Aubree Marshall on What Dental Calculus Can Tell Us About Past Lived Experiences

Impact 89FM | WDBM-FM — Sun, 02 Feb 2025 09:30:00 -0500

On this week's episode of The Sci-Files, your hosts Mari and Dimitri interview Aubree Marshall. Aubree is a 5th year PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology. They work in the MSU Bioarchaeology Lab with Dr. Gabe Wrobel, and their research interests include understanding health, diet, and food access in ancient Maya populations, specifically from Central Belize. To do this, Aubree analyzes the proteins and micro-remains extracted from dental calculus - the same stuff your dental hygienist scrapes off your teeth! Dental calculus, or tartar, fossilizes in life, meaning that the materials found in the matrix would have passed through the individual's mouth before death. This method allows bioarchaeologists to study food specificity and access, something that previous dietary study methods cannot provide. In turn, this allows us to begin to understand the relationship between food access and different aspects of social identity (i.e., osteological sex, age, and socioeconomic status).

Summer Research Opportunities Program (SROP) Part 2

Mari Dowling, Dimitri Joseph — Sun, 26 Jan 2025 09:30:00 -0500

Mari and Dimitri interview undergraduate student researchers from Michigan State University's Summer Research Opportunities Program (SROP). The second episode of this 2-part series features Chris Lin, Kevin Villatoro, and Darnilla Samuel.

If you’re interested in discussing your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Mari and Dimitri at thescifileswdbm@gmail.com. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter or Instagram!

Summer Research Opportunities Program (SROP) Part 1

Mari Dowling, Dimitri Joseph — Sun, 19 Jan 2025 09:30:00 -0500

Mari and Dimitri interview undergraduate student researchers from Michigan State University's Summer Research Opportunities Program (SROP). The first episode of this 2-part series features Kandy Pierre, Mohamed Elgallad, and Isteaq Zim.

COGS Graduate Academic Conference (GAC): Part 4

Mari Dowling, Dimitri Joseph — Sun, 03 Nov 2024 09:30:00 -0500

Mari and Dimitri interview student researchers at the 16th annual Graduate Academic Conference (GAC), hosted by the Council of Graduate Students (COGS). The final episode of this four-part series features interviews with Jared Reiling from the Department of Computational Math Science and Engineering, and Priyanka Kathari from the Department of Teacher Education.

COGS Graduate Academic Conference (GAC): Part 3

Mari Dowling, Dimitri Joseph — Sun, 13 Oct 2024 09:30:00 -0400

Mari and Dimitri interview student researchers at the 16th annual Graduate Academic Conference (GAC), hosted by the Council of Graduate Students (COGS). The third episode of this four-part series features interviews with Md Fyaz Sadiq from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Marc Freidman from the Plant Pathology Program.

COGS Graduate Academic Conference (GAC): Part 2

Mari Dowling, Dimitri Joseph — Sun, 05 May 2024 09:30:00 -0400

Mari and Dimitri interview student researchers at the 16th annual Graduate Academic Conference (GAC), hosted by the Council of Graduate Students (COGS). The second episode of this four-part series features interviews with Roselane Kithan-Lundquist, and Ifeanyichukwu Eke from MSU's Microbiology department , and Simon Sanchez from the Department of Biomedical Engineering.

COGS Graduate Academic Conference (GAC): Part 1

Mari Dowling, Dimitri Joseph — Sun, 28 Apr 2024 09:30:00 -0400

Mari and Dimitri interview student researchers at the 16th annual Graduate Academic Conference (GAC), hosted by the Council of Graduate Students (COGS). The first episode of this four-part series features interviews with Sam Norcia and Char Dengler from the College of Nursing, and Bismarck Amaniampong from the Department of Chemistry.

Veona Cutinho about Revolutionizing Cloning: The Power of a Single Protein in Unlocking Nuclear Transfer Efficiency

Mari Dowling, Dimitri Joseph — Sun, 24 Mar 2024 09:30:00 -0400

On this week's episode of The Sci-Files, your hosts Mari and Dimitri interview Veona Cutinho. Veona works in the Cellular Reprogramming Laboratory at MSU led by Dr. Jose Cibelli. She works with zebrafish embryos and manipulates them so they can be ideal donors for cloning. These tiny embryos are perfect for studying cloning because their development is quick, easy to see, and happens outside the body! While cloning was once a big deal, it's kind of old-fashioned now because it's tough to get it just right. Veona and team at the Cellular Reprogramming Lab are trying to figure out what the problem is. She's focusing on a troublemaker called H3K9me3, a protein that makes cloning less efficient. By understanding and dealing with this protein, Veona hopes to make cloning much smoother and better. It's like upgrading an old invention to work faster and smarter!

Yunting Gu about Articulatory Preference: Explaining Universal Sound Patterns

Mari Dowling, Dimitri Joseph — Sun, 17 Mar 2024 09:30:00 -0400

Yunting Gu is a PhD candidate in linguistics from Michigan State University. Her research in speech production suggests a basis for several universals regarding the sound pattern of languages.

Despite the differences in languages, some sound patterns are common to most languages of the world. For example, cross-linguistically, syllables starting with pl are more frequently observed than syllables starting with pt, which is more frequent than syllables starting with lp. Also, syllables that have a consonant followed by a vowel (such as so) are more common across different languages than syllables which is a vowel followed by a consonant (such as an). The question is — where do the observed linguistic universals come from? There are two possible answers. First, it may merely be a coincidence that languages share some patterns. Second, linguistic universals may come from some shared property of human beings.

Kiyotaka Suga on The Roles of Speaking and Writing Practice in Second Language Grammar Learning

Mari Dowling, Dimitri Joseph — Sun, 25 Feb 2024 09:30:00 -0500

On this week's episode of The Sci-Files, your hosts Mari and Dimitri interview Kiyotaka Suga, a PhD candidate in Second Language Studies.

One of the engaging questions for second language (L2) teachers is how to introduce grammar instruction to help adult L2 learners develop their well-balanced communicative abilities. Most L2 teachers may believe intuitively that engaging in output (speaking and writing) practice in L2 classrooms is crucial for adult L2 learners to develop their productive skills. Despite such common beliefs about output practice, the roles of output in L2 grammar acquisition have not been fully explained with empirical evidence. Previous studies that investigated the roles of output practice for L2 grammar learning have reported mixed results, which were limited due to their primary reliance on indirect measures of grammar learning processes (e.g., note-taking, underlining, and retrospective interviews). Since these indirect measures may not have fully captured learners’ learning processes (i.e., how output practice in L2 classrooms can allow learners to pay more attention to the target grammatical feature that they are learning), it is valuable to employ a more sensitive online objective measure (i.e., eye-tracking) to further examine the roles of output in L2 grammar acquisition.

In his dissertation study, Kiyo is using eye-tracking to examine how engaging in L2 output practice can push adult L2 learners to pay more attention to grammar features that they are learning and then eventually facilitate their grammar learning. The findings of this study will clarify the roles of output practice in L2 classroom instruction with empirical evidence. Pedagogically, the findings will allow L2 teachers to incorporate empirically-based output practice into their daily teaching practices.

Bryan Stanley on Understanding and Supporting Informal Physics Programs and their Student Volunteers

Mari Dowling, Dimitri Joseph — Sun, 18 Feb 2024 09:30:00 -0500

Bryan Stanley is a PhD student in the Physics Department. He does Physics Education Research (PER), where he primarily studies informal physics programs. Informal physics programs create physics learning spaces outside of the traditional classroom settings. Examples of these types of programs include, but are not limited to, summer camps, planetarium shows, public lectures, student groups, science festivals, and open houses. The events that these programs host are sometimes called public engagement or outreach. These types of programs can impact and support youth and adult audiences and university student volunteers in building their science identity, sense of belonging, and sense of community. Bryan studies the structures of informal physics program to better understand the fundamental aspects of these spaces and to help support informal physics practitioners. He also studies how these programs impact their university student volunteers, finding that volunteering can influence students' career paths.

Natasha George about a "Cool" Approach to Unraveling Antibiotic Resistance

Mari Dowling, Dimitri Joseph — Sun, 11 Feb 2024 09:30:00 -0500

When you get a scrape or cut, you might reach for a tube of Neosporin, but have you ever wondered what exactly this antimicrobial ointment does to bacteria, or how bacteria might avoid being killed? Bacteria possess a dizzying variety of specialized protein machinery that help them resist our medicines, complicating treatment of infection. Natasha, a graduate student in the department of microbiology and molecular genetics, studies these antibiotic resistance machines with the help of cryo-electron microscopy, a technique that uses high-powered microscopes and frozen samples to capture snapshots of protein molecules in action and build 3D models that reveal their intricate structures. This visual approach can help us make sense of microbial behavior, understand why certain antibiotics are not effective on some types of bacteria, and hopefully help us develop more effective medications to treat infections.

Logan Soule on Blood Storage: Even Red Blood Cells Get a Sugar Crash

Mari Dowling, Dimitri Joseph — Sun, 04 Feb 2024 09:30:00 -0500

Blood transfusions can be life-saving procedures for patients in need. However, they can also impart much more devastating complications, leading to poorer outcomes than prior to transfusion, such as infection, inflammation, and even death. This is in part due to the red blood cell “storage lesion”, which refers to the irreversible metabolic and physiological damages that occur to red blood cells (RBCs) during their storage period, such as membrane damage, protein/lipid oxidation, glycation, cell lysis, and many other detrimental changes vital to proper RBC function. Logan Soule is a 5th year PhD candidate in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. Logan’s work focuses on attempts to alleviate the development of the storage lesion. His lab believes that a culprit behind these damages is the significantly high sugar content in RBC preservatives, which is 8x higher than diabetic patients. His work highlights the benefits of storing RBCs at physiological glucose levels, leading to exceptionally better RBC functionality than traditional hyperglycemic storage. However, normoglycemic storage requires “feeding” the cells with a concentrated glucose solution as the RBCs metabolize the glucose, limiting this technique’s application, until now. Logan has designed and implemented an automated glucose feeding device to successfully maintain normoglycemic conditions of stored RBCs. These findings implicate exciting changes in transfusion medicine that are more feasible than ever before. Storing blood under normoglycemic conditions is now not only possible but has significant potential to lead to better patient outcomes.

Nupur Huria and Harsna Chahal about Factors Impacting Perceptions and Stigma Surrounding Menstruation: Michigan State University Perspective

Mari Dowling, Dimitri Joseph — Sun, 19 Nov 2023 09:30:00 -0500

Period poverty is an important, yet often ignored, public health crisis. The social shame and steep cost of menstrual products often push low-income people to adopt unhygienic practices during menstruation, negatively impacting their health, education, and dignity.

Specifically, period poverty significantly impacts young menstruators in universities. The lack of access to menstrual hygiene products forces many students to resort to rags, paper towels, toilet paper, and other substitutes, increasing the risk of several reproductive health issues. According to a study conducted by Days for Girls, about 25% of menstruating students struggle to afford menstrual products. The emotional toll from the deep-rooted stigma surrounding menstruation along with the inaccessibility of menstrual products negatively impacts the self-perception and mental health of students. BMC Women’s Health estimated that 68% of college students who experience period poverty also experience moderate to severe depression.

Nupur and Harsna worked with the Department of Epidemiology and MSU College of Human Medicine Public Health professors to create and roll-out a survey identifying demographic factors, accessibility factors, and perceptions on menstruation of Michigan State menstruators. Their results confirmed the need and benefit for an increased accessibility to free menstrual products at Michigan State University. Mission Menstruation X MSU successfully communicated these findings to MSU Administration, securing over 200 university-funded free menstrual dispensers across campus in women’s and gender-neutral restrooms.

Alyssa Saunders about A Tale of Tailless Sperm: Investigating the Unique Gametes of African Electric Fish

Mari Dowling, Dimitri Joseph — Sun, 05 Nov 2023 09:30:00 -0500

Alyssa studies the reproductive biology of African electric fish, called mormyrids, with a focus on their sperm and eggs. These freshwater fishes are found throughout lakes and river throughout the African continent and are used by research laboratories across the globe to study questions in evolution, neuroscience, behavior, and other biological disciplines. Besides their amazing ability to produce electricity, these fishes are also unique in that their sperm cells lack tails. Almost all animal sperm cells have a tail that allows them to swim to eggs to achieve fertilization, but the sperm of these fish do not! This is the only known case of tailless sperm evolving within a vertebrate lineage (it has evolved within 35 other lineages, but all of them are invertebrates). It is unknown what caused mormyrid sperm to lose its tail and how their sperm is still able to travel to and fertilize eggs. Furthermore, the morphology of mormyrid sperm has been known since the 1970s, but very little is known about mormyrid eggs. Alyssa's work aims to understand how mormyrid sperm lost its tail, how their sperm is still able to fertilize eggs, and to characterize the morphology of the previously ignored female gametes.

Ben Kline in Out of the frying pan into the fire: How will Coldwater Fish Survive on a Hot Planet?

Mari Dowling, Dimitri Joseph — Sun, 22 Oct 2023 09:30:00 -0400

Ben is a graduate student in the Departments of Integrative Biology and Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior at Michigan State University. His research interests include understanding how species adapt to changing environments, especially thermal stress and conservation of coldwater fishes. Ben uses genomic tools to improve our understanding of species conservation by examining adaptive potential and genetic health in wild trout populations.

Megan McGrath about Gaining the System: What the Thalamus can Teach us about Consciousness

Mari Dowling, Dimitri Joseph — Sun, 08 Oct 2023 09:30:00 -0400

On the first episode with the new hosts of The Sci-Files, Mari Dowling and Dimitri Joseph interview Megan McGrath.

Interacting with the world relies on our ability to take in information and stimuli from our environment and integrate it into a cohesive explanation of what it happening around us. But the world is full of constant, unending stimuli...so how do we know what to pay attention to? If we were consciously aware of everything that was happening in the world, we would never be able to function, so our brains have a built in "gain function", aka the thalamus. This brain structure allows us to fine tune what sensory information actually makes it up to our cortex for conscious processing so that we can get an accurate picture of the world without becoming overwhelmed. But what happens when this goes wrong? And what can that teach us about how to utilize this system to our advantage? That is Megan's main interest in her research. An aspiring anesthesiologist and consciousness researcher, Megan is interested in the networks necessary for arousal and attention and how sensory input is essential to the conscious experience. Her research focuses on the physiologic underpinnings of thalamic disruption and understanding how small differences in these networks lead to large changes in behavior, pushing to the extreme end of disruption; unconsciousness and anesthesia. She hopes that by gaining a more complete picture of thalamic networks and the spectrum of sensory processing disorders, she can begin to develop a more complete picture of consciousness.

Goodbye to Chelsie and Daniel

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 18 Sep 2023 00:00:00 -0400

On this episode of The Sci-Files, Mari Dowling and Dimitri Joseph interviewed Chelsie Boodoo and Daniel Puentes about their research. Daniel Puentes graduated from Michigan State University with a Ph.D. in Physics. His work focused on using experimental information to inform nuclear astrophysical simulations describing the creation of elements in space. Daniel also developed a first-generation beam stopper dedicated to dissociating molecules to improve low-energy rare isotope measurements. Daniel co-founded and co-hosted The Sci-Files with Chelsie Boodoo in 2019. Chelsie Boodoo is a Ph.D. Candidate in Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering. She creates biosensors using gold and magnetic nanoparticles to detect African Swine Fever Virus. She also uses this technology to detect foodborne pathogens such as Staphylococcus aureus.
If you want to discuss your MSU research on the radio or nominate a student, please email scifiles@impact89fm.org. You can ask questions about future episodes here. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube!

Welcoming Dimitri Joseph and Mari Dowling

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 11 Sep 2023 00:00:00 -0400

Chelsie and Daniel visited the COGS Graduate Academic Conference (GAC) for the last time. For their final interview, they spoke with Dimitri Joseph and Mari Dowling, the new hosts of The Sci-Files. Dimitri Joseph is a 4th-year DO-PhD student in the Pharmacology and Toxicology department. He uses bioinformatics to study disparities in cancer. Mari Dowling is a 4th-year DO-PhD student in the College of Osteopathic Medicine and Department of Anthropology. Her graduate work is in medical anthropology, and her research interests are in exploring how drug policy in the United States impacts peoples’ healthcare decision-making.
If you want to discuss your MSU research on the radio or nominate a student, please email scifiles@impact89fm.org. You can ask questions about future episodes here. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube!

COGS GAC Part 2

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 04 Sep 2023 00:00:00 -0400

Chelsie and Daniel visited the COGS Graduate Academic Conference (GAC) for the last time. They continued to interview students briefly about their research. Listen to them speak with Jamily Ramos De Lima and Betul Kara.
If you want to discuss your MSU research on the radio or nominate a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. You can ask questions about future episodes here. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube!

COGS GAC Part 1

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 14 Aug 2023 00:01:00 -0400

Chelsie and Daniel visit the COGS Graduate Academic Conference (GAC) for the last time. They interviewed students briefly about their research. Listen to them speak with Debkumar Debnath, Sam Weiser and Daniel Marri. This will be a three-part series as Daniel and Chelsie say bye and welcome the new hosts of The Sci-Files soon.
If you’re interested in discussing your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. You can ask questions about future episodes here. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube!

Brett Volmert about Growing Mini Human Hearts from Stem Cells

Chelsie Boodoo and Daniel Puentes — Mon, 24 Jul 2023 00:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Brett Volment. Heart diseases represent the leading causes of death worldwide. Researchers commonly use cellular and animal models to investigate and study cardiovascular disease and other diseases. However, these models do not provide the best representation of human physiology. To this end, Brett’s work focuses on growing and creating miniature 3D human hearts, termed “heart organoids” that allow more faithful insight toward heart development, disease mechanisms and effective treatments for heart disease. Brett creates these mini hearts using human stem cells and mimics the environment present in the fetus to advance their maturity. In doing so, he elicits 3D hearts with all major cell types found in the human heart, internal chambers representing atria and ventricles, and a dynamic vessel network. This system represents a powerful tool that researchers can use to investigate human heart development and to screen for disease therapeutics, and ultimately, serves as a major stepping stone towards generating fully synthetic human hearts from stem cells.

If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. You can ask questions about future episodes here. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube!

Joshua Kaste about Building Biochemical Traffic Maps

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 20 Mar 2023 00:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Joshua Kaste. Joshua is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Michigan State University, and he works in the Shachar-Hill laboratory. His work focuses on building and analyzing mathematical models that describe the rates of all the chemical reactions going on in a living cell or whole organism. If you think of all the chemical compounds and the chemical reactions between them as a sort of road map, these models are like the traffic heat map showing where there's congestion, where there's not much activity, etc. This kind of work gets used for basic biological research, but it can also be used by biological engineers since a lot of projects require modifying an organism so that it makes more of a chemical compound. This kind of analysis can be very helpful for figuring out how exactly to accomplish that. In particular, Joshua’s work focuses on the oilseed crop Camelina sativa, which is cultivated for its oil, which can be used as fuel. By modeling its metabolism, we may be able to improve the oil yield farmers get from it, improving its viability as an alternative to fossil fuels.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. You can ask questions about future episodes here. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube!

Jamell Dacon about Fairness and Bias in Social Media Dialogue

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 23 Jan 2023 00:30:08 -0500

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts, Chelsie and Danny, interview Jamell Dacon. Jamell is the MSU Department of Computer Science and Engineering. His current research focuses on fairness and bias in Natural Language Processing (NLP). Because inclusivity matters in all forms. He intends to investigate, examine and mitigate societal biases to conceptualize the "isms" that plague our society via NLP technologies to increase social justice and reduce feelings of disenfranchisement. Specifically, he focuses on conceptualizing social harms arising from the advancements in language technologies, highlighting both positive and negative societal impacts.
If you’re interested in discussing your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. You can ask questions about future episodes here. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube!

Emily Greeson about Controlling Bacteria with Heat and Magnetism

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 24 Oct 2022 00:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts, Chelsie and Danny interview Emily Greeson. Emily works in the Microbiology and Molecular Genetics department in the Contag lab at Michigan State University. Her work focuses on studying and engineering genes in bacteria to create new functions. Recently, Emily has been working on Bacillus subtilis, a soil bacterium, and adding temperature-sensitive repressors to it to control protein production. Temperature-sensitive repressors respond to changes in temperature by stopping protein production at lower temperatures and allowing proteins to be produced at higher temperatures. The Contag lab has taken the bacteria with these temperature-sensitive repressors one step further and combined them with magnetic nanoparticles and electromagnetic fields to create a new system. After graduation, Emily hopes to focus more on science communication and education, including working at the MSU Museum CoLab Studio in the 1.5 Celsius exhibition.
If you’re interested in discussing your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. You can ask questions about future episodes here. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube!

Hariharan Ramakrishnan about Reducing Chemotherapy Side Effects

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 10 Oct 2022 00:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts, Chelsie and Danny interview Hariharan Ramakrishnan. Cisplatin is an incredibly powerful chemotherapy drug used to treat a variety of cancers. However, its side effects, such as kidney toxicity and painful neuropathy, may result in dose reduction or termination of treatment increasing patient mortality. Physicians must closely monitor the patient’s kidney function during chemotherapy due to the high risk of kidney failure, and the patient’s sensitivity, due to severe pain from peripheral neuropathy. Therefore, there is an urgent medical need for novel therapeutics that limit cisplatin’s side effects. Adenosine receptors are involved in several kidney diseases and neuropathic pain pathophysiology. Hari hypothesizes that blocking adenosine receptors (AR) using Istradefylline, an FDA-approved AR antagonist will alleviate kidney toxicity and pain from cisplatin. He found that administering Istradefylline reduces both the pain hypersensitivity and kidney toxicity induced by cisplatin and the associated inflammation. Since the FDA already approves Istradefylline for treating Parkinson’s disease, it can be quickly clinically applied to cancer therapy. You can learn more about the Laumet lab's research at their website.
If you’re interested in discussing your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. You can ask questions about future episodes here. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube!

Anna Kim and Roksana Riddle about Bacteriophage as Plant Biocontrol

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 26 Sep 2022 00:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Anna Kim and Roksana Riddle. The United States CDC estimates 2.8 million drug-resistant infections resulting in 35,000 deaths yearly. Pseudomonads are amongst the most resistant to antimicrobials, not only in clinical settings but equally in plant systems like P. syringae. P. syringae is a causative agent for multiple diseases affecting nearly all major economic crops worldwide. Despite the yearly rising numbers of drug-resistant infections, common treatments include antibiotics. Drug-resistant microbes have sparked renewed interest in bacteriophage use in plant infections. Bacteriophages, or phages, are natural predators of bacteria, using them as a host to reproduce. Due to phage's high-host specificity and ability to kill microbes efficiently, the use of phages as a plant biocontrol has increasingly been studied with the rise of drug-resistant microbes. The application of phage on crops results in decreased phage viability due to varied environmental conditions, including UV and pH levels. Check out more about their project here.
If you’re interested in discussing your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. You can ask questions about future episodes here. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube!

Sam Barans about Trauma Affecting Psychosis

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Sun, 25 Sep 2022 22:05:10 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Sam Barans. Sam researches patient histories of trauma in populations at Clinical High Risk for psychosis at the University of New Mexico. With estimates of trauma exposure ranging from 54 to 97% in this population, it's important to identify trauma risk factors and focus treatment on patients' history of trauma. Sam's research aims to identify discrepancies between patient self-reports of trauma and clinician reports of Adverse Childhood Experiences.
If you’re interested in discussing your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. You can ask questions about future episodes here. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube!

Zahra Ahmad about Police Use of Force: Changing Policy Can Save Lives

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Wed, 03 Aug 2022 17:22:39 -0400

On this week’s SciFiles, your hosts Chelsie and Daniel interview Jamie Liebold. Zahra is a senior studying Comparative Cultures and Politics with Minors in Global Public Health and Epidemiology and Computational Math, Science, and Engineering. Aware of the racial bias in police use of force, Zahra's research focuses on the impact police administrative policy can have on police behavior, especially regarding police use of force. This episode will look at the situation of the State of Michigan in terms of the level of transparency of these policies, what this means, and where to go from there. Please see 8cantwait.org if you want to learn more about the policy reforms that inspired the research!
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. You can ask questions about future episodes here. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube!

Alissa Ball about Mushrooms that Eat Metal!?

Chelsie Boodoo and Daniel Puentes — Tue, 12 Jul 2022 20:01:11 -0400

On this week’s SciFiles, your hosts Chelsie and Daniel interview Alissa Ball. Alissa is an undergraduate researcher in the Plant, Soil and Microbial Science Department looking at using fungi to clean up heavy metals. Current methods of heavy metal removal create toxic byproducts, so her work aims to investigate how effectively fungi can accumulate heavy metals, thus giving an environmentally friendly solution. Besides building an understanding of how fungi process these metals, her research will open up further possibilities for using fungi as eco-friendly tools in our everyday lives. If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. You can ask questions about future episodes here. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube!

Jamie Liebold about Closing the Gap in PFAS Research

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Tue, 28 Jun 2022 16:15:44 -0400

On this week’s SciFiles, your hosts Chelsie and Daniel interview Jamie Liebold. This research explores Gap Junctional Intercellular Communication (GJIC) as a bioindicator of cancer. Cells use GJIC for the signaling of proteins and stresses. When a cell is stressed, it will close its gap junctions, signaling uncontrolled cell proliferation. These experiments have specifically focused on using GJIC to determine the carcinogenic effects of PFAS compounds. PFAS compounds are a classification of compounds of particular environmental concern, as they have been found in the water and soil of the Great Lakes region in high abundance.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles89fm@gmail.com. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube!

Zach Miller about Cancer Cell Line Therapeutic Window Evaluation

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 20 Jun 2022 01:56:49 -0400

On this week’s SciFiles, your hosts Chelsie and Daniel interview Zach Miller. A therapeutic window is a dose range between the minimum effective drug dose (MED) to the minimum toxic drug dose (MTD). Many commonly-used cancer drugs, including chemotherapies such as Doxorubicin, are highly toxic to normal tissues and have narrow therapeutic windows. The drug concentration should constantly remain between the MED and MTD in order to produce risk-free therapeutic effects. In general, critically, administration of too much drug (above the therapeutic window) will cause serious side effects on normal human organs, leading to patient morbidity or even death. On the other hand, too little drug (below the therapeutic window) will result in a lack of treatment efficacy and may induce cancer drug resistance, which is the most important reason for the failure of chemotherapy. Herein, we studied the viability of two cell lines, a dox-sensitive cell line (BT459) and a non-dox-sensitive cell line (4T1), to estimate the therapeutic window of doxorubicin. We studied the cell viability to estimate the therapeutic window of DOX in vitro so as to guide the DOX dose in vivo.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles89fm@gmail.com. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube!

Andrew Deleruyelle about TimbuR: The People’s Forest Volume and Biomass Estimator

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 13 Jun 2022 09:57:40 -0400

On this week’s SciFiles, your hosts Chelsie and Daniel interview Andrew Deleruyelle. How can one go about measuring the effects forests have on combatting climate change? As a student of forestry, Andrew has observed changing climates and wondered what can be done to quantify the largescale ecological patterns they’re experiencing. When Andrew finished an ecological data monitoring and analysis course taught by MSU professor Dr. Andrew Finley, he wanted to continue learning about the forest’s impact on these processes. Funded under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Forest Carbon Estimation (ForCE) project, his research under Dr. Finley led him to an existing toolset: The US Forest Service (USFS) National Volume and Biomass Estimator Libraries.
These libraries proved to be useful for Forest Service employees, but remained inaccessible to the general public and mainly focused on the forests within North America. Andrew’s research has been focused on writing an interface in the R computer language for these libraries, a project he calls TimbuR. Andrew’s current focus, now that his research has concluded, is to bring TimbuR to the public as free-to-use software and expand its ability to serve global audiences.
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Maddy Eischer about Sewing & Suturing - Closing the Gap between Fashion & Medicine

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 23 May 2022 01:58:42 -0400

On this week’s SciFiles, your hosts Chelsie and Daniel interview Maddy Eischer.
As a student pursuing a dual degree in Apparel & Textile Design and Genomics & Molecular Genetics, Maddy has long felt the societal pressure to pick one of her passions in school and in a future career. Instead of choosing between these two dichotomous interests, Maddy has managed to use her research to highlight the interconnection between the arts and the sciences by investigating scientific advancements in textiles as well as by designing and creating a collection of five unconventional and fashionable lab coats. This research explores the struggle to pick a career path, the importance of fashion and textiles in all facets of life, and the concept of professionalism and individuality within medical and scientific spaces.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles89fm@gmail.com. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube!

Charlotte Best about Myelin, Microbiomes and Anesthesia

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 16 May 2022 09:34:22 -0400

On this week’s SciFiles, your hosts Chelsie and Daniel interview Charlotte Best. Charlotte works in a lab that studies the influence of the gut microbiome (all the bacteria in our gut) on the brain and behavior. She is in charge of analyzing its effects on individual neurons and she also found that MRI impacts certain neurons in a negative way, which hasn't been documented before.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles89fm@gmail.com. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube!

Lauren Emerick about Michigan's Pig Problem

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 09 May 2022 01:26:59 -0400

On this week’s SciFiles, your hosts Chelsie and Daniel interview Lauren Emerick. Lauren is a junior studying Fisheries and Wildlife at Michigan State University, working for Dr. Roloff in the Applied Forest and Wildlife Ecology Lab. Lauren has been researching the behavioral changes in invasive wild pigs (Sus scrofa) in response to management activities in the state of Michigan. Wild pigs are a newly established invasive species in the state of Michigan, and they pose several threats; they uproot agricultural crops, cause damage to the landscape, and compete with native wildlife species. However, very little is understood about wild pig behavior and movement throughout the state. Lauren's research investigates the impact of wild pig management tactics currently being used by wildlife management officials on the behavior of this species, in hopes of informing managers the best course of action to take against this invasive wildlife species. Lauren used data collected from GPS collared wild pigs to assess the movement and behavior of the animals before and after management actions and analyzed the data to better understand the implications of our current methods of invasive wild pig management.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles89fm@gmail.com. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram , LinkedIn, and YouTube!

Gregory Marchal about A Gamble of Life and Death

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 02 May 2022 00:00:00 -0400

On this week’s SciFiles, your hosts Chelsie and Daniel interview Gregory Marchal. Gregory's research investigated influenza vaccine hesitancy. This project uses experimental data from rural Wyoming to analyze how risk preferences and perceptions of uncertainty influence parental influenza vaccine hesitancy. Their key finding is that parents who perceive that there are more "unknowns" in the risks of vaccines, relative to the risks of diseases, tend to vaccinate at a lower rate. This relationship exists after controlling for trust in the healthcare system, so beliefs that vaccine risks are unknown are not just tied to whether someone trusts their doctor or the pharmaceutical industry.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles89fm@gmail.com. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram , LinkedIn, and YouTube!

Grant Bruninga about Saving A Species: Not a Red Herring...but Lake Herring!

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 25 Apr 2022 00:34:38 -0400

On this week’s SciFiles, your hosts Chelsie and Daniel interview Grant Bruninga.
Inland lake herring can be found in lakes all around the state of Michigan as well as the Great Lakes. However, recent increases in habitat destruction, chemical runoff, and pollution have caused significant declines in lake herring populations. Since lake herring are important prey species to much notable predatory fish such as salmon and have important ecological and commercial roles in society, their conservation is of particular concern to natural resources managers in Michigan. Grant’s work in the Molecular Ecology Lab at Michigan State looks at the history and diversity of these fish from a genetic perspective. His research, alongside the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, studies differences in lake herring genetic information and determines their origins as well as differences in populations across various lakes in Michigan. The data collected from this study will then be used as part of the Michigan Wildlife Action Plan for lake herring, currently being drafted by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, in the hopes of obtaining federal funding to help conserve these important species for years to come.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles89fm@gmail.com. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram , LinkedIn, and YouTube!

June Oh about Learning "Cultures" in Science Through Writing

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 18 Apr 2022 02:09:27 -0400

On this week’s SciFiles, your hosts Chelsie and Daniel interview June Oh. How can an English major help promote critical science literacy for STEM undergraduate students? As a humanities scholar, June has been a part of an IRB-approved interdisciplinary pedagogy project that develops a first-year writing course for STEM undergraduate students. With a team of collaborators in the College of History, Philosophy, and Science, Education, and English, this project leads an effort in designing a college-wide first-year writing course that seeks to foster culturally responsible student (science) identity and critical literacy through five inquiry-based writing projects. This project has been funded by SUTL (Scholarship of Undergraduate Teaching and Learning) at MSU since 2019. With another year of support from MSU, the team is now applying the pilot writing program to fourteen different sections with ~230 students in total. Bringing her expertise in developing student writing and inclusive pedagogy in English classrooms, June is currently coding student writing and further analyzing promising early results on responsible identity formation data.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles89fm@gmail.com. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram , LinkedIn, and YouTube!

Gregory Hess about Smart Networks for a Smart Electric Grid

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 11 Apr 2022 00:07:06 -0400

On this week’s SciFiles, your hosts Chelsie and Daniel interview Gregory Hess. The U.S. electrical grid, the system of control centers, substations, poles, and wires that provides electricity to almost all American homes pre-dates the computer and Internet revolutions. Introducing computers to the operation of this grid allows for the grid to react faster than any human being could, either to protect itself, heal itself, or turn itself off to avoid some physical disaster. The demand for these computing systems and how they communicate pushes the very limits of modern digital communications. In addition, the computers at the end of those communications must be protected to avoid them being misused in ways that could be anything from inconvenient to disastrous. Greg’s research seeks to use modern computer networking technology to address these two issues. Lab tests confirm that Intent Based Networking can allow computer networks to dynamically configure both to meet the daunting communication needs of the end devices as well as protect those devices from accidental misuse or purposeful hacking.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram , LinkedIn, and YouTube!

Philip Engelgau about Peeling Back the Secrets to Banana Aroma Biosynthesis

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 04 Apr 2022 00:00:00 -0400

On this week’s SciFiles, your hosts Chelsie and Daniel interview Philip Engelgau. Philip's research aims to understand how banana fruit is able to synthesize its characteristic aroma compounds. The chemicals that banana fruit produce and that we sense as banana-like are derived from the same metabolic routes as valine and leucine, common, primary metabolites that are essential to the day-to-day metabolism of not just bananas, but all living things. As bananas ripen, they accumulate valine and leucine simultaneously with the production of banana-aroma volatiles. However, not all is as it seems. Both valine and leucine are normally under strong feedback regulation which should prevent the stark increases that have been observed in banana fruit. This paradox suggests that banana fruit are able to somehow uniquely overcome this inhibition in order to generate these aroma chemicals. Philip's work investigates how alternative splicing, a mechanism that creates variability in how genes are expressed, of the two rate-limiting enzymes of valine and leucine biosynthesis may be leading to versions of these enzymes with compromised regulatory regions. These unregulated enzymes are likely able to produce copious amounts of valine and leucine in banana fruit and thus provide a means for the production of the banana's unique smell.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram , LinkedIn, and YouTube!

Claire Kopenhafer about Gassy Galaxies are Healthy Galaxies

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 28 Mar 2022 00:25:24 -0400

On this week’s SciFiles, your hosts Chelsie and Daniel interview Claire Kopenhafer.
The Hubble Space Telescope has given us many gorgeous images of galaxies, with bright stars and swirls of dust, but there's a lot more going on than we can easily see. Stars are born out of compressed gas, and gas is constantly flowing in and out of galaxies. Most of this gas cannot be seen in Hubble's pictures, but its impact is profound. Claire uses computer simulations to study how this flow of gas affects a galaxy's ability to form stars: allowing it to form more, or cutting it off entirely. These simulations use what we understand about the laws of physics to make predictions and interpretations for telescope observations.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram , LinkedIn, and YouTube!

Alassane Sow about Mushroom Mania

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 21 Mar 2022 02:35:05 -0400

On this week’s SciFiles, your hosts Chelsie and Daniel interview Alassane Sow. Alassane is an undergraduate researcher working in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics currently working on germinating symbiotic and parasitic fungi in the order Pezizalies. They are also a part of a nationwide project that focuses on creating a way to consistently grow Morels outdoors and in high tunnels.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram , LinkedIn, and YouTube!

Brooke Devries about Don’t Lighten Up - Health Effects of Light at Night

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 14 Mar 2022 00:00:00 -0400

On this week’s SciFiles, your hosts Chelsie and Daniel interview Brooke Devries. Brooke is a second-year Ph.D. student working with Dr. Hanne Hoffmann. Her research focuses on daily rhythms in the body called circadian rhythms. You'd be surprised at how many things, from sleep to metabolism, to mood and energy, have predictable rhythms throughout the day! These rhythms are all coordinated by a tiny area in the brain referred to as the SCN. The SCN gets light input from the eyes, coordinating these rhythms to the time of day. So what happens when light input is altered?
Brooke's research focuses on how the changes in the SCN changes normal hormone levels and mood when light exposure is changed.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram , LinkedIn, and YouTube!

Azam Ali Sher about Drug-Resistant Bacteria in the Human Gut

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 07 Mar 2022 00:00:00 -0500

On this week’s SciFiles, your hosts Chelsie and Daniel interview Azam Ali Sher. Azam is a dual major Ph.D. candidate in Comparative Medicine and Integrative Biology (CMIB) & Environmental Sciences and Integrative Toxicology (EITS), and a BEACON research fellow at Michigan State University. There are around 3 million infections and 36,000 deaths caused by antibiotic-resistant (AR) bacteria in the USA (CDC, 2019), and many disease-causing bacteria are resistant to several different antibiotics. Many bacteria carry their antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) on conjugative plasmids, small pieces of DNA that can be freely transferable to normal bacteria or pathogens in their natural habitats, such as the human gut. However, little is known about the transfer of these ARGs among bacteria in nature. Azam’s Ph.D. research in Dr. Linda Mansfield’s lab focuses on studying the emergence and spread of antibiotic resistance among human gut bacteria. He addresses a high-impact but straightforward question: what happens if one bacterium with these transferable drug resistance genes colonizes a human gut. He uses laboratory mice with transplanted human gut microbes and colonizes them with bacteria carrying fluorescently labeled ARG plasmids. He then uses advanced molecular techniques to follow the transfer of plasmids to the resident bacteria after colonization. This study will uncover what kinds of bacteria can donate and receive ARGs in the human gut. Azam says that this kind of study will be used to help find some solutions to halt the development of multiple drug-resistant bacteria in the gut and other environments. If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram , LinkedIn, and YouTube!

Megan Mikhail about Disadvantage and Eating Disorders - Overturning Stereotypes

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 28 Feb 2022 00:00:00 -0500

On this week’s SciFiles, your hosts Chelsie and Daniel interview Megan Mikhail. Megan’s research focuses on the intersection between biological and environmental risk for eating disorders, with a particular focus on underserved and marginalized populations. Historically, eating disorders have been stereotyped as “vanity disorders” that predominantly affect advantaged (i.e., white, wealthy) individuals. Unfortunately, these stereotypes have led to the increased stigma around eating disorders, and limited access to care for people from disadvantaged backgrounds. In research including a representative sample of over 6,800 youth from the state of Michigan, Megan found that eating disorder symptoms were significantly greater in youth experiencing familial and neighborhood disadvantage. Moreover, genetic influences on eating disorder symptoms appeared to be expressed earlier and more strongly in these youth. Contrary to stereotypes, Megan’s research suggests that children and adolescents from disadvantaged backgrounds may be at elevated risk for eating disorders, especially when they also have genetic vulnerabilities. Their research highlights the urgent need for access to screening and treatment for eating disorders for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds who are currently underserved.

Press release from MSU describing one of Megan’s recent studies: https://socialscience.msu.edu/news-events/news/2021-12-13.html

For people who may be worried about their food or eating, the National Eating Disorders Association offers support and resources: https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/

If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram , LinkedIn, and YouTube!

Serena Lotreck about Automated Hypothesis Generation for the Plant Sciences

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 21 Feb 2022 00:00:00 -0500

On this week’s SciFiles, your hosts Chelsie and Daniel interview Serena Lotreck from MSU's Plant Biology & Computational Mathematics, Science & Engineering. Serena’s research is focused on helping researchers in the plant sciences navigate the flood of available information when designing new hypotheses and experiments. Since the 1980s, there has been a 3% increase per year in scientific publishing, leading to an overwhelming amount of available articles for scientists to navigate when beginning a new project. Currently, researchers rely on labor-intensive manual methods to manage this flow of information, like reading individual articles from the search results of an academic search engine in order to generate a new hypothesis. Knowledge graphs are representations of information automatically extracted from a large quantity of unstructured text like scientific papers, where real-world objects are represented as the nodes of the graph, and the connections between nodes are the relationships between those real-world objects. For example, in molecular biology, the nodes are things like proteins or genes, and the edges are relationships like "upregulates" or "inhibits". New nodes and edges can be predicted on these graphs, which generates novel scientific hypotheses based on a greater percentage of existing information than could be achieved with a manual literature search. The goal of Serena’s research is to adapt existing methods for building knowledge graphs for the plant sciences and to develop a framework for using these knowledge graphs for hypothesis generation. If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram , LinkedIn, and YouTube!

Maria Milan about Improving Energy Efficiency of Homes in Rural Alaska

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 14 Feb 2022 00:00:00 -0500

On this week’s SciFiles, your hosts Chelsie and Daniel interview Maria Milan from MSU's Civil and Environmental Engineering. Rural Alaskan communities face challenges unique to other areas in the United States. Energy usage and costs are high due to the shipping of materials and cold winters. Many communities are in need of more efficient housing to combat the cold weather and provide a safe, comfortable indoor environment. Maria's research took her to a remote community on Alaska's west side, where she performed energy assessments on 27 homes and held interviews with many of these homeowners to talk about housing concerns and future housing. She compiled her data into summaries that were shared with the community and housing director in hopes of future grant funding for new homes.
Listen to learn about challenges faced by rural Alaskan communities and how these challenges can be addressed in future housing. If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram , LinkedIn, and YouTube!

Paul Bylsma about A Mirage in Online Education

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 07 Feb 2022 00:00:00 -0500

On this week’s SciFiles, your hosts Chelsie and Daniel interview Paul Bylsma from MSU's Higher, Adult, and Lifelong Education. This thought project discusses the simultaneous proximity and distance that most of us in the academic world felt as a result of COVID online learning. Paul and his collaborators use a unique theoretical lens that foregrounds the role of the body in learning to describe how being visually present online is not enough to replicate the physical presence that we took for granted in in-person learning. For example, our squares in a Zoom room were super close, and we (typically) had no problem seeing and hearing each other. But Paul's research explains how such visual proximity is betrayed by irreconcilable distances masked by technology. If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram , LinkedIn, and YouTube!

Liang Zhao about The Magic of "Poop Water" to Monitor COVID-19 Incidences

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 31 Jan 2022 00:00:00 -0500

On this week’s SciFiles, your hosts Chelsie and Daniel interview Liang Zhao. Liang is a 2nd-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and a lab member of the Environmental Virology Laboratory. His current research focuses on the prediction of fluctuations of COVID-19 incidences in communities through the application of wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE). As the prevalence and transmissions of COVID-19 and its variants persisting across the world from the inception of 2020, researchers, epidemiologists, and public health scientists have been working assiduously on the advancement of more accurate, complete, real-time monitoring and prediction methods of the virus for the purpose of public health protection and potential prediction of upcoming outbreaks. In a more than 15-month study amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Liang and his colleagues have analyzed hundreds of untreated wastewater samples that were collected weekly from the Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA) Water Resource Recovery Facility (WRRF), located in southeast Michigan, and successfully detected and monitored SARS-CoV-2, the virus that caused COVID-19. He and his colleagues worked to build models and analyzed the statistics in order to correlate the SARS-CoV-2 concentrations in wastewater to the confirmed COVID-19 cases in the communities of the City of Detroit, Wayne, Macomb, and Oakland counties. He and his colleagues found that the wastewater testing results of SARS-CoV-2 are ahead of the fluctuations of COVID-19 cases in communities for a lag time of 4 to 5 weeks. This result is quite significant and promising since the lag time provides early warnings of upcoming fluctuations of COVID-19 cases in communities and provides important references for public health policies. He and his colleagues will summarize the findings and submit the results in a journal publication very soon. He thinks that the current research monitoring COVID-19 in wastewater really requires collaboration efforts including environmental engineers, hydrologists, GIS specialists, public health workers, molecular microbiologists, epidemiologists and data science specialists, and it would be really encouraging and exciting to see the work has actual impacts on people's lives. If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram , LinkedIn, and YouTube!

Merve Nur Kursav about Productive Disciplinary Engagement of English Learners in Mathematics Classroom

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 24 Jan 2022 00:00:00 -0500

On this week’s SciFiles, your hosts Chelsie and Daniel interview Merve Nur Kursav. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Mathematics Education at MSU and a research assistant in the Connected Mathematics Project (CMP) with anticipated graduation in Spring 2022. She received a graduate student award, and she has been recognized as a Fulbright Scholar and a Scholarship Undergraduate Teaching and Learning (SUTL) fellow. She is committed to promoting equity in mathematics and STEM education through research, teaching, and service. She has spent much of her career to date involved in all aspects of K- 16 mathematics and STEM education. The last decade of her life has seen her take many different academic and professional pursuits. Yet, through all of these experiences, one thing has been a constant: active ambassadorship of mathematics and STEM education. During her Ph.D. program, she has focused explicitly on statistical research methods and applied her theoretical knowledge in various mathematics and STEM education research projects [CMP, Instilling Quantitative and Integrative Reasoning (INQUIRE), and Scholarship Program for Retaining (SPRING)] and manuscripts. She has taken advanced methods courses and applied the skills she learned in these courses –both quantitative and qualitative–to her work on various projects. Inspired by her own experiences, she had the privilege to recognize the complex challenges faced by different populations of students in mathematics and STEM education fields. Her academic work reflects her commitment to working with all students, regardless of ethnic, racial, linguistic, and cultural backgrounds. With this commitment in mind, she designed a mixed-methods dissertation study focusing on teachers’ beliefs, perceptions, experiences, and strategies for teaching and engaging English Learners (ELs) in 6-12 grades mathematics classrooms using Culturally Responsive Pedagogy as her theoretical framework. Her dissertation study will set the stage for determining what teachers’ beliefs and practices in teaching mathematics to ELs are. She plans on using the findings from her dissertation study and plans future studies that will involve intervention and professional development for mathematics teachers of ELs. Being an educator of mathematics teaching is a high honor for her. In her teaching, she thinks that she is not only contributing to who her students (future teacher educators) become as individuals, but she has a powerful opportunity to guide them in embracing the diverse world. She has always believed that by knowing who we are, acknowledging our own beliefs and actions, and admitting the existence of inequities and injustices, we can do our part to make a change. She hopes to become a catalyst for change in the teaching and learning of mathematics. She is also engaged in the professional community and service to the field. For example, she is one of the founding members of the Critical Philosophical and Psychoanalytical Institute for Mathematics Education and Journal for Theoretical and Marginal Mathematics Education. She has been a representative to MSU Student Advisory Council and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Advisory Committee. If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram , LinkedIn, and YouTube!

Kayleigh Ward about Building Community in Japan After Disasters

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 13 Dec 2021 00:00:00 -0500

Kayleigh is a Ph.D. Student in the Department of Sociology and Environmental Science and Policy. Following the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, many coastal communities along the northeastern coast were completely decimated. In the following 10 years, various efforts have been made by national, prefectural, and local governments to assist residents as they recover from the disaster. However, these rural areas already had major social and economic problems they were handling prior to the disaster. Kayleigh’s research partnered with one such community, Minamisanriku, in order to evaluate social and economic problems related to a lack of jobs, lack of businesses, lack of social resources, high depopulation, and other issues associated with rebuilding. Kayleigh and her community partners focused on evaluating how residents handle these types of problems and how they utilize their social resources, such as family and business connections, and organization connections, to manage them. Their project combined creating community programs and research to help residents improve their skills, problem-solving, and collaboration skills over the past year to help support their recovery. Working with four other community organizations, the project analyzed more than 2,600 relationships in the community and showed that some residents are very isolated from each other, require different assistance, and that power dynamics generally exclude residents from having their opinions, ideas, and concerns heard. Through the project, her partners were able to identify new areas and new programs to assist residents, and Kayleigh developed a variety of policy recommendations that will go on to help other communities in similar situations in the future.

Lexi Nadolsky about The Pandemic Penalty on Women and POC in STEM

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 06 Dec 2021 00:00:00 -0500

On this week's SciFiles, your hosts Chelsie and Daniel interview Lexi Nadolsky. Lexi’s research focuses on diversity and inclusion in the workplace in academia, and how COVID-19 has had a harder impact on different groups of scholars, especially women and people of color.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram , LinkedIn, and YouTube!

Jen Fry about Sport Geography is Geography

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Sun, 21 Nov 2021 00:00:00 -0500

On this week's SciFiles, your hosts Chelsie and Daniel interview Jen Fry. Jen is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Geography at MSU. Particularly limited research has been conducted on the experiences of Black female volleyball players who played in Europe, and how place, space, and geography are intimately intertwined with how they experience life abroad based on their identities (Etzel et al., 2002). The centrality of place and space within sport and geography affects all aspects of a Black female’s experience while playing professionally. Such an impact affects both their professional and personal identities, as “each is concerned with space and the way it is occupied and they both focus on the way people move and interact in geographic space” (Bale, 2003, p. 12). Research on lived experiences of professional athletes who play overseas has received very little attention within the academic and athletic communities (Meisterjahn and Wrisberg, 2013). Through utilizing a mixed methods process of surveys and interviews, Jen's research focuses on understanding the racial experiences of Black female professional volleyball players within Europe who have not existed within geography studies; or, more specifically, sport geography studies within lenses of Black Feminist Theory, Critical Race Theory, Black Geographies, and Theory of Racial Space. The goal of her research is to understand if Black female volleyball players from the United States experience race and racism while playing professionally in Europe, and if so, does it differ from racism experienced in the United States. Unsurprisingly, it was found they experience racism in both similarly and wildly different ways such as being spit on, teammates withholding their English skills, and being accused of prostitution. If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram , LinkedIn, and YouTube!

Lexi Nadolsky about The Genetics of Sex in Electric Fish

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 15 Nov 2021 00:00:00 -0500

On this week's SciFiles, your hosts Chelsie and Daniel interview Lexi Nadolsky. Lexi’s research focuses on discovering the different ways that the electric fish Mormyrids determine their sex genetically. Her research involves searching for the AMHR2 gene in many mormyrid species to begin piecing together how each fish population may have evolved distinctly.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram , LinkedIn, and YouTube!

Nick Chargo about Using Gut Bacteria to Prevent Osteoporosis

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 01 Nov 2021 00:00:00 -0400

On this week's SciFiles, your hosts Chelsie and Daniel interview Nick Chargo. Nick’s research is focused on preventing osteoporosis by changing the composition of the bacteria in the gut. Menopause is a well-known cause of osteoporosis, but the bone loss also occurs as a side effect of some diseases and medications. One phenomenon associated with conditions that cause osteoporosis is gut bacterial changes (aka dysbiosis). The main goal of Nick’s project is to understand how dysbiosis leads to bone loss and how to prevent it. He is specifically studying glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis. Glucocorticoids are anti-inflammatory drugs used chronically to treat many conditions including rheumatoid arthritis, COPD, asthma, and inflammatory bowel disease to name a few, and are the second leading cause of osteoporosis. The lab he works in has shown that changing the gut bacteria composition by supplementing the diet with either pre- or probiotics can prevent osteoporosis. Probiotics are “good” bacteria that improve the health of the host while prebiotics are compounds that essentially feed the probiotic bacteria. Importantly, both are natural and confer little to no side effects while effectively preventing bone loss in various models of dysbiosis-induced osteoporosis. Overall, Nick’s research will explore new avenues to improve the treatment and prevention of glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram , LinkedIn, and YouTube!

Justin Wigard about Graphic Medicine, Critical-Making, and English Classrooms

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 25 Oct 2021 00:00:00 -0400

On this week's SciFiles, your hosts Chelsie and Daniel interview Justin Wigard. As a 2021-2022 Scholarship of Undergraduate Teaching and Learning (SUTL) Fellow, Ph.D. Candidate Justin Wigard, along with Assistant Professor Megan K. Halpern in the Lyman-Briggs College, is exploring the intersection of art and science studies in the classroom via drawing comics. More specifically, Wigard -- a Ph.D. Candidate in the English Department -- is teaching a course that centers on analyzing comics as discourse about medical humanities and on creating comics as exercises in the critical making: the elision of critical-thinking and material-making. Prior work on introducing the arts into social science and humanities courses about science has two benefits. The first is that these forms of creative expression provide new ways of knowing about a topic. The second is that creative activities are often seen as unique and positive experiences, providing benefits for both mental health and intellectual growth. Ultimately, this ongoing project studies the specific value of courses that have students create comics to understand the role of science and medicine in society. Or, put another way -- how do we think by drawing comics, and how does creating graphic narratives visualize how we think about healthcare?

Relevant link: https://grad.msu.edu/sutl/projects

Nathan Kauffman about How to Use the Immune System to Fight Cancer

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 18 Oct 2021 00:00:00 -0400

On this week's SciFiles, your hosts Chelsie and Daniel interview Nathan Kauffman. Nate's research revolves around developing novel radiopharmaceuticals and delivery strategies to combat solid cancers. His thesis focuses on using locally delivered internal radiation therapy to induce a systemic immune response against cancer. One of the hallmarks of cancer is the ability to escape recognition by the host immune system. By using radiation, it is possible to trick cancer into exposing itself to the immune system and lead to its own destruction. Discovering safe, effective, and broad ways to accomplish this immunological phenomenon will lead to improved outcomes in patients with a variety of cancer types, which is extremely valuable as no two cancers are perfectly identical.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram , LinkedIn, and YouTube!

Robert Stanley about Rising From the Ashes

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 11 Oct 2021 00:00:00 -0400

On this week's SciFiles, your hosts Chelsie and Daniel interview Robert Stanley. The invasive Emerald Ash Borer (Agrilus planipennis, EAB), the most destructive forest tree insect in North American history, threatens the majority of the native American ash species. This includes green ash, white ash, pumpkin ash and black ash. Green ash was widely used as a street tree, white ash is famous for baseball bats, pumpkin ash for guitars and black ash for native American baskets. This insect (EAB) can kill over 99% of the ash they encounter, and threaten the industries and communities that utilize these ash resources, costing billions of dollars annually.
Robert's collaborators work to find the trees the mount a defense against this insect. What they see in these “lingering” trees is that they somehow manage to kill the insect, and heal over the wound caused by the larvae boring into the wood.
Robert's particular work is to figure out how these trees manage to kill the insects. They use traditional plant breeding coupled with 21st-century analysis techniques to examine the chemicals the plants use, as well the as transcripts influencing this response. He works primarily with the plant chemistry, and run considerable amounts of exploratory studies to figure out which chemicals the plants use. This is called untargeted metabolomics, where they look at all the chemicals in the woody tissue. What he finds is that what is important is the ability of the plant to sense and respond to the EAB attack. This is counter to what many people previously hypothesized, that the native green ash doesn’t have any defense against these invasive species. In fact, it appears that the majority of the green ash has the capability to make these defensive metabolites, it’s just a select few that are able to respond appropriately and fend off the EAB invaders. It’s like if you gave a million people different possible ways to make a tank, and only a couple of them were able to put it together. Those ones that happen to be able to put it together will do well and be able to pass it on to their children. It is absolutely incredible to watch a species being saved in real-time.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram , LinkedIn, and YouTube!

Jenna Beffel about The Siblings of Children with Autism

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 04 Oct 2021 00:00:00 -0400

On this week's SciFiles, your hosts Chelsie and Daniel interview Jenna Beffel, a 4th-year doctoral student in MSU's Department of Human Development and Family Studies and the lab manager of the Family Stress Lab. Jenna's research through the Family Stress Lab focuses on families with children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)- specifically, the outcomes and experiences of the typically developing siblings (TDS) in these families. A lot of the past research on TDS focuses on negative outcomes for TDS as a result of having a sibling with ASD, but TDS provide critical help/support to their families and others and do experience a variety of positive outcomes- which is a large focus of Jenna's research. Specifically, she has examined TDS' experiences of childhood caregiving (called Parentification), intentions to care for their sibling with ASD in the future, general prosocial (e.g., helping) behavior, and adult TDS' selection of a helping profession (e.g., a profession focused on helping others, such as a doctor or psychologist). In some of her most recent research, she's explored how these different types of helping/caregiving behaviors influence each other, such as how Parentification predicts TDS' prosocial behavior (Beffel & Nuttall, 2020) or the selection of a helping profession (Beffel et al., under review). Currently, she is working on obtaining funding so that she can code TDS prosocial behavior among a sample of teen TDS, and explore how TDS prosocial behavior influences these teen TDS' intentions to provide care to their sibling with ASD in the future, when their parents may no longer be able to care for them. Overall, the goal of researching all of these instances of TDS helping/caregiving is to first, help the field recognize just how important TDS are and, second, determine how to best support TDS so they can continue to provide help/care without feeling highly stressed, overburdened, etc.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram , LinkedIn, and YouTube!

Kylie Smith about The Nose – A Brain Health Revolutionary

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 27 Sep 2021 00:33:27 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Kylie Smith. Our brains are protected by a tight-knit biological wall called the blood-brain barrier. This barrier prevents potentially dangerous substances in our blood from accessing sensitive brain tissue but also restricts access to therapeutics or imaging agents intended for brain delivery. Kylie's research focuses on how to deliver material to the brain via a direct transport pathway in the nose, bypassing the blood-brain barrier completely. Her research combines nose-to-brain delivery with medical imaging to optimize the delivery technique by noninvasively tracking drugs as they transit to the brain. By quantifying the amount of drug that reached the target site using imaging tools like positron emission tomography, we can test different versions of the drug, loading solutions, or delivery approaches. This work could reduce barriers to treatment for patients that cannot take ingestible or injectable therapeutics and lead to expanded treatment options for brain diseases without a cure.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram , LinkedIn, and YouTube!

Andrew Kearney about The Persistence of Salmonella in Sugar Stored for 3 Years

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 20 Sep 2021 00:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Andrew Kearney. Andrew is a student in the MSU Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering. Due to the low water activity (aw) and high osmotic pressure, sugar is generally recognized as a low microbiological risk source to human health. As a low moisture commodity sugar may receive little to no additional processing in a home environment. Other low-moisture commodities, such as flour, were once also generally recognized as safe. However, following foodborne pathogen outbreaks in flour in recent years, there is interest in evaluating other low moisture commodities for foodborne pathogen risks. In response to outbreaks of pathogens in connection to flour, U.S. FDA guidance has suggested not to consume raw flour. This development has made assessing the risk of other shelf-stable commodities, like sugar, important to evaluate before a similar outbreak event occurs, despite no outbreaks of foodborne pathogens in added sugar within the U.S. having been reported to date. The objective of this study was to assess the survival of Salmonella in multiple sugar products during long-term storage. Granulated, powdered, brown, and liquid sugar obtained from commercial suppliers were inoculated with a 5-strain Salmonella cocktail via dry transfer. Samples were stored at three temperatures (4, 25, 37°C) in sealed containers, and sampled 12 times up to ~1,000 days.

Ti'Air Riggins about Astrocytes: the Guardian of the Brain

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 13 Sep 2021 00:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Ti'Air Riggins. Have you ever wondered what it's like to wake up one day and realize that you can move anything below your neck? For some people who have a stroke or have been in major accidents, this is a reality for them. Fortunately, there has been a recently developed technology called implantable probes also known as microelectrode arrays which are little metal or polymer sticks you can implant into the brain. They receive signals from specialized brain cells called neurons that help communicate to a computer for that person to move a limb again. The problem is another specialized cell called astrocytes acts as the bodyguards of the brain and attacks the probes. In the process they kill neurons. The goal of Ti'Air's research is to look at intervention strategies to minimize astrocytes from flipping from normal function to attack mode so that the probes can perform longer in patient brains.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram , LinkedIn, and YouTube!

COGS Fall Welcome Back

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 06 Sep 2021 00:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Abdo Korayem, Daniel Maldanado, Max Manz, and Maria Milan about their research projects. This episode took place live at the COGS Fall Welcome Back event.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. You can ask questions about future episodes here. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube!

Yoni Lewis Israeli about Growing Mini Hearts with Stem Cells

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 30 Aug 2021 00:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Yoni Lewis Israeli. Heart disease is a leading cause of death around the world, and heart defects at birth are the most common of all birth defects in humans. Modeling the developing human heart in the lab using 3D heart organoids (or miniature hearts) allows access to developmental stages that cannot be studied in humans. Yoni's research focus is on creating heart organoids from human stem cells. Unlike previous models of the heart, these organoids have all the major types of cells that are present in the human heart, and they develop internal chambers as well as a vessel-like network. These organoids can be used as tools to provide new insight into human heart development. They also allow him to investigate the onset of diseases that affect human fetal heart development. For example, he is currently looking into the effect of diabetes during pregnancy which is known to increase the risk of congenital heart defects in humans. This organoid system allows him to both investigate the causes of these defects, and also screen for potential therapeutic agents. You can read more about his research here.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram , LinkedIn, and YouTube!

Isabel John and Lauren Wiklund about Normalcy vs Solidarity

Chelsie Boodoo and Daniel Puentes — Mon, 23 Aug 2021 08:44:16 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Isabel John and Lauren Wiklund. Mental health stigma is a significant barrier to receiving mental health care. The two primary approaches to reducing mental health stigma are normalcy and solidarity. Normalcy refers to efforts to reduce stigma by increasing understanding of the frequency and prevalence of mental illness and the similarities between those with and without mental illness. This method aims to normalize the experience of mental illness for those experiencing symptoms and for those interacting with others who have a mental illness. Solidarity approaches attempt to increase support for those with mental illness and acceptance of differences among those with and without mental illness. The current literature is unclear whether one approach is more effective than another in reducing mental health stigma initially and over time. An initial exploratory study of 120 undergraduate students suggests that normalcy messages were more effective in reducing stigmatizing opinions against those with mental illness, while solidarity messages reduced the likelihood of engaging in stigmatizing behaviors toward those with mental illness.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram , LinkedIn, and YouTube!

Conor Bertucci about Microalgae: The Green Machine

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 16 Aug 2021 00:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Conor Bertucci. With the projected population growth of over 2 billion people in the next 30 years, food and energy production will have to increase drastically to keep up with our demands. Fresh water and arable land are finite resources that are constantly diminishing due to environmental stresses. The cultivation of microalgae shows much promise as it does not require arable land or freshwater. Unfortunately, harvesting costs currently hinder the progress and affordability of microalgae as a commercial-scale biofuel or food source. Utilizing filters made from fungi to harvest microalgae can not only decrease operational costs but also increase overall biomass production. This research focuses on the development of an algae filtration system that can be scaled up to a commercial level.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram , LinkedIn, and YouTube!

Cameron Bennett about Something's Fishy: Gene Duplicates in Embryonic Development

Chelsie Boodoo and Daniel Puentes — Mon, 09 Aug 2021 00:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Cameron Bennett. Cameron is a recent graduate from Lyman Briggs College who majored in genomics and molecular genetics and human biology. Since her sophomore year at MSU, Cameron has done research with the Braasch lab in the Department of Integrative Biology studying the function of duplicated endothelin genes unique to a group of fish called teleosts. The endothelin gene family she studies has an important role in controlling what type of cells that neural crest cells become during early development. Neural crest cells are special as they are unique to vertebrates like fish and humans and they can become many tissues, including heart, pigment cells, enteric (gut) nerve cells, and parts of the skeleton making up the head and face. Over the course of evolution, vertebrates underwent two whole-genome duplication events. The endothelin system consists of three proteins in most vertebrates: Edn1, Edn2, and Edn3. In contrast, following a third whole-genome duplication, the endothelin system in teleost fish consists of six proteins: Edn1, Edn2a, Edn2b, Edn3a, Edn3b, and Edn4. Not only are there extra copies of Edn2 and Edn3 in this fish group, but the presence of an additional unique protein, Edn4. Currently, the function of most Edn proteins remains a mystery. Cameron's research project aims to better understand the developmental role of the Edn proteins in the teleost fish zebrafish, Danio rerio. She has been working on this by developing lines of zebrafish with combinations of mutations across the endothelin gene family using the CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing technique.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram , LinkedIn, and YouTube!

Kewalin Samart about Repurposing Drugs for Diseases

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 02 Aug 2021 00:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Kewalin Samart. Drug discovery takes a significant amount of time and fundings due to its complicated clinical process to get new drugs approved. Computational drug repurposing is an efficient alternative that is more cost- and time-effective in discovering new drug indications from existing drugs. One important concept of drug repurposing is that we need to find efficacious drugs that can reverse the disease signature. Kewalin's research reconciled different methods from various studies in the past 15 years that have been developed to find disease-drug reversal relationships. Due to the lack of consistency in notations and terminologies of the existing methods, they redefined them using a unified scheme and described their relationships based on mathematical and statistical concepts. Their work allows other researchers to compare the efficiency of each method and implement new methods easily. The work is available as a live document coupled with a GitHub repository that any researcher can build on and push changes to. Their ongoing project is integrating these multiple methods to develop a computational framework for gene expression-based drug repurposing.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram , LinkedIn, and YouTube!

Nick Ivanov about Fixing the Internet Inequality with Blockchain

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 26 Jul 2021 00:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Nick Ivanov. Information technology is ubiquitous, but it is not equally available to everyone - this phenomenon is known as the technological divide. One aspect of the technological divide is the ability to have a quality Internet connection in certain regions. Specifically, billions of people on Earth have no access to a reliable Internet connection or do not have access to any Internet connection at all. Unfortunately, most Internet Service Providers are lacking the incentive to cover sparsely populated and/or low-income regions - it is too costly and barely profitable for them. To address this problem, Nick and his team create a global decentralized wireless community network based on the novel blockchain technology. Their network allows small businesses and individuals to become Internet providers to deliver Internet to their communities. Moreover, their network uses a single account to connect to any provider participating in the network. Powered by blockchain technology, their Internet access network is the only network of this kind that is 100% decentralized, which means that no one owns it (including its creators). Moreover, they do not charge any fees for using this network, and no one, including Nick and his team, is able to shut it down. This allows to provide a fair community solution to the Internet access inequality, and thus help bridge the global technological divide.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram , LinkedIn, and YouTube!

Moh Alhaj and Nicole Mancina about The Promise of Bioplastics

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 19 Jul 2021 00:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Moh Alhaj and Nicole Mancina.
Led by Dr. Ramani Narayan, the Biobased Materials Research Group (BMRG) design and engineer new biobased and biodegradable, compostable polymer materials and bioprocesses using agricultural crops and residues (i.e.: soybean, corn), lignocellulosic biomass, and algae. Bioplastics developed from these processes find commercial applications in films for plastic bags, thermoformed products, protective and insulation packaging, and biomedical applications. For the past three years, both Nicole and Moh have worked on developing value-added products from a biobased, biodegradable polymer called polylactide (PLA). As a potential alternative for petroleum-based plastics (i.e.: polyethylene, polystyrene), PLA can potentially reduce fossil fuels by ~3.50 million barrels a day, while also lowering energy demand and carbon emissions. In order to compete with today's market of commercial plastics, PLA's material properties must be enhanced depending on the commercial application. Using a co-rotating twin-screw extruder, Nicole and Moh have developed pilot-scale techniques to mass-produce value-added products of PLA with varying material properties. The goal is to first test the feasibility of the material by developing it via lab scale, then scaling it up to a pilot-scale setup for mass production. Once the PLA product is developed, the group then characterizes its material properties using a variety of techniques. Thermal properties such as the melting temperature and crystallinity are characterized via differential scanning calorimetry, while mechanical properties such as the stiffness and elongation at break are characterized via tensile testing. Using a variety of materials characterization techniques, one can understand how the material behavior of PLA varies depending on its processing conditions. Based on this understanding, we can target specific applications for our PLA products.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram , LinkedIn, and YouTube!

Avery Tilley about Deer, Mosquitos, and Us: A New Look at Wildlife Disease

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 12 Jul 2021 00:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Avery Tilley from the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife. Avery's interest in conservation medicine, wildlife disease, and public health spurred him to investigate if white-tailed deer could be used to predict West Nile virus risk to humans. With recent studies discussing how certain species can act as a warning or monitoring system for various diseases, Avery's research is investigating if white-tailed deer might be able to serve as one such monitoring species for West Nile virus. By utilizing a GPS collared deer, the deer's blood serum, and some various computer software, Avery can determine where infected deer spend more time, lending insights into what habitats and locations might have a higher risk for West Nile virus in the coming seasons. Make sure to listen in order to better understand how Avery is using the white-tailed deer to predict West Nile virus risk to humans and what this might mean for the future of disease monitoring.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram , LinkedIn, and YouTube!

Gia Haddock about The Amphibian Pet Trade Industry is at Risk of Collapse!

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 05 Jul 2021 00:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Gia Haddock. Gia is a senior Fisheries and Wildlife student at MSU. Having an interest in disease, amphibians, and sociology, Gia combined the three with their undergraduate research. They study the current behaviors, knowledge, and opinions of those involved in the amphibian pet trade through the lens of disease spread. Currently, we are in a sixth mass extinction, with amphibians one of the most imperiled groups. One of these reasons is the human movement of lethal amphibian-targeting fungi, Bsal and Bd. There have been previous bans on amphibian and exotic species imports that have been overturned, but a new ban is being discussed now. This has been met with much disdain from the pet trade community.

Gia has spent two years developing interview protocol, creating relationships with the pet trade, and conducting interviews. There is a trend in legislation and management decision-making to make choices without recognizing the voices of those that their decisions will affect. Gia aims to use their research to inform decision-making in regards to limiting the spread of disease in the pet trade. They hope their work will contribute to creating better representation, trust, collaboration, and transparency in the pet trade world.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram , LinkedIn, and YouTube!

Alex J. Roy about Understanding a Rare Movement Disorder

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 28 Jun 2021 00:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Alex J. Roy. Alex is a dual-enrolled BS/MS student in Lyman Briggs and the Department of Microbiology & Molecular Genetics. He works in the Neubig Lab in the Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology.
Alex studies the mechanisms of an ultra-rare genetic disorder called GNAO1 Encephalopathy. Patients, of which there about 200 known, begin showing combinations of developmental delay, movement disorders, and epilepsy in early childhood. They have mutations in the gene GNAO1, which codes for a subunit of the G-protein Go. It is the most expressed membrane protein in the central nervous system.
The problem is that Go is barely understood compared to other G-proteins like Gs and Gi. At the same time, it is known to affect neurotransmission in many ways: development, excitability, and neurotransmitter release. Thus, untangling why certain patient mutations lead only to movement disorders or epilepsy while others cause both is very difficult.
The Neubig lab has pioneered the development of mouse models of GNAO1 disorders, invaluable tools for solving this puzzle. Alex is probing their neuroanatomy to look for defects that might help explain-- or even suggest a cure for-- these burdensome disorders.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram , LinkedIn, and YouTube!

Stavros Vakalis about "See-through" Imaging with Millimeter-waves

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 21 Jun 2021 11:28:29 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Stavros Vakalis. Stavros' research is about advancing millimeter-wave imaging. Millimeter-wave imaging is used in many applications that require "see-through" capabilities. The most famous example is the airport security screening, which cannot take place using a traditional camera. Millimeter-waves can easily pass through clothing and detect weapons and contraband. However, current millimeter-wave imaging systems are quite expensive and require long scanning times that for example cause the long lines in the airport screening process. This research aims to overcome these inefficiencies and build a high-speed millimeter-wave camera. If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram , LinkedIn, and YouTube!

Thilani Jayakody and Jacob Jensen about Gene Editing Potatoes

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 14 Jun 2021 00:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Thilani Jayakody and Jacob Jensen. Thilani is a third-year Ph.D. student in the Plant Breeding, Genetics and Biotechnology program working on applications of genome editing for crop improvement in cultivated potato in Dr. Dave Douches’ Potato Breeding and Genetics Program. Jacob is a recent graduate of the Genomics and Molecular Genetics BS program and has assisted with research in the potato breeding program for over two years.
Genome editing has emerged as a powerful technology to enable sequence-specific alterations and has revolutionized our ability to easily and efficiently stack desirable traits in plants. Since the advent of CRISPR/Cas9, the field of genome editing is rapidly evolving, with goals of creating genome editing tools with new applications and increased specificity. Specificity is an important quality to consider when selecting a tool, as the potential of off-target mutations can have deleterious effects. In addition, the regulatory trigger in the United States for genetically engineered crops is based on whether it can be deemed substantially equivalent to one that was conventionally bred. Therefore, it is important to test newly developed tools for their genome-wide effects in order to create informed decisions before pursuing the regulatory process. To address this, the project aims to compare the frequency, location, and impact of off-target mutations from emerging genome editing tools in cultivated potatoes.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram , LinkedIn, and YouTube!

Erika Buhk about Masks Under a Microscope

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 07 Jun 2021 00:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Erika Buhk. Due to the current COVID-19 Pandemic, many Americans are wearing masks in public to slow the spread. Many people question whether the masks actually do anything. Erika researched how the fabric of disposable masks breaks down with use by placing them under a high-level microscope (scanning electron microscope). She used the pictures taken on the microscope and research on how face masks work to show how important it is to be taking care of masks properly in order to prevent getting, or spreading, illnesses like COVID-19. If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram , LinkedIn, and YouTube!

Geeta Kumari about Reducing the Cost of Flights Using Superalloys

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 31 May 2021 00:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Geeta Kumari. Geeta is a joint doctoral program student in the department of chemical engineering and materials science. Her research focuses on metals and a mixture of metals (alloy). She is working on a particular type of alloy called superalloy, which comprises eighteen different elements together. “Superman is fiction, but superalloy is for real,” she says. Superalloy can survive an extreme environment such as high temperature and stress without losing its strength. The primary application can be in flight engines and nuclear reactors. She is working to improve its strength further so that it can withstand higher temperatures. The improved strength will increase the flight engine’s efficiency and reduce the overall cost of flying. To achieve this, she heats her alloy in the laboratory furnace to change its internal structure, resulting in a strength change. It is similar to cooking or baking in the kitchen, like how you come up with a perfect dish or cake recipe. She is looking for her recipe to have a stronger superalloy. To observe the internal changes after heating, she uses sophisticated instruments to look at a highly magnified scale. If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram , LinkedIn, and YouTube!

Varshini Perumal about Cellular Senescence in Alzheimer's Disease

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 24 May 2021 00:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Varshini Perumal. Varshini is a 2nd-year undergraduate student studying neuroscience at the College of Natural Science. She has been doing Alzheimer's research at the Department of Translational Neuroscience in the MSU College of Human Medicine for around 1.5 years, assisting Dr. Gordon's research.
For the past year, Varshini Perumal has been working to investigate the presence of specific proteins present in the brain of individuals with Alzheimer's Disease contributing to cellular senescence. Cellular senescence is a phenomenon characterized by a cell’s inability to progress through the cell cycle. Senescent cells secrete inflammatory mediators and could contribute to aging-related diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease. The purpose of her experiment was to investigate whether cellular senescence occurs in the brain during aging and if cellular senescence is associated with neurofibrillary tangles caused by the protein TAU’s presence. The lab has previously demonstrated that these mice develop an age-dependent accumulation of neurofibrillary tangles. In order to do so, she used transgenic mice that over-express the Alzheimer’s disease-associated protein TAU. This experiment suggests that Alzheimer’s patients expressing more TAU would show more cellular senescence, leading to increased neurodegeneration in the brain.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram , LinkedIn, and YouTube!

Qian Bates about Tools of the Trade: Paintbrushes

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 17 May 2021 00:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Qian Bates. Qian is a first-year student at MSU studying mechanical engineering. She recently did a project that analyzed the reasons behind the materials used to make paintbrushes. Oil brushes are made of natural fibers like hog or sable hair while acrylic brushes are all synthetically made from nylon or polyester and watercolor can be made of either but rarely both natural and synthetic. Qian, being an avid painter as well, took notice of these differences and decided to figure out why they were present. She used a scanning electron microscope to take pictures of the bristles from very close up in order to study the texture and size of the individual hairs to see if that affected how they behaved with certain paints. After taking pictures of the brushes, she used them to paint for a couple of weeks and took notes as to how each brush performed with different mediums. As she painted it became increasingly apparent that the synthetic (acrylic and watercolor) and natural hair (oil) brushes were not interchangeable. When the synthetic brushes were used for oil paint, Qian found that, after a couple of hours of use, the bristles would start to drop from the brush and be deposited on the page or canvas with the paint. The same thing happened with the natural oil brush when used for acrylic paint. She found that this came down to the chemicals in the paint and solvents and how they interact with the materials the bristles are made of. With watercolor paint, the story was a bit different. Qian found that the topography of the bristles, the texture, and the diameter of the bristles greatly affected how smoothly the paint was applied and how much control she had while painting.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram , LinkedIn, and YouTube!

Sukhwindar Ajimal about Can Nutrition Predict and Prevent a Heart Attack?

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 10 May 2021 00:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Sukhwindar Ajimal. Heart disease accounts for one of every four deaths in America and heart attacks are a major contributor to this. A heart attack or acute myocardial infarction (AMI) occurs when the blood supply to the heart is cut off. Survivors of a heart attack are usually put on several medications to help improve their heart function, blood pressure, and other metabolic functions. Additionally, they are advised on lifestyle changes they can make (diet, exercise, etc.) to further improve their rehabilitation. Unfortunately, these measures have shown limited effectiveness, especially in urbanized cities such as Detroit. Individuals that suffer from heart attacks in Detroit are more likely to return to the hospital within a 30-day period for a heart-related problem than anywhere else in America.

One aspect in heart attacks that has not been capitalized on therapeutically is focused micronutritional (vitamins, minerals, etc.) management. Previous research in specific vitamins and minerals has shown to be beneficial in promoting the healing of the heart and improving metabolic activity. Sukhwindar's research focuses on breaking down and analyzing the impact micronutrition may have in improving heart recovery after a heart attack. He and his team are attempting to identify relationships between different micronutrients and their role in heart recovery. These relationships can then be used to predict a patient's risk for future heart issues and even provide personalized therapies for them.

After someone has a heart attack, their world is turned upside down. Giving a patient medications to prevent it from happening again is only half of the solution. These patients still need guidance in how to better their lifestyle and diet. Sukhwindar's research is not the end-all-be-all for dietary health. Rather, it is a bridge for patients to improve their nutritional intake with the help of healthcare providers.

Jasmine Jordan about De Facto Housing Segregation at MSU

Chelsie Boodoo and Daniel Puentes — Mon, 03 May 2021 00:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Jasmine Jordan. One of the projects that Jasmine has worked on was about housing segregation in the dorms at MSU. Basically, Black and Latinx students are hyper concentrated in dorms on the edge of campus. This may contribute to feelings of isolation and alienation among them. While other universities have gone above and beyond to address students of color and housing, MSU has not. Studies show that students can spend up to 70% of their time in their dorms. Below is a paragraph from the introduction of the study:
For a school like Michigan State University, which requires all freshmen to live on campus, this means that experiences inside of them will have a significant impact on students’ welfare and their overall attitudes towards their university. Students do typically see gains from staying in the dorms, including African American students.2 However, the racial composition of these dorms may affect the wellbeing of those who live there, because Black and LatinX students who choose to go to Predominately White Universities/ Institutions (PWIs) routinely face challenges associated with their minority.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram , LinkedIn, and YouTube!

S.A.Harwood, M.B. Huntt,R. Mendenhall and J.A.Lewis, “Racial Microaggressions in the Residence Halls: Experiences of Students of Color at a Predominantly White University,” Journal of Diversity in Higher Education 5 no. 3 (2012): 159–173. 2. L.A. Flowers, “Effects of Living on Campus on African American Students’ Educational Gains in College,” NASPA Journal, 41 (2004): 277–293.

K.M. Foster, “Diet of Disparagement: The Racial Experiences of Black Students in a Predominately White University,” International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 18, no. 4 (2005): 498–505; J. McCabe, “Racial and Gender Microaggressions on a Predominately White Campus: Experiences of Black, Latina/o and White Undergraduates,” Race, Gender, Class 16, no 1 (2009):133–115. 4. C.M. Loo and G. Rolison, “Alienation of Ethnic Minority Students at a Predominately White University,” Journal of Higher Education 57, no. 1 (1986): 56–77;J.C. Hernandez and M.A. Lopez, “Leaking Pipeline: Issues Impacting Latino/a College Student Retention,” Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory, and Practice 6, no. 1, (2004): 37–60.

Megan Carrillo about The Gray Space of Medicine

Chelsie Boodoo and Daniel Puentes — Mon, 26 Apr 2021 00:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Megan Carrillo. Megan is a 4th-year medical student at Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine with the goal of pursuing a career in radiology. As someone interested in imaging modalities, she has authored several case reports concerning unique disease states and processes discovered through different imaging studies. One aspect of her research also raises the question of the stigmas surrounding mental illness and drug use, and their impact on the individual, group, community, and society.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram , LinkedIn, and YouTube!

Emma Dester and Saad Sharief about Saving Lives with Nano-Biosensors

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 19 Apr 2021 00:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Emma Dester and Saad Sharief. Emma is a dual-enrolled BS/MD student in the MSU Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Department (BAE). She has been doing research in the Nano-Biosensors Laboratory for almost four years. Saad is a Ph.D. student, also in BAE, and is currently in his 4th year of the graduate program. His research interests lie in the synthesis and applications of nanomaterials, biosensors for pathogen detection, and anti-counterfeiting technologies to prevent drug trafficking.

The Nano-Biosensors Laboratory focuses on developing cost-effective and rapid diagnostic methods that require less equipment and labor than traditional approaches. For the past year, both Emma and Saad have been working on nanoparticle-based methods to rapidly identify foodborne pathogens. In the United States alone, these pathogens are responsible for over 3,000 deaths each year. Traditional methods for detecting these common pathogens (Salmonella spp., Listeria monocytogenes, Bacillus cereus, and Escherichia coli ) are a time-consuming process and require at least 24-48 hours. Their research focuses on the rapid identification of these organisms, reducing both the time and cost associated with these traditional methods. First, they use magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) to extract bacteria from contaminated food. After extracting bacterial DNA, they use a simple colorimetric test to detect the presence of target bacteria. This test uses a gold nanoparticle-based assay and has the potential to produce results in under five minutes. Although research is still ongoing, current progress shows this new method to be a promising time-saving and life-saving technique for detecting pathogens in food.

Hayden Stoub about Taking Aim at Tumor Cells

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 12 Apr 2021 00:49:41 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Hayden Stoub. Hayden is a graduate student in Kathleen Gallo's lab in the Department of Physiology. He studies lung cancer physiology and potential therapies targeted at both tumor and immune cells. Over the years, many advances have been made in how lung cancer is treated, improving both the effectiveness of the treatments, as well as diminishing the harmful side effects. In certain types of lung cancer, however, it’s been more difficult to develop targeted therapies that are effective, leaving patients with cytotoxic chemotherapy as their only option for treatment. Specifically, lung cancer with a mutated KRAS gene have been difficult to treat because they lack other mutations that are easily targetable. While KRAS itself has been targeted with limited success, Hayden’s work looks at ways to target the proteins that are turned on by KRAS, which are often much easier to drug. While it has been long understood that certain immune cells can detect and eliminate cancer cells that arise in the body, recent effort has been made in the cancer research community to understand how some immune cells can actually promote cancer progression. Again, KRAS mutations play a role, this time in the tumor immune microenvironment by promoting inflammation. Hayden’s research investigates how drugs that target this inflammation can prevent lung cancer progression. If this feedback loop between tumor cell progression and immune cell inflammation can be stopped, the aim is that the drugs used to do so can one day be used as effective cancer treatments. If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram , LinkedIn, and YouTube!

Sarah Jacobson about Squatting to Make Ends Meet: Immigrants and Housing Occupations

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 05 Apr 2021 00:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Sarah Jacobson. Sarah examines housing occupations in Italy and West Germany in the 1970s. Although most researchers look at political activists who squatted, she instead looks at southern Italian migrants who occupied out of social need. She views migrants' involvement in occupations as an embodied form of collective action, or how migrants used the right to a home as means to push back on both social and political exclusion. By comparing occupation movements in Turin (Italy) and Frankfurt (former West Germany), she shows how migrants can be marginalized even within their own nation-state and denied some of the benefits of the so-called modern welfare state. As a whole, Sarah borrows from a historian Kathleen Canning's conception of "participatory citizenship" to show how migrant housing occupiers articulated their claims, engaged in contest, and made their own meanings of citizenship by pressuring municipal authorities to extend the purview of social services. This argument has many implications for current immigrants or refugees as it illuminates how groups and individuals can effectively be integrated into existing social security systems even prior to formalized citizenship. If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram , LinkedIn, and YouTube!

Raisa Glabman about Mapping the Mammary Tumor Microenvironment

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 29 Mar 2021 00:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Dr. Raisa Glabman. Dr. Glabman is a veterinarian and fellow in the NIH Comparative Biomedical Research Program (CBSTP) in partnership with MSU. As a veterinary pathology resident and Ph.D. student, she is interested in how disease pathogenesis translates across species, and in assessing the validity of specific animal models of human disease, particularly cancer immunology. Her research at NIH is centered on the stromal component of the tumor microenvironment (TME), which also includes tumor cells, immune cells, vessels, and other signaling components. Tumor stroma is critical in disease, as it forms both a physical and immunological barrier to chemotherapeutics and immunotherapy. The tumor stroma and cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) in particular promote cancer progression and metastasis, leading to resistance to therapy and tumor recurrence. By selectively and locally targeting these tumor-promoting cells in murine models of human breast cancer, Dr. Glabman hopes to find new therapeutic strategies that activate the immune response in cancer patients.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram , LinkedIn, and YouTube!

Jen Zavalnitskaya about Habitat Management of Asparagus Pests

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 22 Mar 2021 00:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Jen Zavalnitskaya. Jen is a second-year master's student in the Department of Entomology in the Vegetable Entomology lab. She studies insect ecology throughout agricultural landscapes and how more sustainable pest management strategies can be created in commercial agriculture. Most commercial vegetable cropping systems rely on chemical insecticides to suppress insect pests which can often be detrimental both economically and environmentally. Jen's research focuses on using habitat management within agriculture to better control insect pests. Her current work is focused on the overwintering biology of a key pest of asparagus, the asparagus beetle. Michigan is the top producer of asparagus in the nation. Thus, control of this pest is incredibly important to Michigan's asparagus farmers and economy. Jen hopes that by understanding more about the overwintering biology of asparagus beetles, Michigan's asparagus farmers can better understand how to manage habitat for more sustainable and effective pest management.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram , LinkedIn, and YouTube!

Hannah Jeffery about How Fast Cooking Beans Can Benefit Our Future

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 15 Mar 2021 00:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Hannah Jeffery. The focus of her project is dry beans, the kind used to make refried beans or Bush's baked beans. When prepared fresh, beans are a very nutritious food (high protein, iron, zinc, and fiber), and consuming beans is linked to a lower risk of malnutrition and diseases like type II diabetes and cancer. However, they have a long cooking time (an average of 90 minutes). This may explain why many home cooks in wealthy nations choose canned beans over-preparing fresh beans, although canned beans have tradeoffs like a higher sodium content. Long cooking times also strain local firewood supplies in nations like Africa and South America, where wood stoves are commonly used.
Not having enough wood to cook beans to completion may eventually lead to a shortage of key nutrients in the most vulnerable communities on Earth. The goal of this project is to identify the genetic mechanisms that control the cooking times of dry beans, and the long-term goal is to use this information to breed fast-cooking varieties of dry beans for public consumption. This will be accomplished by comparing gene expression in fast- and slow-cooking beans using bioinformatics and biochemical techniques. Of note, there is particular interest in introducing the fast cooking trait to yellow Manteca beans, which are reported to have high zinc and iron contents relative to other varieties.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram , LinkedIn, and YouTube!

Chad Hall about Arabic American English - A New Discovery

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 08 Mar 2021 00:00:00 -0500

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Chad Hall, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Linguistics. Chad is investigating the speech of Lebanese Americans in Dearborn, Michigan. There is reason to believe that in Dearborn which is unique in the strength of its Arabic community, that an Arabic American English dialect has developed. Typically immigrants to a new country display language features from their heritage language but only if they are first or second-generation immigrants. Chad believes that in Dearborn, unique Arabic features can be seen in the English of the third and fourth generations (and beyond) who are monolingual English speakers. This is evidence that a truly crystalized ethnic variety has emerged in the community which is quite rare in the United States. Unlike other well-known crystalized U.S. ethnic varieties like African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) and varieties of Latinx English, Arabic Americans have very little coverage in this area. Chad will be providing the first documentation of this unique dialect.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram , LinkedIn, and YouTube!

Alec, Anna, Robert, Nic about Therapy to a New Level

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 01 Mar 2021 00:00:00 -0500

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Alec Bailey, Anna Graffeo, Robert Gustke, Nic Weller from the Department of Mechanical Engineering. McLaren Greater Lansing, an acute care hospital split between two campuses in Lansing, is in the process of building a new hospital facility adjacent to Michigan State University. This new facility will feature a rehabilitation gym used for occupational therapy services to help patients achieve the highest level of independence possible with everyday tasks. Ideally, this is done in a way that accurately and realistically represents tasks patients will face outside of a hospital setting. An aspect of the rehabilitation gym that McLaren would like to improve is the simulation of entering and exiting a vehicle to better prepare patients for this action with their own vehicle, regardless of height. A height-adjustable simulator would assist patients in gaining the necessary skills and knowledge in their practice sessions for a successful transfer upon discharge.
The goal of this project was to design and assemble a car transfer simulator that could be raised or lowered to different standard car heights. The project team accomplished this by designing a mounting mechanism for a truck cab that was donated to the hospital for attachment to a hydraulic lift. The team researched and purchased a lift that would properly support the donated truck cab, mounting mechanism, and patient according to the listed weight capacity. To account for other safety concerns, emergency supports were made in the case of lift failure, and pinch points were reduced across the simulator. The cab was mounted with these safety considerations and delivered to the hospital for installation.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram , LinkedIn and YouTube!

Selin Akgun about Educational Research During a Pandemic

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 22 Feb 2021 00:00:00 -0500

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Selin Akgun. Selin is working as a research assistant in the Multiple Literacies in Project-Based Learning (ML-PBL) project at CREATE for STEM Institute. As a part of the ML-PBL team, she works with 3rd-grade elementary school teachers. She supports their teaching practices through professional learning sessions and virtual curriculum materials for 3rd-grade science units. Selin’s research focuses on promoting students’ science sense-making, achievement, and social and emotional learning. One aspect of her research also raises the question of what counts as learning, and the role of culture, social context, and identity on students’ learning process. Recently, she enjoys reading about the applications of artificial intelligence (AI) in educational settings considering their societal and ethical implications for teachers and students.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram , LinkedIn and YouTube!

Maria Berry about Learning about Learning

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 15 Feb 2021 00:00:00 -0500

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Maria Berry. In her undergraduate research, Maria studies the effectiveness of a high school biology curriculum in fostering students' ability to understand complex biological processes. The ConnectedBiology curriculum uses a multi-level simulation of deer mice to study the process of evolution. It's divided into five units, each covering vast biological topics and phenomena, from those on the population level to those on the molecular level. Maria is currently examining how frequently and how well students can make connections between these vast topics- for example, can students explain why variations of a protein in deer mice might eventually cause predators to prey on certain colors of mice more than others, and what causes these protein variations in the first place? She hopes to determine if this way of teaching high school biology- as a handful of larger topics, all interconnected- is more impactful to student learning than teaching all of these topics as separate entities.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram , LinkedIn and YouTube!

Jake Sawecki about a Gutsy Approach to Management of Great Lakes Salmon

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 08 Feb 2021 00:00:00 -0500

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Jake Sawecki. Jake is a second-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife and is a member of the Predator Ecology and Astacology lab. Jake joined the lab last year and has adopted the primary research role on the Huron-Michigan Predator Diet Study that began in 2017. His research focuses on the dietary behaviors of salmon and trout species within lakes Huron and Michigan. Over the last several decades the Great Lakes' food webs have undergone several changes. The introduction of invasive species, such as the round goby, zebra mussels, alewife, and rainbow smelt (to name a few), have altered the ecosystem significantly. Competition between native prey fish and these new invasive fish have drastically changed the food web and forced fisheries scientists to make difficult decisions about the management of the Great Lakes. One of the most successful invasive fish species, the alewife, exploded in population size in the Great Lakes several decades ago. As a result, pacific salmon were introduced to consume these prey fish as a method of biological control and created a multibillion-dollar sport fishery in doing so. However, prey fish availability in the lakes has continued to change throughout the years and directly impact the feeding behavior of top predators within these lakes. Understanding the diet of these top predators is vital to the sustainability of the sport fishery. Put simply, if there isn't enough food for the top predators, they will starve and there will be no more fish to catch. Jake's research focuses on identifying and quantifying the diet of the major predator fish within lakes Huron and Michigan (rainbow trout, salmon, lake trout, walleye). This information will help inform the folks involved in managing these fish populations about how many of a particular species the lakes may be able to support based on prey availability so that we can avoid putting more fish in the lakes than there is food to support them. Since 2017, with the help of several collaborators (MI DNR, United States Fisheries and Wildlife Service, United States Geological Survey, etc) and volunteer anglers, the project team has processed over 12,000 fish stomachs. With one more year of stomach collections on the calendar, Jake expects the total number of fish stomachs processed to reach nearly 20,000.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram , LinkedIn and YouTube!

Shelby Dechow about Tuberculosis Genetics and pH-adaptation

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 01 Feb 2021 00:00:00 -0500

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Shelby Dechow. Shelby is a 5th year Ph.D. student in Dr. Robert Abramovitch's lab. Her research focuses on how Mycobacterium tuberculosis senses and adapts to its host environment. M. tuberculosis (Mtb) is responsible for around 10 million new tuberculosis (TB) infections annually and causes respiratory disease in humans. Shelby's primary focus is understanding how Mtb uses environmental pH as a cue to modulate its physiology for survival in macrophages - an acidic environment. During infection, Mtb will arrest its growth and can remain in a quiescent state for decades. Acidic pH stress of the macrophage has been shown to be one of the initial cues Mtb encounters during infection. Using genetic screening techniques, mutants that resist arresting their growth at acidic pH were identified. Furthermore, all identified mutations occurred within a single gene. Shelby's research is focused on understanding how this particular gene controls Mtb physiology under acidic conditions, particularly during infection.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram , LinkedIn and YouTube!

Brijen, Liang and Maddie About How Wastewater Could Predict the Increase in SARS-CoV-2 Cases

Chelsie Boodoo and Daniel Puentes — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 00:00:08 -0500

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Brijen Miyani, Liang Zhao, and Maddie Spooner. Wastewater-based Epidemiology used to predict waves of SARS-CoV-2 in the Detroit region (Macomb, Wayne, and Oakland county). The increment/decrement in the number of SARS-CoV-2 cases could be predicted at least 14 days in advance by monitoring wastewater. This could help the public health officials prepare for the surge in hospitalization as well as the safe opening of the economy. This model could be replicated to other viral diseases as well.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram , LinkedIn, and YouTube!

Kelsey Merreck Wagner about Elephantine in the Anthropocene

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 18 Jan 2021 00:00:00 -0500

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Kelsey Merreck Wagner. Wagner is a printmaker/painter/textile artist, environmental activist, and second-year Ph.D. Anthropology student with certifications/specializations in Gender, Justice and Environmental Change, Human-Animal Studies, and Community Engagement. Wagner has her B.A. in Studio Arts from Western Michigan University (2013) and her M.A in Appalachian Studies: Sustainability (2017). Her research focuses on human-elephant conflict and elephant ecotourism in Southeast Asia and incorporates community-based art to raise awareness, spark discussion, build capacity, and reimagine a more socially and environmentally just future for all species on the planet. Wagner’s research is insistent upon participatory processes that include community members and marginalized voices, respect for humans, animals, and the environment, and radical creativity to solve problems. She has worked around the world in various community arts and education contexts, most recently in Siem Reap, Cambodia at Fauna in Focus’ Nature Discovery Center, where she worked as the exhibitions coordinator, designing and creating exhibits, activities, and text for their natural history museum. She also makes her own environmental art that draws on anthropological theory on capitalism, species extinction, and human-environment relationships, and has exhibits about human-elephant relationships, bats, and plastic consumption/reduction. Wagner looks forward to getting back to Southeast Asia to see more elephants and engage in further community-based arts and environmental work.

Kelsey's website

Current art project with plastic

Upside Down/Downside Up

Plastic Project

Tree of Life

Elephantine in the Anthropocene

From Bangkok to Boone

Collective Vigilance: Speaking for the New River

Sam Evalt about A Fusion Recipe: Creativity in Practice

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 14 Dec 2020 00:00:00 -0500

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Sam Evalt. What does creativity look like in practice? Sam's dissertation study focused on creativity in practice through the use of resources. He conducted a comparative study between the education and culinary fields. Resources across the fields mean people such as mentors or colleagues, books, the internet, etc. Sam views the culinary field's view of creativity as an entry point for education, and in particular teachers and education researchers. Since chefs use recipes as a resource to create or even recreate, and teachers use other teacher's recipes, also known as lesson plans, to teach. So he wondered, what does creativity mean? How does creativity look in practice? And what is the role of a resource in shaping creativity?
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. You can ask questions about future episodes here. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram , LinkedIn and YouTube!

Rahul Jain about The Evolution of Elements

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 07 Dec 2020 00:00:00 -0500

“We are all made of star-stuff”, is aptly quoted by Carl Sagan, a famous astronomer. Everything including the oxygen that we breathe, the carbon in our body, iron in our blood, etc. were cooked in the stars by fusing lighter elements into heavier ones, starting with basic hydrogen. Even heavier elements like gold and uranium are formed in more explosive events like supernovae and neutron star mergers. On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Rahul Jain. Rahul's research focuses on understanding the process of the formation of these elements, in an attempt to decode the mystery of our existence. One aspect of his research includes building computer models of stars using our current knowledge to find out what is missing in the bigger picture. But the more interesting aspect is to literally create the star-like conditions in the laboratory and measure different properties of the exotic nuclei created to fill in the current gaps in our knowledge. He then updates his computer models and matches those to astronomical observations.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. You can ask questions about future episodes here. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram , LinkedIn and YouTube!

Lexi Singstock about How Mast Cells May Help Regulate Emotions in Mice

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 30 Nov 2020 00:00:00 -0500

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Lexi Singstock. One of the Robison Lab's primary focuses is on how mice react to certain behavioral scenarios and how this affects their brain chemistry and behaviors. Lexi's research coincides with this by specifically looking at mast cells and if they play a role in controlling mice's behavior. Mast cells are specific immune cells that are distributed throughout the body and act to regulate the immune system that can also interact with glial cells and neurons within the brain. Because of this, it was hypothesized if mast cells have any role in modulating behavior as well as the immune system. The data is promising, however, this is preliminary and further testing with more mice needs to be performed to solidify the initial findings. If this data is correct, then it may be possible to control behaviors such as anxiety and motivation in mice with mast cell manipulation.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. You can ask questions about future episodes here. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram , LinkedIn and YouTube!

Querus Hamlin about Mapping Nutrients in the Great Lakes

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 23 Nov 2020 00:00:00 -0500

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Quercus Hamlin. Quercus is a first-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences working under Drs. David Hyndman, Anthony Kendall, and Sherry Martin in the Michigan State University Hydrogeology Lab. He is entering his 6th year with the group after working as an undergraduate researcher and earning his Master’s degree this past spring. Quercus works on water quality issues from nutrient loading in the Great Lakes region. “Nutrients” refer to the chemical elements nitrogen and phosphorus, which are both essential to plant growth. However, excess nutrients in water can lead to a suite of problems affecting human and biological health, as well as economic industries like tourism and fish. Nutrient water quality problems are present throughout the Great Lakes and have been particularly alarming in Lake Erie, where massive harmful algal blooms have led to drinking water bans in Toledo, Ohio. Quercus’s work primarily includes mapping nutrient inputs in time and space across the Great Lakes Region. His maps answer the question: If we went to any spot in the Great Lakes Region, approximately how much nitrogen is your septic tank discharging? Approximately how much fertilizer was applied to that cornfield? These maps, called SENSEmap, or the Spatially Explicit Nutrient Source Estimate map, are provided to watershed managers and planners through the Tipping Point Planner. He is currently leading a team of undergraduates to expand SENSEmap to the full extent of the Great Lakes states and Ontario, Canada for increased management and scientific use. Quercus also studies nitrate in groundwater across Michigan, a form of nitrogen that is associated with blue baby syndrome and cancer when ingested routinely from drinking water.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. You can ask questions about future episodes here. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube!

Marissa and Emily about The Use of Electric and Magnetic Stimulation in the Treatment of Depression

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 16 Nov 2020 00:00:00 -0500

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Marissa Cortright and Emily Castillo. Emily and Marissa investigate the views of psychiatrists, patients with depression, and the general public on Psychiatric Electroceutical Interventions (PEIs), or technologies that use electrical or magnetic stimulation in the treatment of depression. These PEIs include electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), deep brain stimulation (DBS), and adaptive brain implants (ABI). They study various neuroethical themes, including perceived invasiveness and the effect on personality/sense of self. Their research is part of an NIH BRAIN grant and will be used to inform a national survey. Understanding these perceptions about invasiveness and sense of self is important because it will help improve clinician’s conversations with patients, inform policies surrounding their use, and contribute to public understanding of these interventions. If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. You can ask questions about future episodes here. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube!

Derek and Brad about Predicting NHL Player Success

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 09 Nov 2020 00:00:00 -0500

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny are joined by Cameron McClarren from Impact 89FM Sports Team to interview Derek Lasker and Brad Behan. Sports analytics is a rapidly growing industry across the world, and many pro sports teams have begun to utilize them in an attempt to gain a competitive advantage above their rivals. Statistical methods can be used to evaluate players, teams, contracts, draft prospects, and trades, as well as to optimize team strategies in different situations. The area of hockey analytics that is persistently trying to evolve is player success prediction. If a team can predict how good any given player can be in the future, they can use that to build their team and acquire players that will help them succeed for years to come. Derek and Brad's research attempts to predict how well a prospective NHL player will perform once he makes the league, based on his performance in the Canadian Hockey League (CHL), a conglomerate of 3 junior leagues across Canada and the United States. The ultimate goal of the research is to develop a model that can predict how well any player can perform when he enters the NHL, based on his performance in whichever league he previously played in. You can learn more about this project on their research group's website.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. You can ask questions about future episodes here. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube!

Emily Mensch about Novel Invasive Species Management of the Sea Lamprey

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 02 Nov 2020 00:00:00 -0500

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Emily Mensch. Emily is a 2nd-year master's student in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife in the Applied Behavioral Ecology Lab. She studies chemical and behavioral ecology in the invasive sea lamprey and how this can be applied to management and conservation efforts in the Great Lakes and beyond. The invasive sea lamprey has been historically detrimental to the Great Lakes- decimating both economic and ecological resources. While current control techniques (such as dams and pesticides) are successful in controlling this species, there is societal pressure to remove barriers and reduce pesticide use, and climate change will likely create more management challenges. This means that alternative or supplementary control mechanisms are necessary. Emily’s research focuses on one such alternative control technique- using smell to manipulate fish movement. Many aquatic organisms, sea lamprey included, are able to smell when a member of the same species is injured or dead. This scent, called an alarm cue, elicits a “fear” reaction in the fish, resulting in behavior patterns such as avoidance. Emily is working to understand the chemical identification of this alarm cue so that it can be used as a repellent in invasive sea lamprey management, with implications for use in the conservation of imperiled species such as the pacific lamprey. Scientifically, this would also be the first full description of a fish alarm cue.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. You can ask questions about future episodes here. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube!

Samantha Finkbeiner about Training a Neural Network to Track Fear Reactivity in Human Infants

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 26 Oct 2020 00:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Samantha Finkbeiner. Samantha is a Senior Neuroscience major in the Lyman Briggs College at Michigan State University. Currently, she's leading a project in Dr. Rebecca Knickmeyer's Lab centered around infant fear reactivity and measuring this reactivity using a program called DeepLabCut (DLC). Samantha has been developing a methodology on how to accurately use and train DLC in order to automatically label body parts of infants with minimal training. The goal overall for the project is to be able to train a neural network to accurately track the movement of the infants in order to determine the fear reactivity level of the infant. If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. You can ask questions about future episodes here. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube!

Tamas Budner about Radioactive Elements in Exploding Stars

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 19 Oct 2020 00:00:00 -0400

About 30 - 60 classical novae occur in the Milky Way each year. These luminous events can appear in the night sky like "new stars" and are often observed by amateur astronomers. Classical nova explosions occur in stellar binaries involving a compact white dwarf and a hydrogen-rich donor star. On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Tamas Budner. Tamas is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Physics and Astronomy who conducts research at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory. Tamas is an experimental nuclear astrophysicist studying radioactive isotopes to better understand the underlying thermonuclear reactions in these events and how they affect the properties of novae. If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. You can ask questions about future episodes here. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube!

Justin Scott about Extending Design to All People

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 12 Oct 2020 00:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Justin Scott. Justin is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Justin's work has focused on universal medical device design, in particular with regards to wheelchair users. His research has included collecting the properties of wheelchair users' tissues and modeling how pressures experienced while seated affect them. Michigan State is one of the few universities in the United States with an adaptive sports clubs on campus and Justin collaborates with them. If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. You can ask questions about future episodes here. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube!

Chris Gottschalk about the Apples Behind the Cider

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 05 Oct 2020 00:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Chris Gottschalk. Chris is in the final year of his Ph.D. candidacy in the joint Plant Breeding, Genetics, and Biotechnology and Horticulture program. His dissertation research is focused on deciphering the genetic mechanisms that cause biennial bearing in apple trees under the mentorship of Dr. Steve van Nocker, a developmental geneticist in the Horticulture Department. Biennial bearing is a phenomenon that is characterized as a cyclic pattern between high- and low-production seasons that affects some high-value apple cultivars, such as Honeycrisp. Chris also studies the diversity of floral initiation in apple cultivars and wild species, evaluates management practices and plant growth regulators used in manipulating floral initiation, and is breeding new apple cultivars that have red-flesh! Aside from his research on flowering, Chris is a co-principle investigator of the Great Lakes Cider Apple Collection. The collection is a large-scale apple variety trial - consisting of nearly 100 varieties - being used to identify which hard cider apple varieties are best suited for production in Michigan.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. You can ask questions about future episodes here. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube!

Kati Ford about Turning Pollution Into Biofuels

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 28 Sep 2020 00:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Kathryn (Kati) Ford. There is an increased interest in using Microbial Electrosynthesis to generate carbon-neutral biofuels to replace fossil fuels. This is a technique that uses microorganisms capable of using an electrode to gain energy. Kati is a graduate student in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at MSU, who works to engineer an electroautotrophic microorganism. This is an organism that can grow using only an electrode and carbon dioxide. This engineered organism can then be fed carbon dioxide pollution and electricity to make biofuels.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. You can ask questions about future episodes here. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube!

Osama Alian about Extreme Bacteria in the Deep Ocean

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 21 Sep 2020 00:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Osama Alian. Osama studies how a community of microbes survives in a hydrothermal vent system deep in the Atlantic Ocean in an environment that's funky, unique, and probably present everywhere in the universe where there are water and rock interacting with each other. It's a cool location to study because it challenges our ideas about how life generates the energy it needs in really isolated and extreme places, but also gives us a window into how maybe life could be surviving elsewhere in the universe like the subsurface of Mars and ocean worlds like Europa and Enceladus which don't look too different from that spot in the Atlantic!
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. You can ask questions about future episodes here. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube!

Katie Mitchell about Keeping Compassion in Virtual Medicine

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 14 Sep 2020 00:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Katie Mitchell. Katie is a doctoral student in the Information and Media program at MSU. She is interested in how media and technology influence interpersonal relationships and health. She is currently studying telemedicine and its impacts on patients as well as providers. Katie received both her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the Department of Communication at Michigan State University. Healthcare providers actually have a strong interest in providing telemedicine to their patients, and the patients' interest also appears to be growing. The big question for Katie is how to provide virtual care that includes the interpersonal elements that are critical to patient satisfaction.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. You can ask questions about future episodes here. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube!

Aalayna Green about Gender Roles in Wildlife Crime

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 07 Sep 2020 00:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Aalayna Green. Aalayna is a senior undergraduate student in the Department of Integrative Biology/Zoology studying the gendered implications of urban wildmeat trafficking in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Her work draws from conservation criminology as well as women's and gender studies. She seeks to give voice and a narrative to the womxn involved in wildlife crime so as to create more sustainable and gender-inclusive conservation initiatives. Aalayna has broad interests within the wildlife crime sector, and she is particularly interested in understanding overlap of illicit trade and intervention strategies which utilize sustainable community involvement.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. You can ask questions about future episodes here. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube!

Carolyn Kroger about the Psychology of Spacetime

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 31 Aug 2020 00:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Carolyn Kroger. Carolyn is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Psychology - Cognition and Cognitive Neuroscience. The coordination of movements in space and time is required for successful action in a dynamic world. Behavioral and neurological disorders such as Parkinson's disease, stuttering, and Cerebellar dysfunction can make even simple actions difficult to execute, with devastating repercussions for independence and quality of life. These disorders are not only accompanied by symptoms of movement dysfunction, but have also been associated with disrupted timing. Additionally, in healthy individuals, there are perceptual interactions between space and time. Research has shown that changes in observed motion distance cause corresponding distortions in temporal perception (e.g. greater spatial separation between events leads to the overestimation of elapsed time). However, there is a gap in understanding of how space and time interact in the production and coordination of actions. Carolyn's research focuses on how changes in the timing of human movements influence spatial dynamics and, conversely, how changes in spatial dynamics influence movement timing. The goal of this research is to work toward a unified theory of spacetime for human action, which has the potential to improve diagnostics and interventions for disorders of movement and timing.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. You can ask questions about future episodes here. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube!

Matthew Swiatnicki about Novel Mutations in Lung Cancer

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 31 Aug 2020 00:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Matthew Swiatnicki. Matt is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics. The Andrechek lab studies primarily breast and lung cancer, with Matt’s thesis work having potential implications for lung cancer patients. Work from the Andrechek lab has uncovered a gene mutation within certain lung cancer tumors. The normal protein product that is derived from the mutated gene is known to regulate an important cancer protein called the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). Since the gene is mutated, we are hypothesizing it can no longer regulate EGFR, and this could enable tumors with the mutation to grow at a faster rate. Tumors with this mutation may also be susceptible to a currently approved lung cancer treatment, called a tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI). Matt’s work is focusing on characterizing tumors with this mutation, and determining the potential efficacy of using TKIs to treat these tumors.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. You can ask questions about future episodes here. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube!

Josh Lensmire about The Metabolism of Staph Infection

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 24 Aug 2020 00:00:08 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Josh Lensmire. Josh is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics. Josh's research focuses on the pathogen methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus, MRSA. MRSA is capable of growing in various human organs and it needs to gather nutrients from our bodies to grow and cause disease. One specific nutrient Josh's research focuses on is sulfur, a nutrient key for MRSA metabolism. The goal of Josh's research is to determine the compounds MRSA scavenges from our bodies to satisfy its sulfur need. To study this Josh uses a combination of genetic and approaches and examination of the ability of various MRSA mutants to grow in a model of infection in mice. One day, this research may allow us to design strategies to stop MRSA from growing inside our bodies.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. You can ask questions about future episodes here. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube!

Anna Raschke about PFAS in the Watershed

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 24 Aug 2020 00:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Anna Raschke. Anna is a master's student in the MSU Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering department. Anna's lab is called 'Computational-Ecology', meaning they simulate ecology! She is specifically working on modeling the movement of polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) through the Huron River Watershed. PFAS embodies over 4000 different compounds and some have been observed to have toxic effects. Unfortunately, PFAS have been around since the 1950s and are of great use due to their water and oil repelling properties, but have been shown to move through the environment and remain for a long time, which is why they are called "forever chemicals".
So far, the movement and accumulation of the chemicals are not well understood. Anna hopes to develop models to simulate the movement through soil, surface water, and groundwater to help implement effective remediation practices and prevent exposure not only in Michigan, but around the world.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. You can ask questions about future episodes here. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube!

Lin Liu about Globally Modeling Crops for Sustainability

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 17 Aug 2020 00:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Lin Liu. By 2050, the population in the Africa continent will double and food demand will triple. How can we sustainably produce staple food to feed the future population in the backdrop of climate change? Lin Liu’s dissertation research focuses on using agricultural technologies, including smart devices, crop modeling and remote-sensing images, to assess agricultural systems in Africa and Central America. Specifically, her research aimed at providing timely and accurate yield forecasts for cornfields in Tanzania, improving yields of staple crops (e.g. corn and yam) while preserving soil carbon in Tanzania and Ghana, and monitoring crop growth in small fields in African countries and Honduras. She recently defended her dissertation and will be awarded a dual-major Ph.D. degree from the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and the Environmental Science and Policy Program at Michigan State University. She has conducted agricultural research and development projects contributing to a more efficient and sustainable crop production system under the supervision of Dr. Bruno Basso. Her study regions span from smallholder fields in Malawi, Tanzania, Ghana and Honduras to large fields in the US.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. You can ask questions about future episodes here. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube!

John Williams about Characterizing Killer Compounds for Treating Tuberculosis

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 17 Aug 2020 00:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview John Tison Williams. John is a PhD-candidate in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics through the College of Natural Sciences. John is in his 5th year and completing his dissertation, which focuses on understanding how small molecules inhibit the growth of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Dr. Robert B. Abramovitch's lab. M. tuberculosis is the primary cause of Tuberculosis (TB), a respiratory infection and the number one cause of death due to a single infectious microbe in the world. TB is a chronic infection, and treatment requires four drugs to be taken daily for 6 months. However, inadequate treatment in some people, has led to the evolution of drug-resistant strains of M. tuberculosis, which are spreading person to person. Therefore, new drugs are needed that can successfully treat these resistant strains. The Abramovitch lab previously identified over one hundred and fifty compounds that inhibit M. tuberculosis growth. John's research revolves around understanding how these compounds prevent M. tuberculosis growth with the hope of developing these compounds into new antibiotics to treat these resistant strains.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. You can ask questions about future episodes here. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube!

Garrett Weidig about The Biomechanics of Hand Impairments

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 10 Aug 2020 00:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Garrett Weidig.
As a lab researching biomechanics, it is the goal of Dr. Bush's lab to study how the body functions. They extend their research to create models and devices that can assist people in everyday life. In the past, they have worked closely with many interdisciplinary professions, ranging from Michigan State University Athletics to rehabilitation facilities to clinicians. Garrett Weidig is starting his second year in his Ph.D. program in Mechanical Engineering focusing on hand function. Previously the lab accumulated data on forcing ability and range of motion of the fingers and thumb. Garrett is taking this research further to optimize solutions used for helping those with hand impairments. Whether it be from injury or hand osteoarthritis (which 1 in 2 people over the age of 65 will develop), there is a high chance you will need surgery and/or rehabilitation. The success of a surgery is largely determined by the amount of pain relief found after the surgery, usually neglecting the change in function. On top of that, physical therapists experience a high rate of burnout due to the high work load. Part of Garrett's research is to identify what limitations may be overlooked in the name of just relieving pain, with the main question being: what is lost? Forcing ability? Range of motion?
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. You can ask questions about future episodes here. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube!

Ryley and Donald about Disordered Eating in Athletes

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 10 Aug 2020 00:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Ryley Mancine and Donald Gusfa, students in the MSU College of Human Medicine and Osteopathic Medicine.
Disordered eating, a subclinical spectrum of abnormal eating behaviors that can lead to eating disorders, is a significant problem among athletes. During adolescence, athletes experience a rapid change in body shape and composition. Following these changes, demands to meet sport-specific body ideals may lead to the development of disordered eating. Additionally, not all athletes have a body that fits the sport-specific ideal and may experience pressure to achieve this ideal body type. A common belief in many endurance sports is that performance will improve with weight loss, as some athletes are initially able to perform well following weight loss and use of pathogenic weight control behaviors. However, this behavior frequently leads to eating disorders. Early identification to prevent the devastating consequences of eating disorders is essential. This research is designed to develop and validate the Disordered Eating Screen for Athletes (DESA-6). The DESA- 6 is a six-question screening tool meant to identify athletes at risk for disordered eating, which may progress to clinical health complications as mentioned above. The Disordered Eating Screen for Athletes (DESA-6) would permit clinicians, dietitians, coaches, and athletic trainers to quickly and easily screen athletes of all levels who may be at risk for disordered eating behaviors.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. You can ask questions about future episodes here. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube!

Kaelyn Sanders about School Gun Violence

Chelsie Boodoo and Daniel Puentes — Mon, 03 Aug 2020 00:26:45 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Kaelyn Sanders. Kaelyn is a recent graduate of The Ohio State University, where she received her Bachelor’s in Criminal Justice Studies & Criminology and Sociology with a minor in Security and Intelligence.
She is now an incoming Ph.D. student at Michigan State University’s School of Criminal Justice Program. Her research interests are mainly in corrections, prisoner reentry, and school shootings as well as mass shootings. Kaelyn is interested in examining how we can better understand the experiences of people who are incarcerated and find ways to better prepare them for re-entry into the community while incarcerated as well as improving reentry services. In terms of school shootings and mass shootings, Kaelyn is interested in examining the culture of these events and measures we can take to prevent these instances or at least lower the number of injuries and fatalities.

As a member of the 2019 SROP Cohort last summer, Kaelyn researched how different perpetrator characteristics and school characteristics influenced the likelihood of a shooting being fatal versus nonfatal. Her hope is that the findings from her research can be used to better threat assessments for potential shooters and identity what practical steps schools can take to protect their students and staff.

Resources:

https://everytownresearch.org

https://www.sandyhookpromise.org/get_educated

https://caps.msu.edu

https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/find-help/index.shtml

Lauren Jernstadt about Telecontraception

Chelsie Boodoo and Daniel Puentes — Mon, 03 Aug 2020 00:14:16 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Lauren Jernstadt. When Lauren is not working as an undergraduate research assistant in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, where she studies single molecule biology using fluorescent laser tweezers, Lauren is discussing with her former Bioethics Capstone instructor Kathleen Lowenstein a very different topic: the ethical implications of telehealth, specifically services that provide contraception.
Telecontraceptive services work to provide users with a more affordable and convenient means of procuring prescriptions for birth control. Instead of waiting months for an in-person doctor's visit that can cost hundreds of dollars without insurance, telecontraceptive services immediately provide users with a medical questionnaire to screen for potential contra indicators (medical conditions that can counteract or mitigate the effects of certain hormonal treatments such as heart conditions of recent pregnancy) and summarize their health history. Within days, a virtual patient care team contacts the user to overview their medical history and prescribe the user with a method suitable for their health and needs, and for users who do not utilize insurance, telecontraceptive services provide a wide array of competitively priced methods. Users do not even leave their houses to pick up their prescriptions as these services mail it to their front door. Due to their combined convenience and affordability, telecontraception was a popular form of telehealth service even before their rise due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Lauren's research on telecontraception focuses more specifically on the trade-offs between telecontraception's benefits against the drawbacks that come with a lack of physical patient-physician interactions, looking more closely at the impact on screening procedures and long-term health outcomes. It is recommended that women visit their OB/GYN on a regular basis for screening procedures such as breast exams and Pap smear tests, screenings that should be performed by a trained medical professional rather than at home. Telecontraceptive services sometimes offer at-home screening options for STDs and HPV, but the accuracy of at-home tests can vary. Lauren's work seeks to find the balance between the convenience of telecontraceptive services and the continued need for physical patient-doctor interactions, a balance that is critical in a world where it is necessary to understand when in-person interactions are needed for maintaining proper health.
Here is a list containing all the different telecontraceptive services in the world and their availability.

Does Sleep Strengthen Unintentional Memories? With Abdulrahman, Erin and Kaylie

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 27 Jul 2020 00:19:06 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Abdulrahman Alharthi, Erin Sawyer, and Kaylie Williams.

Abdulrahman, Erin, and Kaylie are all undergraduates at MSU and work as research assistants in Dr. Kimberly Fenn’s Sleep and Learning Lab. Abdulrahman Alharthi is a 4th-year undergraduate student majoring in Biomedical Laboratory Science with a concentration in Clinical Chemistry and minor in Leadership in Integrated Learning. Erin Sawyer is a 2nd-year undergraduate student and Alumni Distinguished scholar in the Honors College studying Psychology and Data Science, with minors in Social Science Quantitative Data Analysis and Japanese. Kaylie Williams is a 4th-year undergraduate student pursuing a major in Psychology with minors in Health Promotion and Cognitive Science. This work was conducted under the direction of Elle Wernette, a 4th-year graduate student.

In this episode, the three undergraduates discuss a line of research that focuses on the relationship between sleep and memory. After memories are first formed, or encoded, they remain in a vulnerable state, subject to decay or distortion. Consolidation processes help strengthen memories against these vulnerabilities, and some of these processes take place during sleep. Prior research has shown that sleep, specifically slow-wave sleep, consolidates memory for information that is actively studied, or intentionally encoded. They recently found that sleep also consolidates some memories that are incidentally encoded, which are memories that are formed when an individual works with but does not actively try to remember information. Their data suggested that the extent to which memory is consolidated during sleep may be based on the strength of the memory traces. To further explore this, they investigated the hypothesis that sleep consolidates strong, but not weak, memories after incidental encoding. They also sought to determine which components of sleep contribute to this mnemonic benefit.

These results give us insight into the relationship between sleep and memory consolidation, showing that sleep may consolidate more information than was previously thought. Sleep not only helps us remember the information we are intentionally trying to remember, but also seems to help us remember useful information that we encounter in passing.

Paige Cordts about The Reality of Traveling with a Disability

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 27 Jul 2020 00:02:52 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Paige Cordts from the MSU Department of Mechanical Engineering. Currently, she is working to understand the difficulties individuals with disabilities face when accessing and using transportation, whether that be public or private. Individuals with physical disabilities face many challenges in society, with one of the largest being barriers related to transportation. The most common forms of transportation used by physically disabled individuals are personal vehicles, public transport, and paratransit services. However, few studies currently exist that identify specific challenges for these individuals related to transportation. A survey was designed to document some of these challenges, as well as to test the waters for a possible solution – autonomous vehicles. Autonomous vehicles are a promising solution for a multitude of reasons, including safety and accessibility, and especially for issues related to human behavior and availability of transport in given areas. The first version of the survey provided tremendous insight into these transportation issues – with over 450 respondents – and she is currently working towards publishing these data. Additionally, she has worked on and continues to work on the development of devices that support the mobility of those with disabilities.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. You can ask questions about future episodes here. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube!

Lauren Collier-Spruel about Effective Allyship

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 20 Jul 2020 00:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Lauren Collier-Spruel.
Lauren is a doctoral candidate in the Michigan State Organizational Psychology program whose research focuses on the effectiveness of diversity interventions at work. Specifically, she has completed a variety of projects on ally intervention and ally effectiveness. There are a lot of people who say they are allies for people who have been marginalized by society. But is it enough to be an ally? The research discussed today suggests that it's not.

Here are some resources for allyship:

Jenna Walters about Blueberry Pollination with Bees

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 20 Jul 2020 00:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Jenna Walters. Jenna is a M.S. student studying the influence of extreme heat conditions on blueberry pollination and bee nutrition. Her work draws from an applied ecology background as she studies the entire blueberry crop system- pollen physiology and chemistry, fruit yield and quality, and bee health and diet preference. Jenna has broad interests in pollination ecology across natural and managed systems and is particularly interested in understanding the ramifications of climate change on crop and bee health.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. You can ask questions about future episodes here. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube!

Kevin Kraef about Accessing Affordable Healthcare

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 13 Jul 2020 00:21:43 -0400

On this week of The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny speak with Kevin Kraef, a Junior at MSU's James Madison College and Eli Broad School of Business majoring in International Relations and Supply Chain Management. Kevin conducted his research on behalf of MSU's Institute for Public Policy and Social Research (IPPSR) directed by Dr. Matthew Grossman. In the past year, he investigated the effects of earned income tax credits (EITC), child tax credits (CTC), and publicly funded programs like Medicare and Medicaid in providing Americans with affordable healthcare. While examining these programs and their implementation in various states, Kevin also compared US programs to those in other countries like Germany, Switzerland, the UK, and South Korea to observe any differences in cost distribution, quality of treatment, accessibility, and patient satisfaction. Finally, Kevin focused on understanding and finding a solution to disadvantaged communities and their lack of access to affordable healthcare in the US by comparing different systems and poverty reduction methods from Michigan, Massachusetts, Texas, and California and other countries, specifically Germany and the UK. The results of the research demonstrate that in order to provide affordable healthcare for the majority of the US, a combination of EITC, CTC, and public programs like Medicare and Medicaid would be most effective alongside current private health insurance providers in our current system. However, in exploring other systems, a total reform towards a more universal system has a more promising outlook on providing equal access to affordable healthcare for all, including disadvantaged minority communities while providing varying degrees of cost burden on the taxpayer base.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. You can ask questions about future episodes here. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube!

Jeremy Gingrich about Plastics in the Placenta

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 13 Jul 2020 00:11:50 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Jeremy Gingrich from the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology. There are over 300 million tons of plastics produced globally every year. Since plastics break down poorly in the environment, this number compounds yearly and has led to ubiquitous human consumption of plastics through food, water, and airborne dust. One main chemical component of plastics are bisphenols. Bisphenols are endocrine-disrupting chemicals, or EDCs, that can act like promiscuous hormones. For example, the most common bisphenol, bisphenol A (BPA), is both an estrogen-like and a testosterone-like chemical. Since dysfunctional hormone signaling can be particularly harmful during pregnancy and early life, it’s important to understand what happens if you’re exposed gestationally to chemicals like BPA. Jeremy’s work focuses on how BPA and emerging or “replacement” bisphenol chemicals, like bisphenol S (BPS), have on the development and function of the placenta. Although transient, the placenta is the first organ you develop, and functions like the lungs, kidneys, and liver during early life. Often thought of as a barrier to the external environment, the placenta is semi-permeable and allows the transfer of some chemicals, including bisphenols, from the mother into fetal circulation. Using sheep as an animal model, Jeremy has identified a previously unknown defect in placental development following gestational exposure to an emerging bisphenol, BPS, but not BPA. Understanding exposure outcomes like these help drive regulatory decisions regarding the safe use of bisphenols in consumer products.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. You can ask questions about future episodes here. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube!

Harnoor Kaur about Transgender Homicides in the Media

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 06 Jul 2020 00:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Harnoor Kaur. Harnoor is an undergraduate student at MSU majoring in Criminal Justice with an additional major in Political Science and a minor in Peace and Justice Studies. She is extremely interested in research involving civil liberties and human rights. During her freshman year at MSU, she started undergrad research under Professor DeJong in the Criminal Justice School on the misrepresentation of transgender homicide in the media.

There were 28 transgender homicide victims in 2019, most of them belonging to the African American race. Her research under Professor DeJong focused on how the Media reports these homicides, and the details of their reporting. Through her research, Harnoor found out that new media outlets still use dead names (names individuals used before they transitioned) and also misgendered (using the wrong pronouns for an individual) victims. Sometimes they also used pre-transition pictures of victims. This research is extremely important because of the recommendations that come out of it, namely just increased sensitivity amongst the media, and the need for more awareness amongst the general population about the issues the trans community, specifically black trans individuals continue to deal with every day.

Kathleen Rhoades about Perfecting Michigan Tart Cherries

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 06 Jul 2020 00:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Kathleen Rhoades. Kathleen is a third-year Ph.D. student in the Plant Breeding, Genetics, and Biotechnology program studying tart cherry breeding and genetics with Dr. Amy Iezzoni, the Tart Cherry Breeder at MSU. The goal of the breeding program is to create new varieties of tart cherry that are better-adapted to Michigan’s climate, resistant to pests and diseases, and easier to process for packing, drying, canning, and consumption. Tart cherry is an allotetraploid, meaning it has four sets of chromosomes derived from two different parental species of cherry that cross-pollinated in the wild. Kathleen is studying the way the two parental genomes in tart cherry interact and how those interactions are affecting fruit quality traits, which will help inform tart cherry breeders in their selection decisions to create improved.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. You can ask questions about future episodes here. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube!

Kyle Whitehouse about Self-Love to Overcome Adversity

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 29 Jun 2020 00:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Kyle Whitehouse. Kyle is an undergraduate student at the MSU Residental College of Arts and Humanities (RCAH).

Purpose and adversity go hand in hand. If you have purpose and goals in life, there is going to be adversity along the way. For Kyle, racism has been one of the primary adversities affecting him for a long time that he had to overcome. Young black children are growing up and seeing numerous acts of racism. But, spreading love and acceptance is something that has helped him despite the hate that he sees every day on social media, the news, and in his interactions. Spreading the message of love and acceptance is one of his purposes in life. In this episode, he discusses how his experience volunteering at Willow Elementary School in Lansing, MI. He used activities on purpose and facilitated conversations about love as a method to overcome adversity, which assisted with increasing his understanding of civic engagement.

https://www.nami.org/mhstats

https://www.cdc.gov/childrensmentalhealth/features/kf-childrens-mental-health-report.html

Leigh Anne Tiffany about Expansive Science Reporting

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 29 Jun 2020 00:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Leigh Anne Tiffany. Leigh Anne is a second-year doctoral student in the Information & Media Program with a dual major in Environmental Science and Policy. She works jointly with John Besley, Ph.D., in the Department of Advertising + Public Relations, and Bruno Takahashi, Ph.D., with the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism in the School of Journalism. Her research centers on topics related to science communication and public engagement with science.

Leigh Anne's research is inspired by her prior careers as a scientist working in wildlife conservation, a multimedia science journalist for outlets like the PBS NewsHour, NBC, and NPR, and a public relations specialist for a wildlife nonprofit in Washington, D.C. In these different roles, she experienced firsthand the current crisis of scientific findings being regularly miscommunicated to the public. She decided to get her doctoral degree to help find evidence-backed ways to combat this systematic problem.

Her research addresses science communication from the viewpoints of scientists, journalists, and public relations practitioners. She looks into why these groups want to communicate about science (and how they do so), how do these groups interact with one another when communicating about science, and the effectiveness of training programs aimed to help these groups become better science communicators.

Adam Kawash about the Missing Nova in the Milky Way

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 22 Jun 2020 01:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Adam Kawash. Adam is a Ph.D. candidate in the MSU Department of Physics and Astronomy.
The main research question he is trying to answer is what is the nova rate of the Milky Way? A nova occurs in a double star system when the core of a dead star steals matter from its companion star. If enough matter is accumulated the outside of the dead star can become hot enough for nuclear fusion to occur. This causes an outflow of the accumulated material and the system can increase in brightness by up to a factor of a million. Due to their relative brightness, these events have been found in the Galaxy for centuries by astronomers. However, we still do not have a good idea of how frequently these events occur in the Milky Way. Recently published models predict about 50 novae per year, but even with the emergence of large field surveys in the past couple of decades, we still only find about 10 per year. This mystery of the apparent missing novae is the central topic of his thesis.
MSU Observatory, MSU Abrams Planetarium and Astronomy on Tap host local astronomy events, during the pandemic they are hosting virtual events.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. You can ask questions about future episodes here. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube!

Amber, Kelly and Micayla about Talking with Skeletons

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 22 Jun 2020 00:00:00 -0400

Located in the Department of Anthropology, the Michigan State University Forensic Anthropology Laboratory (MSUFAL) works to uncover stories in human bones. The graduate students, Amber, Kelly and Micayla at the MSUFAL are trained by lab director, Dr. Joseph T Hefner, a board-certified forensic anthropologist, and Dr. Carolyn Isaac in the study of the human skeleton. Forensic anthropologists do many different things from working with the police and medical examiners to scientific research experiments. They commonly work with law enforcement to estimate demographic information, such as age, biological sex, height/stature, and ancestry, in unknown skeletal remains. This information is compared between unidentified skeletons and missing persons’ cases. They analyze trauma including bone fractures that can be related to many different causes such as firearms, car accidents, or falls. Additionally, they examine the skeleton for diseases like arthritis or bony infections.

At the MSUFAL, graduate students assist with forensic casework and carry out their own research projects. In this interview, three lab members briefly describe their research and their relationship to forensic and biological anthropology. Amber Plemons, a fourth-year graduate student, aims to understand how genes and climate interact to shape the human face. She uses statistical modeling that incorporates shape information from the skull to measure the impact of temperature and humidity on facial shape. This study helps us understand why people's faces are different and dispel the idea of biological race. Kelly Kamnikar, a fourth-year graduate student, examines the 'ancestry' part of the biological profile. She looks at variation in the human skull within people living in Latin America to understand if variation can be used reliably to estimate ancestry. She hopes this will improve efforts to identify people who die while trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border. Micayla Spiros, a second-year graduate student, focuses on the postcranial skeleton, or all bones below the skull, to see if morphology, or shape, varies in a predictable pattern. She looks at the growth and development of the human skeleton across different cultures to see if these postcranial variations can be used to help estimate ancestry in unknown children and adult skeletons. Each of these three studies are examples of the type of research performed at the MSUFAL, with the ultimate goal to advance our understanding of human variation to further improve efforts in identification.

Dhaval Gandhi about Neuroscience and the Courtroom

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 01:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Dhaval Gandhi. Dhaval is an undergraduate student at MSU in the departments of Neuroscience (College of Natural Science) and History Philosophy & Sociology of Science (Lyman Briggs College). He examines how neuroscience has slowly crept its way into various fields like marketing, philosophy, and law. Chiefly, Dhaval focused his research efforts on the ways neuroscience has begun to influence the legal system, creating a new niche field dubbed by others as 'neurolaw.'

Historically, phrenology, an early tool to observe the brain's ability by examining the natural surface of an individual's head, was prevalent in the legal setting in the mid-1800s. Fortunately, American judges were quick to dismiss phrenological evidence as it lacked scientific evidence. In the last century, neuroscience has been slowing reintegrating back into the American legal system with polygraphs and MRI technology. Polygraphs were used as a measure of an individual or a witness was being fully honest. Moderately, the scientific basis of polygraphs has been questioned. Now, Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) technology is being used for lie detection. This is unsettling as the machines used are unreliable, the results can be misleading, and the current legal system has inconsistencies that can make the matter more complicated. For these reasons, it's crucial that society separates the two fields of neuroscience and American law once again, as we did with phrenology until there is more scientific grounding for neuroscience-based legal evidence. Through his research and reasoning, he argues against the use of 'neurolaw' until better technologies and practices are developed.

Zachary Morehouse on Shaking Up Virus Detection

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 00:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Zachary Morehouse. Zach is a 3rd-year osteopathic medical student at Michigan State’s College of Osteopathic Medicine. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Zach was looking for a way to use his background in molecular virology and drug development, in conjunction with the knowledge he has gained from medical school thus far, to do his part in the fight against this disease. In mid-March, he received a call from one of his former research colleagues and mentor, Dr. Rodney Nash in Atlanta, GA asking if he could come down to help develop some viral testing procedures for a biotechnology company called Omni International Inc. Since classes had moved online and Zach was entering into his dedicated boards self-study period, he jumped at the chance to put his skills to use in the lab again. Over the last 11 weeks, Zach and the laboratory team at Omni International have worked every day, long hours, nights, and weekends to develop viral extraction and detection protocols using the laboratory equipment that Omni already manufactured. Using one of the company’s most popular devices, the Omni Bead Ruptor Elite, they developed extraction methods to pull viral RNA out of feces, wastewater, tissue culture media, and off swabs to be used in downstream PCR based applications that confirm the presence of the virus. As COVID-19 continued to expand, basic laboratory supplies, such as the standard reagents used in nucleic acid extractions and the laboratory plastics needed to conduct those extractions became increasingly difficult to find, given the exponential increase in demand. This resource scarcity caused Zach and the team to come up with the now patented, two-step direct-to-PCR methodology. This method allows for the complete bypass of the standard extraction methods used in PCR based assays for viral detection off swabs, reducing the cost and time associated with the processing of each sample. While this technology has been proven in vitro with human coronavirus 229E, the group is currently working with their clinical collaborators to validate the method on COVID-19 patient samples. Zachary and Dr. Nash are hopeful that this novel technology will provide relief to resource challenged health care environments with its potential to reduce the cost of testing, and improve turn around time on each sample being processed. If you want to reach out for more information or potential collaboration, please contact Zach at moreho17@msu.edu.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. You can ask questions about future episodes here. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube!

Megan Miller about Can Spirituality Help With Pain?

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 08 Jun 2020 00:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Megan Miller. Megan is a registered nurse and is graduating from the MSU College of Nursing Ph.D. program in Spring 2020. Her experiences in palliative and hospice care have led to a mixed-methods dissertation project focused on holistic (mind, body, spirit) approaches to pain for people with advanced cancer.
With a majority of advanced cancer patients reporting pain, management of this symptom continues to be a critical problem. Spirituality (broadly defined) is one area that has not yet been adequately investigated, as it may positively impact the experience of pain. In the first phase of the dissertation work, Megan examined data from women with advanced breast cancer to determine which personal and clinical factors were associated with pain and spirituality, the impact of spirituality on pain over time, and the impact of spirituality and pain on engagement with a Complementary and Integrative Health (CIH) Intervention. In the second phase, Megan conducted interviews with advanced breast cancer patients to explore how they described their pain, their spirituality, and the potential connection between the two.
Megan will begin a Postdoctoral Research Associate position at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Fall 2020. She is enthusiastic about continuing to explore CIH interventions to holistically address symptoms for patients with advanced cancer.
This dissertation was supported by grants from the American Nurses Foundation and the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Foundation. Data included in part of the project was collected in a National Cancer Institute-funded study led by Dr. Gwen Wyatt.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. You can ask questions about future episodes here. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube!

Hamid Karimi about Teachers in Social Media

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 01 Jun 2020 01:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Hamid Karimi.

Hamid is a 5th year Ph.D. student in the MSU Department of Computer Science and Engineering and a member of the Data Science and Engineering Lab. His research is generally focused on data science and machine learning where he seeks to extract insightful patterns in data that can then be used to both understand/analyze the past and to make predictions about the future. More specifically, he is interested in applying and developing data mining and machine learning algorithms in the field of educational data mining (EDM) which refers to techniques, tools, and research designed for automatically extracting meaning from large repositories of data generated by or related to people's learning activities in educational settings. His research is currently focused on ensuring fairness in EDM algorithms, for instance in the online course performance methods. Hamid is also an active member of the Teachers in Social Media Project. As teachers direct their information and professional learning from the cloud to class, Teachers in Social Media uses big data and rich data to gain a better understanding of teachers’ engagement within social media. In particular, Hamid develops advanced machine learning algorithms to characterize instructional resources on online social media as well as understand and promote teacher-teacher connections on Pinterest -- a popular image-based social media platform. In his recent publication in the Journal of Teachers College Record, titled A Roadmap for Incorporating Online Social Media in Educational Research, the proposed general guidelines to help new researchers use vast online social media data, as a manifestation of “big data,” in their education research.

Nick Ivanov on Blockchain Beyond Cryptocurrencies

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 25 May 2020 01:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Nick Ivanov. Nick is a second-year graduate student, pursuing his Ph.D. in Computer Science at Michigan State University (MSU). His major research area lies at the intersection of blockchain and the security of the Internet of Things (IoT). He conducts his research as part of the MSU SEIT (SEcure and Intelligent Things) lab led by Dr. Qiben Yan. They use smart contracts to replace password-based authentication with private-key authentication and achieve the highest levels of security, privacy, and reliability.

The blockchain technology is often associated with cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin. However, the unique properties of blockchain are useful not only for cryptocurrencies. Blockchain allows us to elegantly address some security-related challenges of the IoT world. Moreover, blockchain technology allows deploy and run immutable, deterministic, irreversible, and non-deniable programs called smart contracts. In his lab, they show that smart contracts allow them to bring the Internet of Things into the new level of security, reliability, and convenience.

Brittany, Christian and Basma about Youth Opioid Awareness Program

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 18 May 2020 00:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview 2nd-year medical students at Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine, Brittany Ladson, Christian Rohl, and Basma Al Masraf.

Since 2017, there have been over 70,000 opiate-related deaths, namely in the 18-25 year old group. It has been shown that implementing educational and Naloxone distribution programs can reduce the total number of opioid overdoses up to 55% within those communities. To address the growing opioid epidemic, Brittany, Christian and Basma are currently investigating the efficacy of implementing an opiate awareness educational program for high school students across the state.

The DARE program, a current requirement for high schoolers in the state of Michigan, addresses the dangers of cigarettes and alcohol consumption; however, it fails to acknowledge opiate misuse. To address this gap in education, this team of medical students has held educational programs for over 250 students across the state. If awareness on the seriousness of opiate addiction could be addressed early on in a child’s education, could it impact their decisions to misuse opiates?

Bridget Walker about Red Panda Thyroid Testing

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 11 May 2020 00:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Bridget Walker. Bridget is a third-year student in the College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM) at MSU. She began working at the Potter Park Zoo as a summer student under Dr. Ronan Eustace, the staff veterinarian and Director of Animal Health at Potter Park Zoo (PPZ), where she conducted a research project and zoo medical cases. She has been featured on The Sci-Files before for her research at PPZ with Doppsee, but this episode focuses on her research with the Red Pandas at PPZ.
Thyroid dysfunction has been reported in captive red pandas, however, there has been little research on the topic. The research project Bridget worked on validates a hormone test in red pandas that measure thyroid-stimulating hormones and can help to identify thyroid dysfunction. By having a valid test, thyroid dysfunction can be identified and further studied in red pandas.
To find out more about PPZ, ways that you can support the red pandas and the other animals at PPZ, you can visit their website.

If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. You can ask questions for our future episodes here. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube!

Pranshu Bajpai on the Menace of Cryptographic Ransomware

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 04 May 2020 01:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Pranshu Bajpai. Pranshu is a final year Ph.D. candidate researching information security in the Security Research Lab headed by Dr. Richard Enbody in the MSU Department of Computer Science and Engineering. His research interests lie in computer and network security, malware analysis, digital forensics, and cybercrimes. A special kind of malware, called ransomware, caught his attention during the early years of his Ph.D. due to its unique modus operandi and impact. Today, ransomware has proliferated to impact individuals and organizations alike and is considered the top threat to cybersecurity.

Ransomware is malicious software written for the purpose of extracting ransom from the infected user. This is achieved by locking the user's files with a key using a standard encryption algorithm (the lock). The user is then shown a ransom note that demands that the ransom be paid using cryptocurrencies (e.g. bitcoin) online. If the ransom is paid, the attackers can release the key and allow the user to regain access to their files. Ransom demands start with $300 per user and have now increased to hundreds of thousands of dollars as attackers carefully target organizations for maximum gain.

Zoe Hansen about Bacterial Infections and the Gut

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 27 Apr 2020 01:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Zoe Hansen. Zoe is a third-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at Michigan State University. Her research focuses on the human gut microbiome. Specifically, she is investigating how foodborne infection (for example, a Salmonella infection) influences antibiotic resistance in our gut. Antibiotic resistance refers to the ability of bacteria to survive despite being treated with drugs designed to kill them. This resistance is found everywhere around the world and it becomes especially problematic when human pathogens become resistant and no longer respond to our antibiotic therapies; this can lead to very severe and ongoing infections.

To observe how foodborne infections can influence antibiotic resistance in the gut, Zoe uses a method called “metagenomics” to look at microbial DNA from patients who had been infected. “Metagenomics” is the study of all genetic material that comes directly from an environmental sample. Once she has this information, Zoe uses a whole suite of computational tools to filter out the information she is looking for – in this case, specific genes that cause antibiotic resistance in bacteria. The collection and processing of this information are called “bioinformatics.” As Zoe uses bioinformatics to address her research, she hopes to increase our understanding of how changes to an environment (such as an infection) can lead to fluctuation in gut microbial communities. One day, this information may help us predict how our gut communities will respond to different antibiotic treatments. Zoe is also involved with the MSU Council of Graduate Students (COGS) and Graduate Women in Science (GWIS).

If you’re interested in learning more about Zoe and her research, you can reach out to her at hansenzo@msu.edu, or follow her on Twitter.

The Sci-Files Virtual Q&A

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Fri, 24 Apr 2020 12:00:00 -0400

In early April, The Sci-Files hosted its first Q&A session hosted by Chelsie and Danny with guests from past interviews on The Sci-Files. The guests gave small talks about their research. The audience had children of all ages and they have the opportunity to ask the scientists questions about their research.

Here are the slides that the speakers used during their presentations.

Mike's research focuses on the signals emitted from the explosive ending of massive stars, he will be discussing what are stars? His past episode can be found here.

Alyssa's research is on the bone health of racehorses. Her past episode can be found here.

Robert studies microorganisms in the desert and climate change. His past episode can be found here.

Kayla and Jon study bacterial infections like listeria in pregnancy and extracellular vesicles. Their past episode can be found here.

Nick studies education research like the criteria for admittance for graduate school and data science. His past episode can be found here.

Kate studies omega 3 fatty acids and how they affect inflammation. Her past episode can be found here.

Pratap makes underwater robotics and studies how they communicate. His past episode can be found here.

Victoria Toomajian about Extracellular Vesicle Communication and the Heart

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 20 Apr 2020 01:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Victoria Toomajian. Victoria is a third-year Ph.D. candidate in the MSU Biomedical Engineering department, in the Contag Lab. She studies the use of extracellular vesicles as a delivery tool, focusing on the heart post-myocardial infarction as a therapeutic target.

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are small, membrane-bound particles released from cells, which play a role in cell to cell communication. They naturally contain a variety of molecular cargo including proteins and nucleic acids, and it has been shown that they can be used to deliver drugs, RNA, and DNA in vivo and in vitro. EVs are believed to have some advantages over synthetic delivery tools due to their natural biocompatibility, potential natural targeting abilities, and ability to cross natural barriers. Victoria's work uses immune cell-derived EVs, which have been used as delivery vehicles to areas of inflammation, to delivery therapeutic cargo to the heart, which is inflamed after injury. She will also be examining the mechanisms behind immune cell-derived EVs trafficking to areas of inflammation and EV distribution.

Kaitlyn Daza about Genetics and the Swine Industry

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 13 Apr 2020 01:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Kaitlyn Daza. Kaitlyn is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Animal Breeding and Genetics Group at the MSU Department of Animal Science.

You may have heard the statistic that by the year 2050, the global population is projected to hit 9 billion people, and we will need to vastly increase our food production to meet that demand and feed the world. This intimidating statistic brings challenges to many industries, including animal agriculture. One of the best methods we’ll have to increase the productivity and efficiency of food production in both plants and animals will be through advances in genetic technologies and selection techniques. Kaitlyn's work focuses on understanding the genetic regulation of complex production traits like growth, meat quality, and carcass composition phenotypes in pigs using genome-wide association analyses of microRNA expression. Current wet-lab experiments are investigating mechanisms connecting miRNA, gene, and phenotypic expression affecting these traits that are critical to the success of our Swine Industry.

While developing these skills, she has recognized a growing apprehension from the public regarding the use of novel genetic technologies in food production. Consumers grow increasingly interested in how their food is produced, but having been removed from the production process so greatly they often lack the understanding to see the benefits of modern agricultural techniques. It’s critical to our industry’s progress that consumers and regulatory officials be involved in the development and integration of genetic technologies in food production; without their support, we will continue to face issues of public perception and setbacks in technological development as an industry.

Funmi Ayeni about Community Interventions for Sexual Assault

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 06 Apr 2020 01:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Funmi Ayeni.

Funmi is a doctoral student in Ecological/Community Psychology at Michigan State University. Her areas of research expertise include mixed-methods evaluations of community interventions for survivors of sexual and gender-based violence, improving the community response to sexual and gender-based violence, evaluating victim service programs, and policy development. She is currently working on her Thesis study to examine the benefits of a culturally specific brief intervention for African American survivors of sexual assault.

In addition to being a graduate student, Funmi Ayeni is:

Evaluation Specialist with the Michigan Victim Advocacy Network (MiVAN);
Statewide Coordinator for the Domestic Violence Fatality Review Teams (DVFRTs) with the Division of Victim Services, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services;
Team lead for the Research, Monitoring & Evaluation, and Learning Department at STER Initiative, and
Independent Research Consultant.

Jose Rodrigues about Food Borne Pathogens

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 30 Mar 2020 10:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Jose Rodrigues. Jose is a DO-PhD candidate in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics through the College of Osteopathic Medicine. Jose is training as a third-year medical student and completing his dissertation work which focuses on antibiotic resistance, evolution and molecular epidemiology of the bacterial pathogen Campylobacter jejuni, under the direction of Dr. Shannon Manning Ph.D., M.P.H.

C. jejuni is a bacterial foodborne pathogen that is the #1 cause of bacterial gastroenteritis in the United States. This disease is generally self-limited, lasting 24-72 hours and patients experience nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain generally after consuming undercooked chicken or coming into contact with colonized poultry or livestock. Jose’s research focuses on understanding antibiotic-resistant (difficult to treat) strains of C. jejuni, particularly in Michigan. By partnering with four different hospitals in Michigan bacterial isolates from patients infected with C. jejuni were collected and are the subject of Jose’s research.

Jose is also passionate about physician-scientist training and does service-leadership work with the American Physician Scientists Association (APSA). The association is a national trainee organization focused on supporting physician trainees who are pursuing a career in research. Jose is the current Chair of the Diversity Ad-hoc committee, where he helped to spearhead the development of Physician Scientist Trainee Diversity Summit. The committee and summit were created to help diversify the physician scientist workforce and support diverse voices in academic spaces.

Courtney Harrison about Lake Whitefish Infectious Diseases

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 23 Mar 2020 01:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Courtney Harrison.

Courtney is a second-year master’s student in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at the Michigan State University Aquatic Animal Health Laboratory. Her research investigates the effects infectious diseases have on lake whitefish (Coregonus clupeaformis) and their subsequent recruitment to the Great Lakes. Recently, lake whitefish commercial yields have been declining, along with abundance and growth. Similarly, there have been declines in early life stages (i.e., eggs and fry), and juvenile recruitment of lake whitefish to the Great Lakes.

Few studies have assessed lake whitefish health, and these same studies discovered the presence of microbial pathogens in adult Great Lakes lake whitefish populations. Even more interesting is that the pathogens found are known to cause high mortality and can be shed in reproductive tissue or vertically transmitted from infected parent to offspring in other salmonids. Her research will determine disease status in both wild adult and juvenile lake whitefish aggregations within Lakes Superior, Michigan, and Huron. She will also assess the ability of viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus (VHSv) and three bacterial pathogens (Renibacterium salmoninarum, Carnobacterium sp., and Aeromonas salmonicida subsp. salmonicida), all which have been recovered from Great Lakes lake whitefish, to cause disease and/or mortality in juvenile lake whitefish in laboratory experimental challenges. Data generated from my study can be used in future recruitment models to address the uncertainty caused by disease-associated losses in current models.

Aaron Staples about Beer Economics and Sustainability

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 16 Mar 2020 10:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Aaron Staples.

Aaron is a first-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics at Michigan State University. He is originally from Massachusetts, where he completed my undergraduate studies prior to attending Purdue University. There, he attained his Master of Science in Agricultural Economics, writing his thesis on consumer valuation of different sustainability attributes in beer. Now, much of his research focuses on the complexity of agricultural value chains, with beer and hops being the primary focus. His current projects examine producer and consumer valuation of localness, marketing strategies for hop farmers, sustainability in brewing, and price analysis of the hop market.

Nick Jaffe about Gray Wolf Movement

Chelsie Boodoo and Daniel Puentes — Mon, 09 Mar 2020 10:00:00 -0400

On this week's The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Nick Jaffe. Nick is a 3rd year Ph.D. student in Fisheries and Wildlife. Nick studies gray wolf movement, behavior, and conflict with people.

Over the last 25 years, gray wolves have successfully recolonized the entirety of Michigan's Upper Peninsula (UP). Wolves have, on multiple occasions, also crossed over to the Northern Lower Peninsula (NLP) of Michigan, highlighting the potential for continued expansion. If wolves did recolonize the NLP, they would find a much larger population of prey (mainly white-tailed deer and elk) and much denser human population, which would likely lead to conflict. Nick's research works to anticipate this challenge using agent-based modeling to predict when, where, and how many wolves could recolonize the NLP. The goal of this research is to help prepare wildlife agencies, inform policymakers, and minimize human-wildlife conflict.

If you're interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org.
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Nick Young on Graduate Admissions Process in Physics

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 02 Mar 2020 10:00:00 -0500

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Nick Young. Nick is a Ph.D. candidate in Physics & Astronomy and Computational Mathematics, Science, & Engineering. Nick studies the graduate admissions process in physics. To do so, he uses actual application data to build predictive machine learning models. Using these models, he is able to determine which aspects of the application are most influential in determining why an applicant is admitted. Through this work, he hopes to see if current admissions practices are aligned with known “best practices” for admitting applicants.

Jaali the Baby Black Rhino

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 02 Mar 2020 10:00:00 -0500

In November last year, Chelsie and Danny saw Doppsee, the black rhino, get an ultrasound and they had an episode about it.

Doppsee is the 13-year-old female eastern black rhino at Potter Park Zoo, who is originally from Sedgwick County Zoo in Kansas. The male rhino at Potter Park, Phineus, traveled to Lansing from Caldwell Zoo in Texas in 2017. Doppsee gave birth to Jaali, on December 24th, 2019. In this episode, they follow up with Dr. Ronan Eustace, and Pat Fountain again to see how Doppsee is doing after giving birth. They were also joined this time by Adrianna Davidson, Murphy Swartz, and Kim Hernandez.

Adrianna and Murphy are hoofstock keepers and Kim is the area lead hoofstock keeper. They take care of the rhinos and they discuss what it is like to tend to a baby rhino.

Dr. Ronan Eustace has a Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine from the University of Saskatchewan, Western CVM. After three and a half years at Potawatomi Zoo, Dr. Ronan Eustace came to Potter Park Zoo. Before coming to Potter Park Zoo, Dr. Ronan worked at practices ranging from sizeable multi-doctor specialty practices to small rural mixed clinics for four years before he became a zoo veterinarian.

To find out more about Potter Park Zoo, ways that you can support Doppsee and Jaali and the other animals at Potter Park Zoo, you can visit their website.

Lauren, Natalie, Arienne on the Coronavirus

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 24 Feb 2020 10:00:00 -0500

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Lauren Eichberger, Natalie Lyric Kagole and Arienne Patano about the coronavirus.

Lauren is a graduate student in the Department of Animal Science with a focus on Immunology. Her research is focused on Bovine Leukemia Virus (BLV) which infects over 80% of herds across North America. Her current research investigates specific alleles that may correlate to host susceptibility or resistance to BLV. After her studies, she hopes to pursue a career in counter-bioterrorism and work with emerging viruses and diseases.

Natalie is a Junior majoring in Psychology with a minor in Global Public Health and Epidemiology. Natalie obtained a strong interest in One Health after she attended the One Health World Congress 2018 in Canada. She speaks her mind on how the coronavirus can be interpreted in the perspective of the One Health Framework and what can be done to avoid future global health surprises worldwide.

Arienne is a first-year doctoral nursing student. Her area of novice and passions lie in end-of-life and palliative care. She is interested in investigating the relationship between circadian rhythm and the symptom experience of pain among advanced cancer patients.

David Butts on Chronic Wasting Disease and Evacuation Modeling

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 17 Feb 2020 10:00:00 -0500

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview David Butts.

David is a second-year Ph.D. student in the Computational Mathematics Science and Engineering department at Michigan State University, working under Prof. Murillo. David’s research employs a computational modeling technique called agent-based modeling.

Historically, scientific models were written mathematically and heavily simplified the real-world systems they represented. These models made large approximations, including treating many elements in a system as a single entity. Such simplifications were necessary in order to ensure that the models were solvable by humans. For example, in evacuations, we would be unable to model each driver on the road with a specified starting and ending location, amount of gas in their cars, and varying aggression in driving, but have to settle with just the number of cars on the road.

Computational models allow us to relax most of these limitations. Agent-based modeling specifically treats each element of a system explicitly, as agents. Agents interact with each other and their environment following a set of rules to achieve a goal. Rules replace equations that allow for behaviors that may be too complex to represent with other types of models to be added easily. Current applications of agent-based modeling include planning evacuations for emergency events including hurricanes and modeling deer movement to predict the spread of chronic wasting disease in Michigan.

Seyed Mohammadreza Heidari on Green Chemistry Nanotechnology

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 10 Feb 2020 18:00:00 -0500

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Seyed Mohammadreza Heidari.

Mohammad is a dual Ph.D. student in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Department of Environmental Science and Policy. He has been involved in different research projects related to sustainable nanotechnology, green chemistry, biofuel, and solar energy. His Ph.D. dissertation is about how to synthesize fullerenes with less environmental impacts.

Professor Kroto discovered fullerenes in 1986 and received Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1996 because of fullerene discovery. Since then, fullerenes have been used in various applications such as cancer therapy, HIV treatment, drug delivery, MRI, electrical sensors, lasers, etc. Since the global market of fullerene is exponentially increasing, quantifying the environmental impacts of existing fullerene production processes is necessary. Mohammad is using green chemistry, life cycle assessment, and ecotoxicity assessment to quantify carbon footprints and mitigate the adverse environmental effects of fullerene production. In another project, he is focusing on generating energy from municipal wastes. In this project, sludge from municipal wastewater treatment plants is used as a source of energy to produce methane in anaerobic digesters.

Mustafa Ahmadzai on the Brain of The Gut

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Sun, 02 Feb 2020 09:30:00 -0500

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Mustafa Ahmadzai.

Mustafa is in the dual degree DO/Ph.D. program at MSU, which enables him to blend his love for understanding disease mechanisms with a desire to directly affect patient care. Currently, Mustafa studies the enteric nervous system or "brain of the gut" in the laboratory of Dr. Brian Gulbransen. The enteric nervous system is composed of millions of nerve cells that regulate digestion, absorption, and motility independently of the brain. These neurons are in turn supported by populations of cells called enteric glia.

A major hypothesis of the Gulbransen lab is that alterations in enteric glia are involved in many functional bowel diseases like irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), chronic constipation and pseudo-obstruction. Using genetic models, Mustafa can “see” in live-time how neurons and glia communicate with each other under healthy and disease conditions. In this way, Mustafa hopes that his research will shed light on the role of enteric glia in functional gastrointestinal diseases. Mustafa has authored several primary publications and 2 book chapters and has presented at national conferences in both Canada and the USA.

Tyler Derr on Graphs and Deep Learning

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Sun, 26 Jan 2020 09:30:00 -0500

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Tyler Derr.

Tyler is a 5th year Ph.D. student in the Computer Science and Engineering and a member of the Data Science and Engineering Lab. His research is generally focused on data science where he seeks to extract insightful patterns in data that can then be used to both understand/analyze the past and to make predictions about the future. More specifically, due to the fact that much of today’s big data can be represented as graphs, his emphasis has primarily been on harnessing this natural structure of data. In this case, when we mention graphs, we are talking about a collection of objects that have relations between them and can furthermore be associated with a set of features/attributes associated with both the objects and their relations.

An example of a graph can be a social network consisting of online users as the objects, different user relations such as “friends”, “blocked users”, etc., and attributes such as their “likes”. His research is currently focused on how to advance state of the art deep learning approaches (which is an area of machine learning that utilizes artificial neural networks) to harness the graph structure of data. For example, if seeking to categorize the political affiliation of an online user, can we come up with a way of incorporating those you’ve followed (and unfollowed) in a deep learning framework to obtain better predictions.

Pratap Bhanu Solanki on Underwater Robot Communication

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Sun, 19 Jan 2020 09:00:00 -0500

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Pratap Bhanu Solanki.

Pratap is a 6th year Ph.D. student in the Electrical and Computer Engineering program at Michigan State University. His research focusses on wireless communication for underwater robots.

In the underwater domain, most of our standard wireless modes like wifi, Bluetooth, and cellphone signals do not work as they diminish more quickly in the water. Currently, standard industrial technology is acoustic communication. However, it suffers from time delay, low bandwidth, and high power consumption. LED-based visible-light communication is a promising alternative for data-heavy underwater applications. A fundamental challenge associated with the free space optical communication systems is to establish and maintain Line-Of-Sight (LOS) between two communication parties. Pratap's work involves developing underwater autonomous robotic systems and algorithms to address the challenge of alignment control for optical communication.

Dee Jordan on African Sleeping Sickness

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Sun, 12 Jan 2020 09:00:00 -0500

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Demetrice (Dee) Jordan.

Dee is a dual-Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Geography, Environment and Spatial Science and the Environmental Science and Policy Program. Her dissertation research focuses on risk reduction approaches to the tsetse fly and African trypanosomiasis or ‘sleeping sickness’ control in sub-Saharan Africa. Sleeping sickness is a vector-borne parasitic illness transmitted by the bite of a trypanosome infected tsetse fly and affects both humans and animals. In humans, African trypanosomiasis has a case fatality rate of near 100%, if left untreated. While treatments exist, they are often very expensive and toxic. Currently, no vaccine is available. Each year an estimated 60 million Africans are at risk of contracting the disease from daily subsistence activities. Dee’s research seeks to reduce the burden of risk through spatial models that identify areas where exposure is most likely, introduce novel applications for vector control in risk areas and develop multi-scale participatory policies to control and eradicate the tsetse fly.

Alyssa Logan on Horse Bone Health

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Sun, 15 Dec 2019 09:00:00 -0500

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Alyssa Logan.

Alyssa is a first-year Ph.D. student studying Equine Exercise Physiology in the Spartan Equine Research Lab under Dr. Brian Nielsen. In May she completed her Master’s with the Spartan Equine Research Lab as well. Her research uses calves as a model for young horses. During her Master’s research, she was able to determine that sprinting an otherwise confined animal 71m at least once weekly for 6 weeks, increased the strength of the large bone of the front limb by over 20%. On the other hand, young calves that were confined for 6 weeks did not experience the heightened bone strength that the exercised calves did, and had weaker bone strength.

This information greatly impacts the racing industry, as when young animals begin training they are brought in off pasture and kept in stalls. Up until training, these animals were kept on pasture and had ubiquitous opportunities for stimuli to the bone. During early training, young horses are exercised slowly, and not afforded opportunities for bone-stimulating sprints. Unfortunately, when horses are confined with no opportunities to sprint, the incidence of musculoskeletal injuries increases. Adding short sprints at least once per week can aid in counteracting the incidence of these injuries. Overall, the majority of the research in her lab aims to determine how to manage horses in a way that prevents injuries and allows them to be the best possible athlete they can be.

Abdul Abbas on Ankylosing Spondylitis

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Sun, 08 Dec 2019 09:00:00 -0500

Abdulraouf (Abdul) Abbas is a graduate student in the Microbiology & Molecular Genetics program at Michigan State University. Abdul works in the Amalfitano Lab, where he studied different diseases related to the immune system such as cancer, autoinflammatory diseases, and neurodegeneration resulting from HIV infection. One disease he focused on is Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS), an autoinflammatory disease that can result in spinal fusion and other devastating symptoms. In the lab, Abdul and his colleagues study a mouse model that has similar features to human AS. In his recent thesis defense, Abdul showed that macrophages, a type of immune cell, could be a source of the problem contributing to the progression of the disease in mice by producing an abnormally high amount of proinflammatory cytokines. Understanding how the disease is caused can help scientists develop a cure for the disease.

One thing Abdul is passionate about is teaching and mentorship. Abdul was a teaching assistant for various laboratory courses in chemistry, physics, cell biology and microbiology. He encourages students pursuing a career in the life sciences or healthcare fields to join a research lab during their time in college. He has successfully mentored 6 students resulting in laboratory positions. Abdul is working on developing an online platform to make it easier for students to get into research and help navigate their careers in the sciences. On the side, he also working on a luxury neckwear company

Tracy Melvin on Climate Change in Alaska

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Sun, 01 Dec 2019 09:00:00 -0500

This week on The Sci-Files, Chelsie and Danny interview Tracy Melvin.

Tracy is a graduate student in the Fisheries and Wildlife program at Michigan State University.

Tracy studies climate-induced ecological transformation. In other words, how climate change is causing ecosystems to change into new ones, really rapidly – and how to manage those transformations with a lens towards global biodiversity conservation. She uses a changing grassland on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska, as a case study for stewarding ecological transformation. Specifically, she takes a look at what is living in the grassland using Next Generation Sequencing, and rapid biodiversity plots. She also measures tree rings for native and non-native trees throughout the peninsula (it’s about 6 million acres). Tracy has also taught a study abroad about climate change to Fiji. She is part of the Women in Nature Network and the Nature Conservancy, Michigan Chapter, and she got Masters in Science at MSU studying turtles.

Jeremy, Ally and Ben on Irrigation Systems

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Sun, 24 Nov 2019 09:00:00 -0500

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Jeremy Rapp, Ally Brady, and Ben McCarthy, all of them are masters students from the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences studying the Nexus of Food, Energy, and Water.

Jeremy’s research focuses on using satellite remote sensing and artificial intelligence to determine where farmers within the United States are likely using water to irrigate their croplands. Ally’s research revolves around using remote sensing irrigation products to identify irrigation technology shifts and how those impact the water availability within the High Plains Aquifer. Ben’s research leverages freshwater pumping data within Kansas in order to quantify the magnitude of energy used and what the adaption of more efficient technologies has done to that energy demand.

Corbin Standley on Youth Suicide Prevention

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Sun, 17 Nov 2019 09:00:00 -0500

This week on The Sci-Files, Chelsie and Danny interview Corbin J. Standley.

Corbin is a 3rd year Ph.D. student in the Ecological-Community Psychology program at MSU. His research interests lie at the intersection of community psychology, public health, and policy. Broadly, he is interested in equitable community and systems change through the use of data, evaluation, and intervention. Moreover, he is interested in the application of community psychology in studying suicide and its prevention, particularly in terms of policy change and community-level approaches to prevention.

Suicide is currently the tenth leading cause of death overall, and the second leading cause of death among youth. Despite these numbers, however, suicide is still relatively under-researched. Given this and his interdisciplinary lens, Corbin’s most recent research has focused on how the intersection of multiple marginalized identities contributes to suicide risk among youth. In addition to this, his Master’s Thesis examined the role of social support as a protective factor across the family, school, and community contexts. Corbin has used this research to inform his policy work at the state and federal levels in providing testimony, helping to draft legislation, and working with legislators to prevent suicide.

For more information about suicide and what you can do to prevent it, visit the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention at www.afsp.org. If you or someone you know is in crisis, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741-741. Both resources offer free, 24/7 confidential support.

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Doppsee the Pregnant Black Rhino at Potter Park Zoo

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Sun, 10 Nov 2019 09:00:00 -0500

This week on The Sci-Files, Chelsie and Danny went to Potter Park Zoo to see Doppsee, the pregnant black rhino, get an ultrasound. While they were there, they interviewed a variety of people who interact with Doppsee and have experience in veterinary medicine. In this interview, you will hear the perspectives and knowledge of 9 different interviewees.
Doppsee is the 13-year-old female eastern black rhino at Potter Park Zoo, who is originally from Sedgwick County Zoo in Kansas. The male rhino at Potter Park, Phineus, traveled to Lansing from Caldwell Zoo in Texas in 2017.

Before the ultrasound, Chelsie and Danny discussed Doppsee’s pregnancy with students in their fourth year at the College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM) at Michigan State University (MSU): Bethany Myers, Peter Fowler, Sumana Prabhakar, and Ashleigh Shoemaker.

Chelsie and Danny also spoke to Bridget Walker, a third-year student in the CVM at MSU. She began working at the Potter Park Zoo as a summer student under Dr. Ronan Eustace, the staff veterinarian and Director of Animal Health at Potter Park Zoo. She conducted a research project and zoo medical cases, which allowed her to visit Doppsee and monitor her pregnancy.
After viewing Doppsee’s ultrasound, Chelsie and Danny spoke to the vets who conducted the ultrasound and the Potter Park Zoo Animal Care Supervisor.

Dr. Julie Strachota is a clinical instructor for the Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences and resident for the Large Animal Theriogenology Service. She is an MSU native with a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Animal Science, Master of Science in Large Animal Clinical Sciences, and a Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine from MSU. Before returning to MSU as an instructor, Dr. Strachota worked for four years in a progressive, equine-exclusive practice, which is where she developed a strong interest and skill set in equine reproductive techniques. Besides her passion for theriogenology (a branch of veterinary medicine focusing on reproduction), Dr. Strachota is developing an equine primary care service for clinical veterinary students.

Dr. Carleton is a graduate of the Kansas State University CVM. She was the equine theriogenologist at MSU’s CVM for more than 30 years. In addition to her decades of dedication to theriogenology, she served for years on the exam committee as president of the American College of Theriogenologists and founded Diplomate of the American College of Animal Welfare. Both specialties are AVMA recognized. Dr. Carleton continues her work globally.

Pat Fountain is the Animal Care Supervisor at Potter Park Zoo. He received his B.S. in Zoology in 2006 from Michigan State University. Pat has cared for Doppsee since she arrived in 2011. Pat said, “Soon after arriving, it was apparent she [Doppsee] was a special rhino, and we have formed an incredible bond over the last eight years.”

“Doppsee is almost always willing to train and has helped us accomplish much more in her time here than we ever thought possible. We are eagerly anticipating the birth of her first calf, and we are hopeful she is going to be a great mother.”

To find out more about Potter Park Zoo, ways that you can support Doppsee’s pregnancy and the other animals at Potter Park Zoo, you can visit their website.

Mike Pajkos on Exploring Stellar Explosions

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Sun, 03 Nov 2019 09:00:00 -0500

This week on The Sci-Files, Chelsie and Danny interview Michael Pajkos.

Mike is a 3rd-year graduate student in the Physics and Astronomy and the Computational Mathematics, Sciences and Engineering doctoral programs at Michigan State University.

Stars act as the building blocks of the universe. From launching different elements around the Galaxy to hosting other planets, studying how stars behave grants a better understanding of the cosmos. Mike’s research focuses on the signals emitted from the explosive ending of massive stars by investigating the final ‘heartbeat’ they give off–new signals called gravitational waves.

Lili Gloe on Anxiety and the Brain

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Sun, 27 Oct 2019 09:00:00 -0400

This week on The Sci-Files, Chelsie and Danny interview Lili Gloe.

Lili is a graduate student in the Clinical Psychology doctoral program at Michigan State University. Her research focuses on how anxiety relates to the way people think, plan, and learn. In order to better understand this relationship, she examines how people perform on computer tasks aimed to tap into these thinking processes and how their performance may relate to anxiety symptoms. She also uses an electroencephalogram (EEG) to examine how electrical brain activity during these tasks relate to anxiety. By examining behavior, brain activity, and reports from participants about their anxiety, Lili aims to capture a fuller picture of the observable and unobservable aspects of anxiety as it relates to cognitive function. She also is particularly interested in how this relationship changes over development and may be related to biological factors, such as ovarian hormones.

Rachel Domagalski on Math Networks

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Mon, 21 Oct 2019 09:00:00 -0400

This week on The Sci-Files, Chelsie and Danny interview Rachel Domagalski. Rachel is a Ph.D. student in the MSU Department of Mathematics.

Networks are widely recognized as important for studying phenomena in multiple disciplines such as communication (how information is diffused), public health (disease spread), and political science (passing legislation). Signed networks are those that contain both positive and negative relationships between individuals. While collecting network data has its own challenges, in some contexts asking about negative relationships is not allowed or impractical. Rachel explores and refines the use of bipartite projections to infer otherwise unobserved or unobservable signed networks. There are several methods that exist for making these inferences, but it remains unknown how valid each one is and under what circumstances they should be used.

Dianna Cowern - Physics Girl

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Sun, 13 Oct 2019 09:00:00 -0400

This week on The Sci-Files, Chelsie and Danny interview Dianna Cowern (“Physics Girl”).

This interview sheds light on Dianna’s experiences as a science communicator. She is the creator and host of the viral and PBS sponsored “Physics Girl” web series with over 1.3 Million Subscribers, which is a resource for fun physics videos and other materials about physics and topics related to physics. Her videos total over 80 Million Views. Her show has featured well-known figures including the legendary Rodney Mullen, Bill Nye, and Anne Wojcicki – Founder of 23 and me. In 2019, Dianna was named to the FORBES 30 under 30 list.

In this episode, Dianna also discusses her research about dark matter with Professor Jocelyn Monroe as an undergraduate at MIT and low-metallicity stars with Professor Anna Frebel as a post-baccalaureate research fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Finally, in this interview, Dianna speaks about her favorite parts of the job as a viral science YouTuber and famous science communicator. Dianna will be at MSU on Saturday, October 19th, 2019, you can see her speak at the Wharton Center for Performing Arts for the MSU SciComm Live Science-Art Show. Tickets are free and available to pick up at the ticket office of the Wharton Center.

Kaitlyn Casulli on Salmonella and Dry Roasting Peanuts

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Sun, 06 Oct 2019 09:00:00 -0400

This week on The Sci-Files, Chelsie and Danny interview Kaitlyn Casulli.

Kaitlyn is a third-year Ph.D. student in Biosystems Engineering. Prior to coming to MSU, she received her Bachelor of Science in Food Science at North Carolina State University. Her dissertation focuses on relating heat and mass transfer kinetics to microbial inactivation during dry roasting, using peanuts as a case study. She is currently developing a model to simulate Salmonella inactivation on shelled peanuts in a flat-bed roaster, with a goal of relating the predicted inactivation to salmonellosis risk in roasted products. Eventually, she hopes to continue her research in risk modeling and process validation either as a university professor or as a consultant.
Kaitlyn also serves as the treasurer for the Council of Graduate Students (COGS). Before becoming treasurer, she served as her department’s COGS representative for two years, during which she was chair of the mental health committee, which organized MSU’s first-ever celebration of World Suicide Prevention Day. She has also served on a number of university committees tasked with mental health reform and supporting students with disabilities.

Mike Morrison on Realist Versus Dreamers

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Sun, 29 Sep 2019 09:00:00 -0400

This week on The Sci-Files, Chelsie and Danny interview Mike Morrison.

Mike is a former User Experience (UX) designer who quit his tech career to become a Ph.D. student in Work Psychology. He says he’s trying to do three things in his career: 1) Bring User Experience design principles to science, to help disseminate knowledge faster and more efficiently 2) Understand the factors that make work meaningful (or meaningless). 3) Understand the psychological differences between so-called ‘realists’ and ‘dreamers’. He recently released a video introducing a new way to design scientific research posters — which every field in science uses and which are notorious for their bad design. His video went viral, and now scientists across every field in science are trying out his new design — and having more fun sharing their research with other scientists.

Nguyen Truong on Type 1 Diabetes Inflammation

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Sun, 22 Sep 2019 09:00:00 -0400

On this week, The Sci-Files, Chelsie and Danny interview Nguyen Truong.

Nguyen is an MSU Physiology Ph.D. student in Dr. Karl Olson’s lab. She studies the pancreatic beta-cell, the cell type that secretes insulin to maintain our blood glucose. Her research focuses on studying the effect of inflammatory cytokines on the function of the pancreatic beta-cell. Studying the mechanism of how cellular metabolism is altered by these cytokines helps her understand the pathogenesis of type 1 diabetes and provide a promising approach for the identification of immunomodulatory therapeutics for the disease.

Vanessa García Polanco on Immigrant Refugees and the Food System

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Sun, 15 Sep 2019 09:00:00 -0400

On this week, The Sci-Files, Chelsie and Danny interview Vanessa García Polanco.

Vanessa García Polanco is a master student in the Department of Community Sustainability. Her research interests are minorities, immigrants, and refugee’s involvement in their local and regional food systems, especially in the areas of production, garden, and farm governance, access to markets and culturally appropriate foods and food policy. She studies the Agro-Biodiversity of Lansing Community Gardens run by minorities, immigrants, and refugee’s and how this relates to their foodways, and identity in the food system.
Vanessa has served at the local, state and regional level to promote democratic empowerment and racial equity in the food systems as a network member, writer and speaker for Food Solution New England and the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Working Group. She worked as a chair for communications and outreach at the Rhode Island Food Policy Council, as a program assistant at the URI Cooperative Extension. Vanessa has served as a policy specialist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Interior. Vanessa is an alumna of the Food Solutions New England Network Leadership Institute. Vanessa received a B.S. in Environmental and Natural Resource Economics from the University of Rhode Island with minors on Hunger Studies, Leadership Studies and Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems. Vanessa is an immigrant from the Dominican Republic.

Cort Thompson on Neural Implant Biocompatibility

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Sun, 08 Sep 2019 09:00:00 -0400

On this week, The Sci-Files, Chelsie and Danny interview Cort Thompson.

Cort is a Ph.D. student at MSU’s Biomedical Engineering department where he is studying the ways in which implanted neural interfaces affect the brain. His research focuses on understanding how specific components of current electrode array technologies affect biocompatibility at the molecular and cellular level. His experiments explore the ways in which device design impacts the cellular populations in the brain to better inform on future device design in the field of neural engineering.

Neural interfaces are a rapidly advancing technology that offers a vast array of potential therapeutic uses. Neural interfaces and their ability to record from and stimulate the brain are being researched all over the world by both academia and private industry in an attempt to better understand neuroscience and to treat injury and disease. Many initiatives such as the Braingate project have successfully connected the human motor cortex with assistive robotic devices to improve the quality of life for individuals suffering from debilitating neurological conditions. A considerable amount of progress has been made toward the improvement of neural interfaces in recent years through the advancement of electrode technology and signal decoding. There is still progress to be made however on the path to creating seamlessly integrated neural devices. As it turns out, the brain reacts poorly to foreign objects. Many implanted devices suffer from chronic tissue inflammation for as long as they remain embedded in the brain. Implantation of invasive neural devices damages blood vessels, neurons, and other brain cells which results in inflammation and scarring around the device. This chronic inflammation is generally assumed to play a role in the functional decline of implanted electronics. Biocompatibility is an area of neural interface research that is becoming more important as neural interfaces become more sophisticated and as clinical implementation becomes more common.

Lauren Cooper on Intersection of Forest, Climate and People

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Sun, 01 Sep 2019 09:00:00 -0400

On this week, The Sci-Files, Chelsie and Danny interview Lauren Cooper.

Lauren directs the Forest Carbon and Climate Program at the Michigan State University Forestry Department. Her work focuses on the intersection of forests, people, climate, habitat protection, wood use, and sustainability. With trees and forests taking center stage in terms of climate change mitigation and adaptation, her work aims to bridge the wide knowledge gap for professionals and the public in the physical science, management, and policy aspects of forest and climate. In this robust area of research and engagement, she is involved in research, professional training, and communication efforts.

Lauren is a Detroit native who earned a BA in History from Wayne State University before completing a Master of Science in Natural Resource Policy and Planning and a Master of Urban Planning from the University of Michigan. She is currently completing a Ph.D. in the Forestry Department. She has international experience in Peru, Mexico, and Ecuador, and previously worked in Washington, D.C. and Cusco, Peru.

Tatiana Bustos on Health Services in Underserved Communities

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Sun, 25 Aug 2019 09:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Tatiana Bustos.

Tatiana is a 4th year Ph.D. student in the Ecological Community Psychology program at MSU. Her training is primarily in program evaluation, implementation science, and community-based research. Her work is focused on promoting access to health services among underserved communities. She has been involved in projects that prioritize the needs of Latinx communities and child mental health. For her doctoral work, she is studying how the collaboration of community-based organizations (CBOs) in health service systems can drive decisions for health policies and improve health disparities. Her project is applying network-based strategies to better support CBOs and system change efforts.

Kayla, Justin and Jon on Prenatal Infection Affecting Pregnancy

Chelsie Boodoo and Daniel Puentes — Sun, 25 Aug 2019 09:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Kayla Conner, Justin Lee, and Jon Kaletka, all of them are graduate students from the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics.

At the Hardy lab, they lab study prenatal infection and how it affects pregnancy outcome/development. Jon’s research focuses on understanding how Listeria infection changes the extracellular vesicle production in host cells, and how those regulate the immune response. Kayla studies how infection changes the structure/function of the placenta. Justin studies how prenatal infection/inflammation alter brain development in the fetus.

Diondra Straiton on Parent Training for Autism

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Sun, 18 Aug 2019 09:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Diondra Straiton.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by challenges with social communication as well as restricted and repetitive interests. Parent training is an evidence-based treatment for ASD in which providers train parents to build on their child’s skills or address their child’s challenging behavior. However, it is not frequently offered in community settings like mental health clinics or public schools. Diondra Straiton is a doctoral student in the Clinical Psychology program at MSU. Her research is focused on improving access to evidence-based practices in community settings for traditionally underserved children with ASD, including families who are of racial and ethnic minority backgrounds, of lower resourced backgrounds, or who have limited English proficiency. Recently, her research has focused on barriers and facilitators to the use of parent training within the community mental health system for Medicaid-enrolled families of children with ASD. Tune in to learn more about how to overcome challenges that arise when trying to increase providers’ use of parent training with this population.

Jaimie Strickland and Matt Kuhn on Cow Immunity and Nutrition

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Sun, 18 Aug 2019 09:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Jaimie Strickland, DVM and Matt Kuhn, DVM.

Cows have impressive immune systems compared to humans, yet they tend to get sick more often around the time of calving. The causes of this are still being uncovered, but changes in the metabolism of the omega fatty acids, like fish oils, appear to be a contributing factor. Matt’s research focuses on understanding why these changes occur around calving and what we can do to prevent it. Matt graduated from Michigan State University with a B.S. degree in Animal Science (’13) and began his Ph.D. while finishing his Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine also at MSU (DVM ’18). He has been a part of the Comparative Medicine and Integrative Biology program for three years and continues his research into improving the health of livestock.

Jaimie is a Ph.D. student in the Meadow Brook laboratory in the Michigan State University College of Veterinary Medicine where she studies dairy cow nutrition and health. Her research focuses on how vitamins may help improve dairy cow health and reduce antibiotic use. She works with both cows on the farm and their cells in the lab in order to test the effects of vitamins on things like inflammation and oxidative stress. Jaimie is also passionate about science communication and hopes to improve her ability to share her love of cows with the public.

Vanessa, Mary, Greg and Emma on Per- and Poly-Fluoroalkyl Substances (PFASs)

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Sun, 11 Aug 2019 09:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Vanessa, Mary, Greg, and Emma.

Together this team of students conducts research on Per-and Poly-fluoroalkyl Substances (PFASs) at the Center of Diamond and Coating Technologies-Fraunhofer USA. These students are Vanessa Maldonado (2nd year Ph.D. Student in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Material Science), Mary Ensch (3rd year Ph.D. student in Chemical Engineering), Greg Landis (undergraduate student in Chemical Engineering) and Emma Davis (undergraduate student in Environmental Engineering).

PFASs are a group of synthetic chemicals used in a wide variety of products including firefighting foams, non-stick cookware, and water-proof clothing. However, due to their high chemical and thermal stability attributed to the carbon-fluorine bond, PFASs are extremely difficult to degrade and persist in nature. The state of Michigan has identified multiple sources of surface water and groundwater polluted with these compounds.

The aim of the research is to develop electrochemical treatment technologies for different wastewaters containing PFASs, including landfill leachates and wastewater streams from industries using PFASs.

Tayler Murphy and Victor Gipson II on Mentoring and Creation of Stem Cells

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Sun, 04 Aug 2019 09:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Tayler Murphy and Victor Gipson II

Tayler Murphy is a 3rd year Ph.D. student in the Genetics and Genomic Sciences program in Dr. Amy Ralston’s lab. This summer, Tayler mentors Victor Gipson II. Victor is a junior cellular biology major at the University of Georgia. He is at MSU this summer through the Summer Research Opportunities Program (SROP). The goal of their project is to understand how stem cells are created, by using pre-implantation mouse embryos as a model. They particularly are looking at a type of stem cell called extraembryonic endoderm cells (XEN cells) which are naturally occurring cells in the embryo that eventually become the yolk sac.

Tayler is a part of the genetics student organization. She was the second author on a paper in 2018.

Isaiah Kaufman on Plant Resilience to Temperature Changes

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Sun, 28 Jul 2019 09:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Isaiah Kaufman.

Isaiah is currently attending Goshen College with a major in Biochemistry, interested in researching plant biology. He is participating in an REU program through the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, working in the Sharkey lab.

With the Sharkey Lab, he is researching plant resilience to temperature changes in relation to a small molecule called isoprene that many plants emit. Plants release an estimated 550 million tons of isoprene annually. It is important in understanding how plants on a global scale respond to temperature changes from day to day and from season to season, as well as in understanding how they will respond to a changing climate. It has been shown that isoprene leads to heat resistance; his work this summer is focused on measuring how isoprene-emitting plants respond to cold stress.

Anastasiya Lavell and Cameron De La Mora on Mentoring and Chloroplast Lipid Biosynthesis

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Sun, 28 Jul 2019 09:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Anastasiya Lavell and Cameron De La Mora.

Anastasiya is a fifth-year graduate student in the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology department. She is advised by Dr. Christoph Benning. This summer she is working with an undergraduate student from Illinois State University, Cameron De La Mora, who came to MSU through our Plant Genomics REU program.

Photosynthetic organisms are key to capturing carbon dioxide and reducing it back to a usable form for other organisms to consume. The process of capturing the energy from sunlight though is quite dangerous and complex. Protein complexes and other accessory molecules are distributed in and around the thylakoid membranes, and in plants these membranes are housed by the chloroplast. Thylakoids have a special composition of membrane lipids compared to the rest of the cell in plants and studying the way these lipids are made can inform us of their importance for the process of photosynthesis. Anastasiya is currently studying a gene in Arabidopsis thaliana, the protein product of which is found in the chloroplast. This protein seems to be important for maintaining the normal composition of acyl chains on the galactolipids found in the chloroplasts of Arabidopsis. Through traditional biochemistry and molecular biology approaches, Anastasiya is trying to pinpoint exactly how this protein is participating in chloroplast lipid biosynthesis. Together, Anastasiya and Cameron are working to further the understanding of how this protein might act as an integral membrane protease.

Kyle Card and Jasper Gomez on Mentoring and Antibiotic Resistance

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Sun, 21 Jul 2019 09:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Kyle Card and Jasper Gomez.

Kyle is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Microbiology & Molecular Genetics and Ecology, Evolutionary Biology, and Behavior Program. His mentee, Jasper, is a recent graduate from the Biomedical Laboratory Diagnostics Program. They use bacteria from a long-term experiment to study how evolution in an antibiotic-free environment affects bacteria’s potential to gain resistance when these drugs are introduced. They focus on the role that strain genetic context plays in resistance evolution, with particular attention to patterns of repeatability and contingency in this process. Their future goal is to translate their findings to a clinical setting to slow the spread of antibiotic-resistant infections and improve patient treatment. Also, both Kyle and Jasper are from underrepresented minority groups; a status that has greatly enriched their mentorship relationship.

Connie Rojas on Spotted Hyena Microbiomes

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Sun, 14 Jul 2019 09:00:00 -0400

This week on The Sci-Files Chelsie and Danny interview Connie Rojas.

Connie is a 4th year Ph.D. Candidate in Integrative Biology and the Ecology, Evolutionary Biology, and Behavior (EEBB) program at Michigan State University. She is investigating the interactions between animal hosts and their symbiotic microbial communities, a.k.a the ‘microbiome.’ Specifically, she is studying how the microbiome affects animal hosts’ physiology and behavior, and how the host and its environment affect their symbiotic microbial communities. Connie is apply her research questions to the social carnivore, the spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta). Her research is at the interface of ecology, animal behavior, microbiology, and genomics. Her project brings together fieldwork data, laboratory work and computational tools.

Nikki McClaran on Perception of Health and Environmental Issues

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Sun, 14 Jul 2019 09:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Nikki McClaran.

Nikki is a Ph.D. student in the Information & Media program within the College of Communication Arts & Sciences. Nikki’s research focuses on narrative persuasion, health and risk communication, and social norms.

Specifically, Nikki investigates how health and environmental issues are cognitively and effectively perceived, and whether narratives have the ability to encourage positive social behaviors. She’s conducted research regarding a variety of areas, including vaccinations, sleep, recycled water and alcohol consumption. The research Nikki conducts uses a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods to provide a holistic perspective of the issues under investigation. For example, a current project involves: focus groups of vaccine-opposed parents, a content analysis of entertainment portrays of vaccinations and experiments testing the effects of frequent exposure of such storylines on people’s real-world vaccination beliefs.

Ben Hall on Quantum Computing

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Sun, 07 Jul 2019 09:00:00 -0400

This week on The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Benjamin Hall.

Ben is a 3rd year Ph.D. student at MSU in Physics and CMSE (Computational Math, Science, and Engineering). Ben works on applying quantum computers to solve many-body problems. Quantum computers are a newly developed type of computer are much faster than regular computers at certain tasks. He is working on figuring out how to program these computers to solve problems that classical computers can’t, specifically, simulating quantum systems. This could potentially lead to new insights into chemistry, drugs, medicine and materials. Ben is also the director of the MSU Physics A Cappella Choir. Stay tuned to hear a song by Ben and the MSU Physics A Cappella Choir!

Huiyun and Natalie on Mentoring and the One Health Challenge

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Sun, 30 Jun 2019 09:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Huiyun Wu and Natalie Kagole about their mentoring relationship in regards to the One Health challenge.

Huiyun Wu is a researcher in Environmental Engineering; her research is on water microbiology and virology. Huiyun has played a significant role in the One Health Student Challenge – a program that brings international interdisciplinary groups of undergraduate students together to work on solutions to One Health problems. She was an organizer of the program and served as a mentor to multiple students. One of the students she mentored was Natalie Kagole, a student in Psychology, with a minor in public health. Their team won First Place in the Second International One Health Student Challenge in 2018. This episode focuses on their project with water scarcity and how mentoring impacted their lives.

Courtney, Katie and Michael on Mentoring and Entomology

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Sun, 02 Jun 2019 09:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Courtney, Katie and Michael to discuss their research, along with mentor and mentee relationships.

Courtney Larson is from the Department of Entomology and Ecology, Evolutionary Biology, and Behavior Program. Katie Kierczynski is a Master’s student in Dr. Brian Roth’s lab for her current Master’s research. Michael Orbain is an undergraduate student in the Department of Integrative Biology and currently works with Courtney in Dr. M. Eric Benbow‘s laboratory, but he also works in Dr. Jean Tsao’s lab (Fisheries and Wildlife Department).

A few years ago, Courtney was a mentor for Katie during Katie’s undergraduate career at MSU. Courtney currently mentors Michael who works in two laboratories, and he also is on the Impact 89 FM content team! Listen to how mentoring affects people throughout the different stages of their careers and the various research projects that these students have.

Courtney Larson on Aquatic Entomology

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Sun, 02 Jun 2019 09:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Courtney Larson.

Aquatic ecosystems have captivated Courtney Larson and lead her to her research interests to insects that spend a portion of all of their lives in water. This can include different invertebrates such as dragonflies and caddisflies. She graduated from Wartburg College with a B.A. degree in Biology with minors in Chemistry and Environmental Science (’14) before beginning her Ph.D. studies in Michigan State University’s Department of Entomology and Ecology, Evolutionary Biology, and Behavior Program. Courtney is interested in the effect of environmental disturbance on the insect and microbial community interactions in streams. In addition to her passion for research, Courtney is also involved in outreach and teaching related to ecology and environmental studies.

Faryal and Kate on Mentoring and MRI Protein Engineering

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Sun, 19 May 2019 09:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Faryal Mir and Kate Hammond from the Department of Radiology in order to understand their research on engineering Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) proteins as well as the mentorship that occurs in the labs here at MSU.

Faryal is associated with the Department of Genetics and the College of Osteopathic Medicine, pursuing a DO-PhD. Kate is a recent graduate of MSU and will be attending the College of Osteopathic Medicine in the fall. They work closely together in the Molecular and Cellular Imaging Laboratory (MCIL) with advisor Dr. Erik Shapiro.

Faryal’s work focuses on protein engineering in the context of MRI. She is very interested in exploring the liver transport protein, OATP (organic anion transporting polypeptide). She even published a paper involving OATPs. In this paper, the Shapiro lab demonstrated that a mouse with human OATPs mimic the human protein thereby making it easier for MRIs to capture an image of the animal’s muscles and organs. Overall, by using human OATPs, screening animals is easier because the MRI shows greater contrast.

Kate has been involved in many different projects, from investigating proteins with Faryal to running CT-based experiments and performing tissue cultures. She has been with the MCIL as an undergrad for three years and hopes to remain involved in research throughout her medical studies and career.

Kate and Faryal both believe strongly in the value of mentor-mentee relationships, and feel that such a relationship benefits both people involved!

Chelsea Weiskerger on Quality of the Great Lakes Beaches

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Sun, 12 May 2019 09:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Chelsea Weiskerger from the Department of Environmental Engineering, pursuing a Dual Ph.D. with Environmental Science and Policy.

Chelsea has been involved in several different research projects focusing on how water quality and beaches affect public health. She has published statistical models of long-term (10-15 year) beach water quality patterns in Lake Michigan and Lake Erie. She has also created models of how sunlight behaves within water; which can indicate water quality conditions.

Beach sand has been a source of microbiological contamination, so Chelsea is currently working on a project to see how urbanization and climate change may affect it. Much of her research has involved fieldwork, analysis of water samples, and statistical modeling of the Great Lakes.

Moving forward, Chelsea is planning to research the effects of river outlets on beach water quality, since they change with stormwater runoff. Overall, she hopes to use her skills to influence clean water policy and maximize the protection of the public at beaches.

Jacob Bradburn on Employee Selection and Individual Differences

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Sun, 12 May 2019 09:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Jacob Bradburn about his research on jobs. Jacob is a fourth-year doctoral candidate at the Michigan State University Organizational Psychology program. Jacob’s research focuses on employee selection, individual differences, and methodology.

Research by Jacob and his colleagues has been published in outlets such as the Journal of Applied Psychology, Organizational Research Methods, and the Journal of Vocational Behavior. The research itself has also been covered by outlets such as Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, and the Miami Herald. Tune in as we discuss how the personality and interests of employees related to the workplace and employee interactions, you might even gain some insight into how to make more out of your job!

Sara Ayoub on Separator for Capture Reactions (SECAR)

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Sun, 05 May 2019 09:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Sara Ayoub about her research and involvement with the construction of the Separator for Capture Reactions (SECAR). Sara is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and works the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL).

Specifically, Sara is an experimental physicist interested in how stars evolve and how heavy stars explode and die. We are made of stardust that was once formed inside a star through a series of nuclear fusion reactions. Some heavy elements, Calcium for example, are formed during explosions such as novae. Even heavier elements such as Nickel and Gold are made in X-ray bursts, which are an explosion that occurs when a neutron star takes enough gas from another nearby star. Sara is working on testing a new device at the cyclotron lab at MSU that will precisely measure nuclear reactions rates that power these fascinating explosions. The goal is to be able to understand how these reactions work, so we can explain the observations astronomers make.

Darren Incorvaia on Bumblebees

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Sun, 28 Apr 2019 09:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your co-hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Darren Incorvaia about his research on bees, here at the Michigan State University. Darren is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Integrative Biology.

Social insects, such as bees, require many resources in order to build and maintain a nest, produce and nourish workers, and reproduce. To ensure the colony forages effectively, social insects have numerous communication strategies including the dance language of honeybees and odor trails of ants. Since bumblebees face similar selective pressures and do not have a dance language or odor trails, how do they ensure that they are exploiting the best possible resources? Darren’s research focuses on this. Through both field experiments and an agent-based computer model, Darren hopes to show that bumblebees use social information in the nest to inform their individual foraging decisions.

For more information on the MSU Bug House, click here.

Robert Logan on Microscopic Organisms in Deserts

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Sun, 21 Apr 2019 09:00:00 -0400

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your co-hosts Chelsie and Daniel interview Robert Logan about his research on deserts, here at the Michigan State University W. K. Kellogg Biological Station. Robert is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Integrative Biology/Ecology, Evolutionary Biology, and Behavior Program.

Climate models predict that deserts are likely to get hotter and drier in the coming decades which will most likely have big effects on the people and other organisms that live in these already resource-scarce areas. When plants and animals die, they start to decompose, so through gaining a better understanding of how desert ecosystems work, will help us develop better strategies to deal with the challenges in arid lands.

In order to gain more understanding, Robert is studying microorganisms that live in one of the driest places on the planet. This research will help scientists understand how they change their environment and how it impacts our lives.

Claire Hoffmann on African Carnivores and Human Conflict

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Sun, 14 Apr 2019 09:00:00 -0400

Catch this week's episode of The Sci-Files, where Daniel and Chelsie interview Claire Hoffmann. Claire is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at Michigan State University, who studies the conflict between humans and large carnivores in East Africa.

In this region, in East Africa, carnivores such as lions, leopards, and hyenas eat a lot of livestock. The livestock owners often retaliate by killing carnivores. This conflict places a lot of pressure on both human and wildlife communities.

Claire addresses this issue by using new technologies such as motion-activated infrared cameras and acoustic recorders. She also uses traditional data collection methods such as vegetation surveys. Her study uses the data from these approaches to identify patterns of where, when, and how carnivores attack livestock. More specifically, she focuses on how we might be able to use these patterns to predict and prevent future attacks on livestock. This would reduce the rates of conflict which the loss of livestock triggers. The goal of her research is to minimize the adverse effects on both carnivore and human communities in that region.

Joel Soler on How Light Affects Memory

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Fri, 05 Apr 2019 09:00:00 -0400

This week on The Sci-Files, Daniel and Chelsie interview Joel Soler, MA. Joel is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Psychology-Behavioral Neuroscience at Michigan State University.

Environmental lighting conditions influence cognitive function in both healthy populations and patients with dementia. However, the underlying neural mechanisms are not well understood.

The goal of his research is to examine how chronic daytime light conditions impact a brain region, the hippocampus, which is crucial for learning and memory. His experiments have tested the hypothesis that light modulates the hippocampus function using a combination of approaches. The results shed insight into the neural pathways modulating the hippocampus functions in a diurnal brain. This implies prevention and slowing down of aging-associated cognitive decline.

Kathryn Wierenga on Silica and Lupus

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Sun, 31 Mar 2019 09:00:00 -0400

This week on The Sci-Files, Daniel and Chelsie interview Kathryn Wierenga. Kathryn is a doctoral student in the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department at Michigan State University. Her research focuses on an autoimmune disease known as lupus erythematosus.

Autoimmune diseases affect over 25 million Americans. Her lab is studying how the development of lupus is affected by two environmental factors: silica, and the dietary omega-3 fatty acid (DHA). Kathryn’s laboratory uses a lupus-prone mutated mouse model. She observes how intranasal exposure to silica triggers early loss of self-tolerance and onset of autoimmunity.

John Tran on Plant BioFuels

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Sun, 24 Mar 2019 09:00:00 -0400

On this weeks episode of The Sci-Files, Daniel and Chelsie interview John Tran. John is a Plant Biology Ph.D. student at Michigan State University looking to improve bioenergy. He studies the plant cell wall which provides plants structural support and protection. The layer can be tough and rigid, which can make the production of plant biomass less amenable for bioenergy purposes. John’s goal is to tune the cell wall, so plants can grow healthy as well as be used more efficiently for producing biofuel.

If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio, or nominating a student please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. Also, check out Sci-Files out on Twitter @SciFiles89FM and Facebook!

Jennifer Watts on Zika

Chelsie Boodoo, Daniel Puentes — Sun, 03 Mar 2019 09:00:00 -0500

To kick off The Sci-Files, Daniel and Chelsie interview Jennifer Watts. Jennifer is a Doctoral Candidate with the Physiology Department at Michigan State University. She is also the President of the Physiology Graduate Student Council.

In this episode, Daniel and Chelsie interview Jennifer on her research with the Zika virus (ZIKV). ZIKV emerged in Brazil in 2015, causing detrimental effects on newborn babies. Aside from transmission via mosquito, ZIKV is to also sexually transmitted, which introduces the possibility that ZIKV infection could occur in early development. Jennifer’s lab wants to understand how the Zika virus affects early development using a mouse model. Her studies are significant to human health because they will further knowledge of ZIKV infection in early pregnancy and outcomes for newborn children.

Besides research, she is passionate about leveraging her achievements to promote inclusivity in science. She is a member of the Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP). AGEP represents and advocates for individuals underrepresented in the science field through meetings and community service.

Twitter: @jleticiawatts