LATEST PROJECTS
Project | 01
Project | Why Animals Do It: Animal Behavior
Abstract: Often the study of animal behavior is offered to senior biology majors. To attract lower-division non-major students to the field, we developed a Liberal Learning Seminar (LLS) course for non-majors and pre biology majors. In the classroom, the students analyzed animal behavior using a computer program (MATLAB). They studied optimal foraging, animal mating, and group behavior. The students were taught through a number of activities including games, readings and research skills. We analyzed the students’ response to the activities, readings and poster presentations.
Project | Inhibitory Effect of Rosmarinus officinalis toward Giardia lamblia
Abstract: Giardia lamblia is a common parasitic cause of diarrhea in industrialized countries and is even more problematic in developing countries. Resistance to treatment is an increasing problem with Giardiasis especially among immunocompromised patients. Antimicrobial resistances from this gastrointestinal amoeba often lead to chronic cases involving malabsorption and weight loss. Previous research has shown that natural remedies may be effective against some bacteria, fungi, and protozoa. Few studies have been performed to determine whether or not G. lamblia is inhibited by natural remedies. In this project, our objective is to culture G. lamblia in vitro and determine the effectiveness of natural oils such as Rosmarinus officinalis (Rosemary) at 10, 100, and 1,000 µg/ml concentrations. We hypothesize that 1,000 µg/ml will be more inhibitory than the lower concentrations. If lower concentrations inhibit growth, further testing can be performed on even smaller concentrations.
Project | 02
Project | 03
Project | The Effects of a High Fat Diet on a Diverse Population; Using Hetergeneous Stock Rats to Understand the Effects of a High Fat Diet
Abstract: Obesity is a disease within the United States that continues to grow at a steady rate. Studies show that most individuals are metabolically unhealthy (MUO). However, there are some who are protected from metabolic complications, known as the metabolically healthy obese (MHO). The underlying mechanisms involved in protecting MHO are unknown. To test the hypothesis that outbred heterogeneous stock (HS) rats could be used as a model of MHO, we fed HS rats a high fat (HF) diet, with (HF/sugar) or without (HF/norm) sugar water, and a low fat (LF) control diet with (LF/sugar) or without (LF/norm) sugar water. We tested different metabolic measures including body weight and intraperitoneal glucose tolerance tests (IPGTT) to analyze their glucose tolerance. We found that the rats placed on the HF/Norm diet had the strongest increase in body weight compared to the rest of the diets. We also saw that both HF and sugar water led to increased Glucose_AUC relative to LF/Norm. Glucose levels spike after glucose injection and steadily decrease over time, according to the IPGTTs. There was also a stronger correlation between body weight and Glucose_AUC in animals fed LF diet relative to those on HF diet. The lack of correlation between Glucose_AUC and body weight in animals on HF diet indicate that body weight may not correlate with metabolic health in these rats supporting our hypothesis that HS rats could be used to study MHO. More rats are needed to further confirm our findings.