The Interfaces of Global Change Program will begin its third year with a banner recruitment class of eight new Ph.D. students! A private reception to welcome the incoming class of 2015-16 was held on August 26, 2015 in the Fralin Hall Atrium.
Meet our new fellows:
Matt Aberle, from Colorado, will be working with Dr. Dana Hawley (BIOL)
Ben Ahlswede, from Pennsylvania, will be working with Dr. Quinn Thomas (FREC)
Gifty Anane-Taabeah, from Ghana, will be working with Dr. Emmanual Frimpong (FIW)
Derek Hennen, from Arkansas, will be working with Dr. Paul Marek (ENTO)
Kaan Kerman, from Turkey, will be working with Dr. Kendra Sewall (BIOL)
Max Ragozzino, from Rhode Island, will be working with Dr. Scott Salom (ENTO)
Carl Wepking, from Wisconsin, will be working with Dr. Michael Strickland (BIOL)
Julie Wiemerslage, from Illinois, will be working with Dr. Joel McGlothlin (BIOL)
Kendra Sewall, Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences and Global Change Center Faculty Affiliate, received a grant from the Jeffress Memorial Trust, which provides $100,000 awards to conduct innovative interdisciplinary pilot studies in fields such as biosciences, chemistry, engineering, and environmental sciences. She joins a select group of VT researchers to win this award in recent years, which has been limited to four submissions per institution per year.
The project is entitled, “”Using Social Network Models and Manipulations of Glucocorticoids to Understand How The Social Environment Impacts Neural Function”. See more about Dr. Sewall’s research in the VT News story below.
BLACKSBURG, Va., June 25, 2015 – Want a healthy brain? Get a little help from your friends.
Research shows that social experiences can directly improve brain function, as long as they don’t become overly stressful, which can impair brain function.
Supported by a recent $100,000 grant from the Jeffress Trust Awards Program in Interdisciplinary Research, Sewall examines the correlation between social interaction and brain function in zebra finches—a highly sociable bird that lives in a range of flock sizes, from pairs and small family groups (2 to 4 birds) to large aggregate flocks (up to 100 birds).
Extensive social behavior, which often accompanies a large flock size, is associated with superior cognitive abilities, larger brains, and enhanced neuronal architecture.
However, if the social behavior becomes chronically stressful, perhaps due to overcrowding or competition, a stress hormone called glucocorticoid is produced. In high amounts, this hormone can impair neural plasticity and compromise brain function.
“This research will help us better understand the behaviors of wild birds living in populations at higher density due to habitat degradation and decreased food resources,” said Sewall, who is also a faculty member with the new Global Change Center at Virginia Tech. “But it will also inform thinking about both beneficial and negative impacts of social experiences on human mental health in an age of increased brain-related disorders such as anxiety, depression, and autism. Human responses to social contact and stress mirror those of social animals such as zebra finches.”
Sewall and her team rear zebra finches in captivity and house birds in either large or small flocks to manipulate the amount of enriching social contact. Then, some birds are treated with stress hormones to mimic the negative effects of chronic social stress.
By comparing measures of neuronal survival and synaptic plasticity that are important for learning in birds from different treatment groups, Sewall’s team will determine how the costs and benefits of social experiences directly impact brain function.
They will use new radio frequency identification technology to track individuals within groups and generate mathematical models of social dynamics to better understand the basis of individual variation in brain changes.
A university-level Research Institute of Virginia Tech, the Fralin Life Science Institute enables and enhances collaborative efforts in research, education, and outreach within the Virginia Tech life science community through strategic investments that are often allied with colleges, departments, and other institutes.
Growing evidence suggests that agricultural practices, especially widespread antibiotic use, could be contributing to the increasing antibiotic resistance problem in humans. In order to learn how to effectively control this spread of antibiotic resistance from livestock manure, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has awarded a $2.25 million grant to a Virginia Tech team of engineers and scientists to examine the food chain from farm to fork.
One of the team’s immediate concerns is to determine if the proposed Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Food Safety Modernization Act rules for composting manure, intended for the control of pathogens, will effectively limit the spread of antibiotic resistant bacteria. The team’s plan includes tracking the fate of antibiotics, antibiotic resistant bacteria, and antibiotic resistance genes, as they are potentially carried over from manure to fresh produce.
Amy Pruden, Civil & Environmental Engineering
Leading the interdisciplinary group is Amy Pruden, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech, a pioneer in examining environmental sources and pathways of antibiotic resistance genes as emerging contaminants. A 2007 Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering and a 2006 National Science Foundation CAREER Award recipient, Pruden was most recently honored with the 2014 Paul L. Busch Award from the Water Environment Research Foundation for innovation in applied water quality research.
Last September President Barack Obama signed an executive order establishing a Task Force for Combatting Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria. The task force creation came on the heels of a President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology report on ways to fight antibiotic resistance in the U.S. Part of this report spoke of the “very serious concern” of antibiotic use in animal agriculture.
“Antibiotic resistance is a serious human health threat,” Pruden said. “Our goal is to identify all possible means by which we can control the spread of antibiotic resistance so that these drugs continue to work when we need them. In this case, we hope to work with existing practices intended to control the spread of pathogens from livestock manure and to determine how we can ensure that antibiotic resistance also is not spread.”
Evidence is showing that antibiotic resistance rates of human pathogens is rising in both hospital acquired and community acquired infections. While looking at ways to minimize the spread of resistance, “the fact that the majority of antibiotic use in the U.S. is for livestock cannot be ignored,” Pruden added.
The Food and Drug Administration recently estimated that 80 percent of antibiotics used in the U.S. are administered to livestock. Combine this fact with the knowledge that between “40 and 90 percent of the antibiotic is excreted in the feces and urine where they can remain active and potentially stimulate antibiotic resistance,” cautioned Kang Xia,associate professor of crop and soil environmental sciences at Virginia Tech and a co-principal investigator. And it reinforces “our call for new strategies.”
In the U.S., antimicrobials are widely used for therapy, disease prevention, and growth promotion in animals raised as a source of food. “They generally act by targeting specific aspects of the bacterial cells and inhibiting their growth,” Pruden explained. “However the bacteria can become resistant to antibiotics when they carry antibiotic resistance genes.”
So the Virginia Tech team is focusing on these genes “since they can be shared among bacteria, even dead to living bacteria, and could therefore persist during pre-harvest and post-harvest stages,” said Pruden. “Antibiotic resistance genes are arguably of greater concern than antibiotic resistant bacteria because they are typically associated with mobile genetic elements that enable them to be passed between microorganisms via horizontal gene transfer, a phenomenon possible even from dead to living cells.”
Pruden points out that “horizontal gene transfer is considered to be the most important mechanism driving the spread of antibiotic resistance”.
Monica Ponder, associate professor of food science and technology at Virginia Tech, also a member of the team, noted concerns about produce eaten raw, as vegetable surfaces are naturally colonized by a variety of bacteria, yeasts, and fungi. Most are harmless, but when they do occasionally carry pathogens, the results can be deadly, as was the case in the 2006 outbreak of Escherichia coli O157:H7 linked to spinach.
This contamination can come from lapses in manure management, such as contamination of irrigation water, poor composting, or application too near the harvest time. “In the U.S., it is not permissible to apply raw manure to fields intended for food production, but there may be simple ways we could improve the composting process, selection of soil type, crop type, or post-harvest washing practices to ensure that antibiotic resistance is not spread,” Ponder emphasized.
The Food and Drug Administration has already launched an initiative to promote voluntary phase out of medically important antibiotics such as third generation cephalosporins in food producing animals. “While limiting antibiotic use in livestock makes sense from a practical standpoint, the science of the effect of antibiotic withdrawal on antibiotic resistance is complex,” cautioned team member Katharine Knowlton, the Virginia Tech Colonel Horace E. Alphin Professor of Dairy Science cautioned, and other undesirable effects may occur.
The new USDA project will integrate research, education, and extension in order to train future leaders equipped to address complex problems like the spread of antibiotic resistance in the environment and to engage with farmers and livestock producers in translating the research to practice. “Virginia Tech is the ideal locale for this project given its land-grant mission and highly supportive atmosphere for agricultural extension, for which efforts in this project will be lead by Thomas Archibald and Amber Vallotton,” Pruden said. Archibald is an assistant professor of agricultural leadership and community education at Virginia Tech and Vallotton is an assistant professor of horticulture, both at Virginia Tech.
Leigh-Anne Krometis, Biological Systems Engineering
The team attributes its success in attracting this competitive USDA grant to prior seed funding from the Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science and a National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates site, led by Leigh-Anne Krometis, assistant professor of biological systems engineering and W. Cully Hession, professor of biological systems engineering, who round out the team’s members. They developed the integrated undergraduate research and education training infrastructure at Virginia Tech.
The Interfaces of Global Change Graduate Student Organization participated in a recent science fair at Gilbert Linkous Elementary School in Blacksburg. Some of the IGC Fellows served as judges and evaluated the nearly 70 Gilbert Linkous poster presentations. Other fellows operated a photo booth called “Kids Curiosity”. Equipped with plenty of lab and field gear, our graduate students encouraged kids to dress up as scientists and check out some of the cool tools that were on hand.
See the photo gallery below–looks like everyone was having fun!
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The IGC Fellows thank Dr. Ann Stevens, from the Department of Biological Sciences at Virginia Tech for the invitation to staff this fun event.
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]William Hopkins, professor of fish and wildlife conservation in the College of Natural Resources and Environment at Virginia Tech, received the university’s 2015 Alumni Award for Excellence in Research.
Sponsored by the Virginia Tech Alumni Association, the Alumni Award for Excellence in Research is presented annually to as many as two Virginia Tech faculty members who have made outstanding research contributions. Alumni, students, faculty, and staff may nominate candidates. Each recipient is awarded $2,000.
A member of the Virginia Tech community since 2005, Hopkins is a physiological ecologist who studies the influence of anthropogenic global changes such as pollution, habitat destruction, and climate change, on wildlife populations.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”11378″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center” title=”2015 Alumni Award for Excellence in Research”][vc_column_text]
Hopkins, who is a Fralin Life Science Institute affiliate, is regarded as the world’s leading expert on the effects of solid wastes produced from coal combustion on wildlife populations. These wastes represent the second-largest type of solid waste produced in the United States and much of it is placed in open settling basins, referred to as coal ash ponds.
Hopkins’ research reveals that these disposal ponds pose a threat to wildlife because the ponds attract wildlife that are then exposed to high concentrations of pollutants, such as arsenic and selenium, which can cause cancer, developmental abnormalities, and reproductive failure. Because of his expertise, Hopkins regularly provides guidance to state and federal agencies and the utility industry; gives expert testimony in Washington, D.C.; and offers perspectives to major media outlets. He also served on the National Academy of Sciences committee on issues related to the disposal and regulation of these materials. His expertise evaluating the effects of solid wastes on wildlife has led him to work on some of the largest environmental disasters in U.S. history, including the BP oil spill and the Tennessee Valley Authority ash spill.
In addition, Hopkins is a pioneer in an emerging field examining the effects of microclimate on the early development of wildlife. Specifically, his research group has focused on how habitat conversion for agriculture, pollution, and weather conditions can interact to influence the incubation temperature of bird and reptile nests and how this influences embryonic development and the quality and survival of offspring produced.
Hopkins also has broken ground addressing one of the most fundamental problems in all of modern biology: How do responses at one level of biological organization (for example, cell or individual) translate to responses at higher levels of organization (populations or communities)? Hopkins’ team has integrated field surveys, elegant laboratory and field experiments, and theoretical models to demonstrate that when a mother’s health is compromised by pollution, it can influence the quality of the offspring she produces, which in turn can cause local population declines.
His team’s work goes further to demonstrate that effects on one population can actually influence the viability of other nearby, interdependent populations. These findings have led to a new way of thinking: that pollution in one place might cause wildlife population declines in other places that are not polluted. This work has implications for fields as diverse as human medicine, epidemiology, ecotoxicology, and conservation biology.
Hopkins has published 160 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, more than 110 since joining the Virginia Tech faculty. He has received more than $10 million in external research grants.
Earlier this year, Hopkins helped create and is the founding director of the Global Change Center at Virginia Tech, which seeks to study and address large-scale environmental problems, such as habitat loss, invasive species, pollution, disease, and climate change, with interdisciplinary, innovative team science, drawing on the diverse expertise of researchers across the university. The center is also home of the Interfaces of Global Change Interdisciplinary Graduate Education Program.
Hopkins received his bachelor’s degree from Mercer University, a master’s degree from Auburn University, and a Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”11394″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_shadow_border”][vc_separator][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Related Links
[vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_column_text]Michael Mann, a climate scientist and central figure in the political debate over climate change, visited Virginia Tech on March 20, 2015.
His 4 p.m. lecture at the Lyric Theatrewasfollowed by a brief question and answer session and signing of his book, “The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines.”
The free event was sponsored by the Global Change Center at Virginia Tech and the Interfaces of Global ChangeInterdisciplinary Graduate Education Program.
Michael Mann is a distinguished professor of meteorology at Penn State University, with joint appointments in the departments of geosciences and the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute. He is also director of the Penn State Earth System Science Center. His research involves the use of theoretical models and observational data to better understand earth’s climate system.
During his visit, Mann also co-lead a science communication workshop for doctoral students with Susan Hassol, director of Climate Communication and a leading expert on effective techniques for communicating science.
“We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Mann to Virginia Tech,” said William Hopkins, director of the Global Change Center and professor of fish and wildlife conservation in the College of Natural Resources and Environment. “A major part of the Global Change Center’s mission is to provide unique training opportunities to Virginia Tech faculty and graduate students. The all-day workshop led by Mann and Sue Hassol will allow the students to learn effective techniques for communicating science to the public and policy makers, and will enable them to spend intimate time learning from leading authorities on climate change and science communication.”
Mann has received a number of honors and awards including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) outstanding publication award in 2002, and selection by Scientific American as one of the fifty leading visionaries in science and technology in 2002. He was awarded the Hans Oeschger Medal of the European Geosciences Union in 2012 and the National Conservation Achievement Award for science by the National Wildlife Federation in 2013.
Mann made Bloomberg News’ list of fifty most influential people in 2013. In 2014, he was named a Highly Cited Researcher by the Institute for Scientific Information and received the Friend of the Planet Award from the National Center for Science Education. He is a Fellow of both the American Geophysical Union and the American Meteorological Society.
“Dr. Mann’s visit to campus is an exciting opportunity to learn from a world-renowned scientist at the front line of both research and public engagement,” said Quinn Thomas, an assistant professor of forest resources and environmental conservation in the College of Natural Resources and Environment, who teaches courses in climate science on campus. “Through his peer-reviewed research, which provides historical context for recent temperature changes, and his writings, which are more geared toward a general audience, Dr. Mann’s work challenges us to think critically about our changing planet while not losing sight of the larger picture.”
Chartered earlier this year, the Global Change Center at Virginia Tech seeks to raise awareness about climate change and other global problems such as pollution and invasive species that threaten the environment and society.
Story by Lindsay Taylor Key, Communications Officer at Fralin Life Science Institute[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
BLACKSBURG, Va., March 26, 2015 – A team of scientists including Virginia Tech researchers is one step closer to understanding how bacteria on a frog’s skin affects its likelihood of contracting disease.
A frog-killing fungus known as Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, or Bd, has already led to the decline of more than 200 amphibian species including the now extinct-in-the-wild Panamanian golden frog.
In a recent study, the research team attempted to apply beneficial bacteria found on the skin of various Bd-resistant wild Panamanian frog species to Panamanian golden frogs in captivity, to see if this would stimulate a defense against the disease.
They found that while the treatment with beneficial bacteria was not successful due to its inability to stick to the skin, there were some frogs that survived exposure to the fungus. These survivors actually had unique bacterial communities on their skin before the experiments started. The results were published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
The next step is to explore these new bacterial communities.
Dr. Lisa Belden
“We were disappointed that the treatment didn’t work, but glad to have discovered new information about the relationship between these symbiotic microbial communities and amphibian disease resistance,” said Lisa Belden, an associate professor of biological sciences in the College of Science, Fralin Life Science Institute affiliate, and a faculty member with the new Global Change Center at Virginia Tech. “Every bit of information gets us closer to getting these frogs back into nature.”
Studying the microbial communities of Panamanian golden frogs was the dissertation focus of Belden’s former graduate student Matthew Becker, who graduated with a Ph.D. in biological sciences from Virginia Tech in 2014 and is now a fellow at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute.
“Anything that can help us predict resistance to this disease is very useful because the ultimate goal of this research is to establish healthy populations of golden frogs in their native habitat,” Becker told Smithsonian Science News. “I think identifying alternative probiotic treatment methods that optimize dosages and exposure times will be key for moving forward with the use of probiotics to mitigate chytridiomycosis.”
Matthew H. Becker, Jenifer B. Walke, Shawna Cikanek, Anna E. Savage, Nichole Mattheus, Celina N. Santiago, Kevin P. C. Minbiole, Reid N. Harris, Lisa K. Belden, Brian Gratwicke
Story by Lindsay Key, Communications Officer at Fralin Life Science Institute
Photo Credit: Panamanian Golden Frog: By Brian Gratwicke via Wikimedia Commons
In Fall 2014, The Global Change Center (GCC) at Virginia Tech released its first call for proposals to support interdisciplinary research that will lead to collaborative proposals submitted to extramural funding sources. Priority was given to funding proposals that advance the collaborative, interdisciplinary mission of the GCC.
Dr. Cayelan Carey
In January, a team of VT researchers led by Dr. Cayelan Carey received ~$18,000 for their project titled, “Managing human needs and ecosystem services in drinking water reservoirs confronted with global change.”
The team, which includes Dr. John Little, Dr. Madeline Schreiber, and Dr. Quinn Thomas, will examine the effects of altered climate on nutrient cycling and food web dynamics of four drinking-water reservoirs that supply Roanoke. Southeastern U.S. reservoirs are experiencing both increased toxic cyanobacterial blooms and higher metal concentrations, threatening the long-term sustainability of water quality.
“We are excited to help facilitate these sorts of interactions among VT faculty and students”, says William Hopkins, Director of the GCC. “Each year we seek to make investments in our faculty that will position them to pursue larger grants to solve some of the most important problems facing the environment and society. Our first seed grant award supports a project that exemplifies what the GCC intends to accomplish”.
BLACKSBURG, Va., June 25, 2015 – 
