Significant faculty research projects give students first-hand scientific experience

Janel Shoun | 08/07/2007

Beth Conway's angiogenesis research detailed
Mary Sledge's genetics research on alfalfa plants detailed

Just a few months after it was established, the Langford-Yates Undergraduate Research Fund is helping to fund student involvement in research that could someday affect the lives of practically everyone on earth.

Mary Sledge (left) works with a research assistant Rachel Lovett to sequence the genes of alfalfa plants.

Dylan Addis works in the lab to study blood vessel growth around tumors.

Donations in honor of Paul Langford (far left) and Oliver Yates (far right) will allow at least two students to participate in significant research projects each summer.

Molecular biological research that began this summer by two professors in the College of Natural and Applied Sciences is exploring important questions regarding cancer and the hardiness of an important feed crop used worldwide.

Dr. Beth Conway, assistant professor of biology, is working on a project to study proteins that encourage blood vessel growth to tumors. Her student assistant is Dylan Addis, a junior German and pre-med major, from Fuquay-Varina, N.C. Their project is one step in a process that may lead one day to preventing growth of cancerous tumors.

Dr. Mary Sledge, associate professor of biology, is working on a research project, funded in part by the United States Department of Agriculture, to identify genes for improving drought-tolerance in alfalfa plants. Her student assistant is Sherly Celada, a junior biology major from Boston. Their project is one step in a process that may lead one day to developing hardier alfalfa plants, a primary source of animal feed around the world.

Addis and Celada are the first Langford-Yates Student Fellows funded by the Langford-Yates Undergraduate Research Fund, established this past spring in honor of Dr. Oliver Yates and Dr. Paul Langford, two long-time Lipscomb University science professors, in an effort to provide more student involvement in research.

While many people associate research with graduate-level programs, research is an essential component of an undergraduate science education as well, said Ben Hutchinson, dean of the College of Natural and Applied Sciences.

“Our undergraduate students go on to prestigious medical schools, graduate schools, pharmacy and dentistry schools across the nation, so it’s important for them to have the problem-solving skills and critical thinking abilities required in those demanding fields,” he said. “Research opportunities are one of the best way to teach those skills, as students become integrally involved in the day-to-day process of research discovery.”

Hutchinson is particularly excited to have students involved in Conway’s and Sledge’s projects, both of which are in areas not widely explored previously on campus: molecular biology and plant genetics.

“Molecular research is often linked to health and medicine, so the relevance for students is really high,” said Conway, who earned her doctorate in cell biology from the University of Connecticut and joined Lipscomb this past spring. “With technology advancing so quickly, a lot of people are getting into molecular biological research. It’s one of the hot area of biology, you might say, and that makes it valuable for students to be exposed to that area of research.”

Conway's previous research on blood vessel growth while at Connecticut was published in Molecular and Cellular Biology in June 2006.

“Cancer incorporates a multitude of diseases, so it’s something everyone is impacted by,” said Addis. “The ability to do research in that kind of cutting-edge area was really enticing.”

With the predominance of pre-med majors, Lipscomb’s biology students sometimes don’t focus as much on the non-human life sciences, said Sledge, who earned her doctorate in plant genetics at the University of Georgia. So she is glad to bring a new aspect to Lipscomb students’ education.

“The alfalfa project is a great opportunity for students to apply some of the molecular techniques that they have learned about in their biology classes, and to get a feel for laboratory research. Even if they are not interested in plant biology, the DNA sequencing and bioinformatics techniques that they have performed this summer can be applied to any area of biology today,” said Sledge, who worked as a scientist at The Noble Foundation in Ardmore, Okla., before coming to Lipscomb last year.

Addis and Celada will be giving presentations on their research work this fall both on-campus and at surrounding science conferences.

“Working on this project has given me the opportunity to acquire experience in the field of research,” said Celada. “Thanks to Dr. Sledge, who has been patient enough to educate us in this area, it has become a positive factor in determining my future goals.”

Conway’s study of angiogenesis could lead to new cancer treatments

Beth Conway

Angiogenesis

Angiogenesis is the growth of blood vessels. When a tumor forms in the human body, it needs blood vessels to bring fuel to the tissue for it to grow. Scientists have observed that when a tumor appears, so does angiogenesis -- blood vessels move toward the tumor or new blood vessels grow to bring nutrients to the tumor tissue, says Conway.

Understanding that process could allow scientists to figure out a way to halt that process and deny tumors the access to nutrients they need in order to grow.

A tumor is usually surrounded by a net of proteins that block the blood vessels, Conway said, but the tumor releases enzymes that break down the proteins and allow the blood vessels to poke through and get to the tumor. The proteins also send out signals to the blood vessels, encouraging them to grow.

The question Conway and Addis are exploring is the role of even smaller proteins called peptides in this process of recruiting blood vessels for nutrients. Scientists know that tumors produce enzymes that break down proteins into little peptides, but they aren’t sure what affect peptides have on the growing blood vessels. Peptides could encourage blood vessel growth, or they could discourage blood vessel growth.

Addis’ lab work has been creating the peptides and injecting them into mice to see if they make any difference in blood vessel growth. The results will help scientists learn what effect peptides have on blood vessel growth and whether that effect is helpful or harmful.

By the end of fall, Conway should have results for her study, but that project will answer just one small question surrounding angiogenesis, she pointed out. Fully exploring these types of proteins and peptides may take several years and work by many scientists. But Conway hopes she and her students will be among them in the future.

Sledge’s gene sequencing could lead to improved alfalfa plants

As part of the USDA study, researchers in New Mexico have identified alfalfa plants that are drought-tolerant, as well as plants that are drought-sensitive, Sledge said. They will cross these plants and study the resulting hybrid plant to try to determine which genes encourage drought-tolerance and which genes hinder drought-tolerance.

Sherly Celada

Sledge, Celada and another research assistant, Rachel Lovett, are sequencing of a specific set of genes-of-interest from the two parent plants. By comparing plant field performance to the presence or absence of particular gene sequences, we will be able to identify those genes that confer drought-tolerance, Sledge said. Once the genes that promote drought survival are identified, they can be boosted and bred into future alfalfa plants.

This project is funded by a three-year grant that began last year. Researchers expect to have enough data to make preliminary conclusions this coming fall, Sledge said, but it will take another couple of years of field work to confirm the results. After that, it typically takes another 10-plus years of growing and testing the new crop variety to prove that the new breed of plant is superior.