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WSU biologist finds link between specific chemical exposure and obesity, kidney disease

Michael Skinner portrait
Michael Skinner

WSU biologist Michael Skinner and his research team found that if a rat fetus is exposed to a specific pesticide during the first trimester of pregnancy, the likelihood of kidney disease, ovary disease and obesity in their decendents was elevated for three generations. Multiple diseases were even more prevalent in the third generation than in the second. The widely used chemical, Methoxychlor, once considered a safer alternative to DDT, was banned in the U.S. in 2003 for a host of human health reasons. The research points to a negative effect decades after exposure. In other words, the great-great-grandchildren of a woman exposed to Methoxychlor may still suffer the consequences.

Read more about the epigenetic connection in

Newsweek

Time

WSU News

Research results published in PLOSone

Additional information about Skinner’s research is in the
August 2014 issue of Scientific American
(subscription required)

Ancient child’s genome sheds light on colonization

Omar E. Cornejo
Omar E. Cornejo

An international team including WSU assistant professor Omar E. Cornejo has mapped the genome of a child from the Clovis period, thereby reviving the scientific debate about the colonization of the Americas. Results published in the journal Nature show the child is a direct ancestor of roughly 80 percent of present day Native Americans.

“It is a very exciting article about an ancient human DNA genome that is helping us better understand the peopling of the Americas,” said Cornejo.

Read more at WSU News and Nature

Biology and physics students contribute to Elwha insect research

Last spring, entomology professor Richard Zack brought to Washington State University hundreds of thousands of insect specimens collected before removal of the 100-year-old Elwha dam in the Olympic National Park. He is leading a project to sort, identify and curate the insects and create a database to provide insight into how the Elwha Valley ecosystem might change in the next several decades. Changes in insects will play a key role in how the new ecosystem develops.

But where do you start when you have hundreds of thousands of bugs to organize? With the beetles, said WSU biology student Laura Hamada, who plans to pursue insect taxonomy. She and fellow student Noah Austin, a WSU double major in physics and music, work in a lab in the entomology department where they sort, prepare and identify the aquatic bugs, caddisflies, mayflies, stoneflies, true flies and beetles. Eventually, most of these specimens will be sent to specialists for specific identification.

Read the full story and watch a video about understanding the Elwha ecosystem

Saving babies: first international collaboration to study infant health, culture, lactation connection

Michelle McGuire, left, and Courtney Meehan lead an international study to help babies thrive
Michelle McGuire, left, and Courtney Meehan lead an international study to help babies thrive

Working with colleagues from 12 institutions around the globe, two Washington State University researchers are leading the first comprehensive international study of human lactation and milk composition.

“It’s all about saving babies,” said Michelle McGuire, associate professor of biology at WSU and principal investigator (PI) for a three-year $950,000 National Science Foundation grant funding the project.

Biological and anthropological data will be collected at 11 sites in eight countries across Europe, Africa and North and South America to better understand how diet, hygiene and cultural practices relate to human milk composition and infant health.

Despite six years of working on the same campus and their common research interest in infant health and breastfeeding, Michelle McGuire and co=PI Courtney Meehan, an assistant professor in anthropology at WSU, only learned about each other when a colleague suggested they have lunch together.

Read more about McGuire, Meehan, and the international project.

Biologist named one of top 20 promising young investigators

Joanna Kelley
Joanna Kelley

GenomeWeb’s 8th annual list of top Young Investigators included Joanna Kelley, an assistant professor of biology in the WSU School of Biological Sciences. As a mathematics and biology undergraduate, Kelley focused her Ph.D. work on genetic adaptation. In her lab at Washington State University, research focuses on genetic changes as populations diverge and adapt to the (sometimes extreme) environments they encounter. Among other projects, her lab is comparing populations of fish that have adapted to live in hydrogen sulfide-rich waters and studying the genome of an Antarctic fly.

Read more:

GenoneWeb profile (email registration required)
WSU Daily Evergreen
WSU News
The Kelley Lab at WSU