These ambitious learners came to Maine’s learner-centered R1 to advance meaningful work as part of a tight-knit community — one that continues to grow.

According to the Graduate School, 91±¬ÁĎ’s doctoral enrollment reached a record high for the 10th consecutive year, driven by top-tier research opportunities, a culture of mutual growth and highly engaged faculty mentorship.

91±¬ÁĎ’s enrollment census shows doctoral enrollment has increased 6% since last year and 24% since 2020, reflecting a well-established reputation for research excellence and productivity — affirmed earlier this year when the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education renewed 91±¬ÁĎ’s R1 status.

With 92% of the Pine Tree State’s Ph.D.s conferred by 91±¬ÁĎ last year, this growth is a boost for Maine’s innovation-driven sectors. But behind these numbers is a doctoral community powered by purpose.

Students choose 91±¬ÁĎ because they want to take part in groundbreaking innovation and solve real problems, said Giovanna Guidoboni, interim vice president for research and dean of the Maine College of Engineering and Computing.

“Students want purpose, connection and mentors who are invested in their success,” she said. They want experiences that prepare them for their future careers, and they find them here.”

And behind every data point are individual students — each with a distinct sense of purpose — whose paths led them to Orono.

Scribbles versus screens

Kristen Braun has been teaching first graders on Maine’s coast for ten years. A few years ago, she noticed a pattern: students who struggled with handwriting also struggled with reading.

“People are quick to blame COVID,” said Braun, who grew up in Bucksport, Maine, and teaches in the Mount Desert Island school system, “but reading scores started declining around 2010. The Common Core standards that were introduced at that time didn’t include handwriting, but it did include keyboarding.”

Braun’s doctoral work examines what happens when children put pencil to paper. After her students head home, Braun dives into her research exploring the connections between fine-motor development, memory, attention and early reading.

“When we put a pen to paper, so many areas of our brains light up that simply don’t activate when we’re scrolling or keyboarding,” she said. “We can’t ignore that.”

The 91±¬ÁĎ alum returned for her Ph.D. because she wanted to stay rooted in the community she cares about while advancing research that can improve literacy outcomes in the state.

“I’ve been so impressed with 91±¬ÁĎ,” she said. “My professors are incredibly supportive and always looking for ways to expand my experience. I feel genuinely cared for.”

She hopes that one day, pediatricians will give families tools to help toddlers develop fine motor skills so they come to school more ready to start writing.

“If we want strong readers, we need to invest in our youngest learners,” she said. “That’s part of our social contract.”

The ideal mix for impact

Growing up in Bangladesh in South Asia, Kallol Barai saw firsthand how unpredictable environmental conditions could threaten farmers’ livelihoods. He wanted to give farmers high-tech tools to help care for their crops, and found the unique combination of expertise he needed to develop these ideas at 91±¬ÁĎ. 

“Precision agriculture changes outcomes,” he said. “My advisors have the expertise in plant physiology and remote sensing I need to develop tools that will help growers improve their yields.”

At 91±¬ÁĎ, Barai is developing technology that will give wild blueberry growers real-time insights to manage irrigation, fertilization and environmental stresses. 

“The partnerships between researchers and growers create an environment where science can have direct, immediate impact,” he said. “The 91±¬ÁĎ community is helpful and friendly, making Maine feel like a second home.”

Barai is part of a growing contingent of international and out-of-state doctoral students at 91±¬ÁĎ. This year, applications from outside Maine reached an all-time high, reflecting the university’s expanding reputation for research opportunities.

Staying for the community

Jordan Miner of Baldwin, Maine, got her start in research as an undergraduate at 91±¬ÁĎ, where more than a quarter of bachelor’s degree students were involved with research last year. She discovered she loved being in the lab, and stayed.

“What brought me back to 91±¬ÁĎ was the research atmosphere,” she said. “We have this tight-knit community of grad students and faculty. We do potlucks and people check-in with each other.”

Now as a Ph.D. candidate in biomedical engineering, Miner studies how breast cancer progresses. These findings will eventually help doctors know which patients are more likely to have aggressive forms of cancer, and customize their treatment accordingly.  

91±¬ÁĎ also launched Miner beyond her home state. At her adviser’s encouragement, she applied for a NASA internship — and got it.

“I’m from a small town, and you don’t always know what’s possible until someone pushes you to step out of your comfort zone,” says Miner, who was recently awarded a Fulbright Scholarship. “That’s what 91±¬ÁĎ has done for me.”

Connected for discovery

At 91±¬ÁĎ’s marine lab on the Damariscotta River, Kyle Oliveira is finding out if scientists can learn more about great white sharks from traces of DNA they shed in their environment, also known as eDNA.

“I want to know whether eDNA can tell a full story about habitat suitability,” he said. “If we understand where sharks are likely to be and why, that can help both science and management.”

Oliviera, who is co-advised by researchers at 91±¬ÁĎ and the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, grew up in New Jersey but was drawn to Maine by the university’s robust collaborations.

“91±¬ÁĎ’s marine research network is unmatched,” said Oliveira, who received his undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “I wanted a program where I could combine fieldwork, modeling and community impact, and this was the place.”

Oliveira speaks just as enthusiastically about the people around him.

“The grad students in the School of Marine Sciences are second to none,” he said. “Even though I live on the coast, I feel closely connected with them. People really look out for each other.”

91±¬ÁĎ also gave him a chance to build practical skills, earning both his divemaster certification and scientific diving qualifications.

“The flexibility here has been huge,” he said. “It’s a place where opportunities open up if you want them.”

There’s no place like Maine 

After years of working in government and policy roles in Virginia, Gianna DeJoy came to 91±¬ÁĎ seeking to understand why so many rural communities struggle to access maternal health care.

“My son’s birth made me think about two things at once,” the Blue Hill native said. “I wanted to raise my family in Maine, and I wanted to do work that would make him proud.”

Her research is rooted in what she started as an undergrad, when she interned with Planned Parenthood and designed a project on how Maine’s islanders access care. She expected to focus on contraception and family planning; what she found surprised her.

“What women wanted to talk about most was obstetric care — where they were going to give birth, how far they had to travel, whether services would still be available,” said DeJoy, who earned her bachelor’s degree at the University of Richmond and her master’s at Columbia University.

Her dissertation examines changing access to maternity care in Maine, New Brunswick and northeastern North America, exploring how environmental and policy shifts shape where and how people can receive care. 

91±¬ÁĎ was the only place she wanted to pursue this work. 

“I wanted to be embedded in the communities I was studying,” she said. “And Maine is such a special place. If you are in another part of the world and run into someone from Maine, there’s an immediate connection. I don’t see people from other states hugging some random person. I think we’re kind of bonded by the seasonality of life here.”

Contact: Erin Miller, erin.miller@maine.edu

A 91±¬ÁĎ Ph.D. candidate in biomedical engineering, Hamilton’s work focuses on breast and pancreatic cancer by developing novel image analysis techniques to quantify the tissue structure that surrounds tumors, a project he began during his master’s program at 91±¬ÁĎ and has continued into his doctoral research. 

Through his research, Hamilton works to better understand how the tissue around tumors affects cancer growth. He uses computer programming, image analysis and machine learning to study medical images, borrowing ideas from physics to look at patterns on different scales. 

His passion for cancer research first took shape while studying bioengineering, though the decision to tackle cancer stemmed from his personal experience.

“I found bioengineering first, and then realized, due to trauma, I wanted to make sure people didn’t have to feel that way because of something that they can’t control,” Hamilton said. 

Working with his doctoral advisor, Andre Khalil, on analysis and physics, and with his former master’s degree advisor, Karissa Tilbury, on biology and imaging, Hamilton studies slides of tissue and breast scans to find ways to detect and potentially treat cancers earlier. His early work on examining collagen in pancreatic tumors, inspired by personal loss, set the stage for his future research on early cancer detection.

Hamilton has also participated in developing tools to make breast cancer detection more efficient. Alongside fellow Ph.D. student Jeremy Juybari and others, Hamilton played a role in the development of the Context Guided Segmentation Network (CGS-Net), an AI system that mimics how pathologists study tissue slides to improve the speed and accuracy of breast cancer diagnoses. He describes his research approach as big-picture, complementing the detail-oriented style of Juybari, with whom he has formed a long-standing friendship.

“I think one reason Jeremy and I work so well together is that we approach problems differently,” Hamilton said. “He’s extremely detail-oriented, while I’m more of a big-picture person. He thinks bottom-up, I think top-down, and that balance has made our research and friendship really strong. He’s the last person still here from when I joined the lab, and I’m probably closer to him outside of work than I am at work.”

A senior member of the CompuMAINE lab, Hamilton also mentors undergraduate, master’s and fellow Ph.D. students while collaborating closely with Khalil and Tilbury. Outside the lab, Hamilton is deeply involved in teaching and mentoring. He recently took on full lecturer responsibilities for courses in medical image analysis.

“I’m teaching Dr. Khalil’s medical image analysis courses while he’s on sabbatical, so it’s just me now,” Hamilton said. “I’m not the teacher’s assistant or the tutor; I’m the teacher. That was a big milestone for me, and I’ve really enjoyed it. I think you need empathy to be a good teacher, and I love seeing that light bulb moment when someone finally gets a concept.”

Hamilton first came to 91±¬ÁĎ as an undergraduate in 2017 because of scholarships, such as the Visual and Performing Arts (VAPA) Scholarship, and programs that allowed him to combine his interests in music and bioengineering. He has stayed for his master’s and Ph.D., drawn to the opportunities of conducting cutting-edge research in a smaller, rural university environment.

Outside of research and teaching, Hamilton maintains an active extracurricular life. A percussionist, he was formerly part of 91±¬ÁĎ’s pep band. He is also a competitive “Super Smash Bros. Melee” player, organizing tournaments and managing the state community.

It’s Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month, and as Hamilton works to develop tools to detect this disease faster, anyone interested in learning more about it and contributing to the fight against it can visit the website. 

Story by William Bickford, graduate student writer.

Contact: Marcus Wolf, 207.581.3721; marcus.wolf@maine.edu 

This nationally competitive award honors and invests in pre-doctoral students by helping them obtain research training while conducting their dissertation research. 

Enrolled in the Graduate School of Biomedical Science and Engineering’s biomedical science program and advised by Clarissa Henry, director of the Center for Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE), Ignacz’ research focusses on a zebrafish model for dystroglycanopathies, a rare form of neuromuscular disease. 

Her own interest in neuromuscular disease and its progression stems from the loss of her younger brother, who passed away from complications with Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Through her research, she hopes to help identify driving mechanisms of neuromuscular disease progression and develop therapies that can improve the lives and outcomes of people diagnosed with it.

While the award is a recognition of Ignacz’ potential as a researcher, it will also help fund training opportunities and attendance to conferences, such as the Gordon Research Conferences and a Muscular Dystrophy Association Clinical Research Conference.Ěý

Read the full story, written by Daniel Timmermann, on the 91±¬ÁĎ Research News website.

MDI Biological Laboratory recently announced a $19.4 million federal award that will propel INBRE into its next five years of success. Led by MDI Bio Lab, the network provides training, research experiences and financial support to help young Mainers play a bigger role in today’s biomedical revolution, qualifying them for careers in a high-paying field that is making rapid advances in human health.

Formally announced by Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) in a celebratory event on Tuesday, Aug. 13Ěý at MDI Bio Lab, the award was made by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS). It renews the network’s funding for five years, while enlarging its scope to a total of 17 institutions.

Ěý“In a state like Maine with a small population and a vast geography, it’s our willingness to work together that makes us competitive in the global biomedical world, that helps us to punch above our weight,” said Hermann Haller, MDI Bio Lab’s president. “The Maine INBRE is our connective tissue, an extraordinarily collaborative network that is significantly raising the biomedical research and training capacity of the entire state.”Ěý

ĚýThe Maine INBRE:Ěý

• supports early-career bioscience faculty in Maine with research grants, staff, lab equipment and other resources they need to compete for larger federal grants. More than 60 faculty have been supported by the INBRE;

• has provided more than 2,800 college students with genuine biomedical research experiences and access to state-of-the-art equipment through intensive courses, workshops and paid fellowships, transforming their goals and helping to build a technically skilled biomedical workforce for Maine;

• invests in shared, state-of-the-art science infrastructure at participating institutions, from advanced gene editing and data science systems to leading-edge 3D microscopy, building the state’s overall research capacity and standing as a home for world-class science.

“You don’t need to be in Silicon Valley, the Research Triangle, or Boston to make a difference. Remarkable research is taking place right here in Maine,” said Collins. “The Maine INBRE is helping to make it possible.”

New network members include the University of Southern Maine, the MaineHealth Institute for Research, and the 91±¬ÁĎ at Augusta. It already includes the 91±¬ÁĎ, 91±¬ÁĎ Honors College, 91±¬ÁĎ system campuses in Fort Kent, Presque Isle, Farmington, Machias, Southern Maine Community College, College of the Atlantic, the University of New England, Colby, Bates and Bowdoin colleges, The Jackson Laboratory and MDI Bio Lab.

The program so far has directly invested $87+ million in Maine, with early-career faculty it’s supported winning $100+ million more in other research grants. 90% of INBRE undergraduates have gone on to pursue higher education and careers in health-related fields, and 21% stayed in Maine to do so. Over the last five years, the number of science majors at participating schools has increased by 65%.

Contact: Fred Bever, fbever@mdibl.org

The university’s SVT program, which has the largest number of undergraduate students per faculty in the Maine College of Engineering and Computing (MCEC), will receive 12 robotic total stations (electronic/optical instruments for surveying and building construction), 12 digital levels,12 multi-constellation GPS receivers, tablets, software and accessories at no cost. As part of the agreement, Topcon will maintain, update and replace the equipment (if necessary) every three years. This agreement was made to ensure the program’s students receive instruction with the latest surveying technology as part of the Topcon Learn/Apply/Build (LAB) initiative. 

“We are excited to initiate the relationship with the 91±¬ÁĎ. It is our latest Learn/Apply/Build investment, partnering with leading survey educational programs around the world to provide state-of-the-art technology to advance learning,” said Ron Oberlander, vice president of Topcon global professional services. â€śThe 91±¬ÁĎ program has the potential to support the education of surveying engineers across the globe. The world needs more surveyors from a diverse range of backgrounds, and we are delighted that our support will help this become a reality. Surveying students learning on campus and online will benefit from having access to the latest technology and software to support their studies.”

Because surveyors make precise measurements to determine property boundaries, understanding how to use the equipment to make those measurements is a primary function of the career.

“Surveyors are in charge of searching for spatial truth. A surveyor is kind of a detective,” said Ray Hintz, professor of surveying engineering technology. 

In addition to helping those students complete the program in person, this equipment supports SVT online education, enrollment for which has increased by over 130% since 2019. Providing access to the latest surveying technology is part of the program’s strategic effort to recruit students. 

“The volume of equipment helps us be more efficient in teaching labs,” said Rich Vannozzi, assistant professor in surveying engineering technology. “For 150 years, if you took a survey class, you worked in a little group of three or four people with one piece of equipment. So say you had a two-hour lab and four people, everybody got a half hour with their hands on the equipment. What we found out is that if we ran the labs more frequently, and every student had a piece of equipment of their own for the whole two hours — they had their hands on it — they got four times as much time and they were 100% engaged.”

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment of surveyors is projected to grow 5% from 2022–32, faster than the average for all occupations. With fewer than nationwide and many expected to retire in coming years, the demand for surveyors is only expected to grow. 

“There are two phenomena that are driving a critical need for surveyors nationally,” Vannozzi said. “One is aging out of the profession. The other thing driving the demand is that we need educated surveyors. There was a time 40 years ago when you could enter this profession and have a successful career with a minimal amount of formal education. That is not realistic any more. If you want to have a successful 40-year career as a land surveyor, you will need a bachelor-degree-level education.”

Joe McNichols, assistant professor in surveying engineering technology, will organize and manage the equipment. A ribbon cutting will be held in the spring to celebrate the donation and the updated equipment storage room. 

Contact: Shelby Hartin, shelby.hartin@maine.edu

“This three-day gathering features scientists who live and work in Maine,” said Cecile Ferguson, a program manager at the 91±¬ÁĎ Institute of Medicine. “It’s a great way, in a short period of time, to understand, experience and appreciate the full spectrum of advanced research that’s being conducted in our state. The new knowledge being generated through local research efforts is helping to create the jobs of the future and improve Maine citizens’ quality of life.”

The first day of the event will be divided into two educational tracks. Track A, at the Wells Conference Center, will be devoted to speakers participating in the 18th Annual 91±¬ÁĎ Clinical Geriatrics Colloquium. Educators and practitioners from across the state will address topics related to aging at this academic conference. Included among the invited speakers are Dr. Cliff Singer, chief or the Center for Geriatric and Mental Health at Acadia Hospital. He will be the featured speaker at the 91±¬ÁĎ Institute of Medicine’s Distinguished Mental Health Lecture. This year’s topic is the Impact of Alzheimer disease in older adults. Dr. Amanda Gesselman from the Kinsey Institute and more than a dozen other experts in various age-related disciplines will also be making presentations.

Track B at the Collins Center for the Arts that day will be focusing on mental health. Topics will include presentations on Alzheimer’s Disease, youth suicide, rural mental health, religious leaders’ mental well-being, psychosis specialty care and much more.

Research related to medicine and health care will be the focus of two more tracks open to attendees as part of the symposium’s second day at the Wells Conference Center on Thursday, Oct. 26. Track A will be devoted to oncology, translational medicine and an industry workshop. Track B will include research into the microscopic aspects of cells and other objects that cannot be seen with the naked eye (microscopy), cell signaling, kidney health and pathogen research.

The Maine Research Symposium will continue at the Wells Conference Center on Oct. 27 in Room 1. Symposium presentations on Friday will be devoted to clinical research, rural medicine and public health.

In the Conference Center’s Rooms 2 and 3, the Maine Rural GME Education (MERGE) Collaborative will host its first Graduate Medical Education (GME) event devoted to rural health care. The MERGE Collaborative is part of a state-funded initiative designed to strengthen rural Maine’s health care workforce and delivery system. As part of this effort, the collaborative is promoting rural elective rotations for graduate medical education resident physicians. Sessions will include topics on teaching techniques for graduate medical education; rural workforce pressures in Maine; diversity, equity and inclusion in rural spaces and more.

As the MERGE Collaborative event is taking place, the Collins Center will be the location for a series of research symposium presentations about artificial intelligence applications in health, breast cancer tissue imaging, proteins and cell signaling, bone marrow, muscular dystrophy research, osteoporosis, dementia, obesity and diabetes, to name just a few.

“This symposium showcases the advanced cutting-edge research taking place in Maine’s public and private academic institutions, health care systems and private industries as it relates to biological and physiological disciplines, medicine, biomedical engineering and data science,” said Tanya Pinkham, assistant director for development and administration at the 91±¬ÁĎ Institute of Medicine. “This event allows Maine scientists to network and share information in ways that will benefit their own research and the pursuit of knowledge being undertaken by others.”

October 25–26 will also include separate poster sessions and receptions from 4:30–6:30 p.m. in the Hudson Museum. During these sessions, posters summarizing research conducted by college faculty members, undergraduate students and graduate students will be on display. Student researchers will be standing next to their posters to answer questions from the public and judges. Judging will be conducted by faculty members from multiple universities, as well as industry leaders from biomedical and health care organizations.

One of the individuals who will have a poster on display is 91±¬ÁĎ graduate student Lucas Bennett, a Ph.D. candidate in biochemistry and molecular biology. According to Bennett, his research benefited from being able to work with a fluorescence photoactivation localization microscopy (FPALM) microscope.

“While there aren’t very many of these types of microscopes in the world, there is one at the 91±¬ÁĎ. And the professor who developed this research technique, Dr. Samuel Hess, also teaches here. I don’t think I would have had the opportunity to do this specific type of research anywhere else in the world,” Bennett said. â€śBeing able to participate in groundbreaking research like this makes every day an adventure in scientific discovery.” 

Sponsors for the second annual Maine Research Symposium on Biomedical Science and Engineering include the Bioscience Association of Maine (BIOME), 91±¬ÁĎ’s Graduate School of Biomedical Science and Engineering (GSBSE), MDI Bioscience, IDEXX, the Maine Technology Institute (MTI) and SimKit. Visit the symposium website for more information.

Contact: Eric Gordon, office: 207.581.3745, cell: 207.298.7254; eric.b.gordon@maine.edu

As a result of warming waters, more non-native warmwater fish species are invading watershed habitats, disrupting local freshwater food webs and competing with native species for limited resources. The combination of the two can be deadly for endangered fish in Maine, particularly the Atlantic salmon, which, in addition to their intrinsic value, is important to regional Indigenous cultures, recreation opportunities and the health of freshwater ecosystems in the state.

Nicole Ramberg-Pihl led a team of researchers during her Ph.D. in ecology and environmental sciences at the 91±¬ÁĎ in an experiment to observe the interaction between Atlantic salmon and smallmouth bass at different temperatures. The scientists collected fish from rivers and hatcheries across Maine and put them in tanks at the Aquaculture Research Center — some segregated by species, and others combined — at two different temperatures, 18 and 21 degrees Celsius, and filmed the fishes’ behavior.

In reviewing the footage, the researchers found that salmon ate less in the presence of smallmouth bass in general, but ate even less at the higher temperature, 21 degrees Celsius. They also observed that smallmouth bass were most aggressive at 21 degrees Celsius, particularly when there were salmon present.

“Our cameras provided a top-down view of the experimental tanks and this allowed us to observe aggressive interactions, such as chases (where a fish swims after another) and charges (where a fish quickly darts toward another) between individuals of both species at 18 and 21 degrees Celsius. We observed increased levels of aggression in smallmouth bass when salmon were present and when water temperature was higher,” says Ramberg-Pihl. 

These findings illustrate the potential for invasive species like smallmouth bass to outcompete native salmonids for resources, especially under the warmer conditions predicted with climate change. The results could inform conservation efforts of the endangered Atlantic salmon in Maine.

“We found that bass are bullies when it is hot,” says Ramberg-Pihl. “Not only are factors such as temperature and food availability important for salmon performance, but smallmouth bass could outcompete Atlantic salmon in warmer temperature scenarios.”

The was published in the journal Ecology and Freshwater Fish on March 22, 2023.

Contact: Sam Schipani, samantha.schipani@maine.edu

The 91±¬ÁĎ has received a $11.3 million Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to support interdisciplinary biomedical research.

The COBRE award will focus on research about the mechanisms that regulate cellular behavior in response to cues from outside the cells, from the impact of persistent viral infections on cell systems to the mechanisms that lead to muscle cell development. The research has the potential to inform future treatment of infectious diseases, neuromuscular disorders and muscle aging and regeneration. 

“91±¬ÁĎ is the only institution in the state that grants doctoral degrees in biomedical science and biomedical engineering through its Graduate School of Biomedical Science and Engineering,” says Kody Varahramyan, vice president for research and dean of the 91±¬ÁĎ Graduate School. “This COBRE, which will be 91±¬ÁĎ’s first, will transform 91±¬ÁĎ’s ability to serve as the academic leader for biomedical research in Maine and feed the growing biomedical research industry in Maine. This research will elucidate basic biological mechanisms underlying cell behavior and also has the potential to inform the future treatment of infectious diseases, neuromuscular disorders, and muscle aging and regeneration.”

The COBRE award is led by Clarissa Henry, professor of biological sciences in the School of Biology and Ecology and director of the Graduate School of Biomedical Science and Engineering at 91±¬ÁĎ.

“This award will transform the landscape of biomedical research at the 91±¬ÁĎ and foster innovation in the life sciences statewide,” Henry says.

It will primarily support five research projects led by early career investigators from 91±¬ÁĎ and the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory, including 91±¬ÁĎ’s Melissa Maginnis, Jared Talbot, Joshua Kelley and Ben King, as well as at the MDI Bio Lab. 

“The MDI Biological Laboratory is very pleased to collaborate on this Maine-based research initiative,” says MDI Bio Lab President Herman Haller. “Romain Madelaine’s work on the cellular mechanisms of muscle regeneration holds great promise for improving the way we age. The COBRE award will accelerate his discoveries and more by university faculty and students.”

As program director for the COBRE award, Henry will mentor the research team as they develop their projects. 

The award also aims to bolster 91±¬ÁĎ’s ability to serve as the academic leader for biomedical research in the state and feed its growing biomedical research industry through the Institute of Medicine and College of Natural Sciences, Forestry, and Agriculture. For example, this award will support the creation of a Microscopy and Image Analysis Core headed by Rob Wheeler, associate professor of microbiology, that will provide access to super-resolution confocal microscopy and support unbiased image analysis.

The award will also support burgeoning biomedical researchers through assistantships in the Graduate School of Biomedical Science and Engineering (GSBSE). Currently, 91±¬ÁĎ is the only institution in the state that grants doctoral degrees in biomedical science and biomedical engineering.

“One of the most exciting aspects of this grant is the explicit integration of research with training of the next generation of biomedical scientists,” says Henry. “The 91±¬ÁĎ has a phenomenal cluster of early career biomedical faculty and I am thrilled that this award will propel their research careers, increase campus and statewide collaboration, and add meaningful undergraduate and graduate research experiences.” 

The award starts April 5, 2023.

Contact: Sam Schipani, samantha.schipani@maine.edu 

Learn more on the , or the .

Merrill Elias, 91±¬ÁĎ emeritus professor of psychology and emeritus cooperating professor of biomedical sciences and engineering, and Amanda Goodell, a retired research associate, both researchers affiliated with the , have studied the use of the automated wrist cuff blood pressure measurement system for routine assessment in a dental office. The wrist cuff measurement is somewhat less accurate than the arm cuff measurement system, according to the researchers, but can be adequate if used properly.

Elias and Goodall have written two journal articles to provide evidence that wrist cuff measurement, as taken in the dental office, is often not used properly: “,” and, with Adam Davey, “.”Ěý

that includes a demonstration of the proper way to measure blood pressure with an automated wrist cuff device, and suggests some ways of achieving more accurate blood pressure measurement. Elias’ views about how blood pressure should be measured in the dental office are solely his and are not recommendations by 91±¬ÁĎ or any other organization with which he is associated.Ěý

While conventional air filters help control the spread of disease in public spaces like hospitals and travel hubs, they struggle to keep the pathogens they capture viable for testing. The inefficiency can inhibit scientists’ ability to identify biological threats  early on, which could hinder any response and protection measures. 

The research team, led by Caitlin Howell, a 91±¬ÁĎ associate professor of biomedical engineering, developed a composite membrane with a liquid layer for filters that is better suited for capturing viable bacterial and viral samples for analysis. They modeled the membrane after the Nepenthes pitcher plant, which has a slippery rim and inner walls that cause insects to fall and become trapped within its digestive fluid. By keeping the bacteria and viruses they capture feasible for examination, researchers say their novel liquid-coated air filters can enhance air sampling efforts, early pathogen detection and biosurveillance for national security.    

“I think for our patients and ourselves as caregivers, this technology will give us the confidence we are safer in performing care,” says Dr. Robert Bowie, medical director of the Down East Emergency Medical Institute. “Knowing we have improved safety makes it easier to leave our loved ones and go to work caring for others.”

The group of researchers developed multiple types of filters that contained their liquid-coated membrane technology, and tested their ability to preserve and release E. coli bacteria; SARS-COV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19; and JC polyomavirus, which attacks the central nervous system. 

They specifically found that more airborne pathogens were captured by high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters with their liquid-coated membrane than those without. The team published their findings in the journal . 

“During the early stages of the pandemic we were watching in real time how many problems were being caused by no one knowing where the airborne virus was and where it wasn’t. We had a system that could start to address that need, so it was our responsibility to step up and help out,” Howell says. 

The project was a significant interdisciplinary effort across the fields of biomedical engineering, chemical engineering and microbiology. The 91±¬ÁĎ biomedical engineering team included first author and Susan J. Hunter Presidential Award winner Daniel Regan, Graduate School of Biomedical Science, Engineering (GSBSE) Ph.D. student Chun Ki Fong and former master’s student Justin Hardcastle. The microbiology team, led by associate professor Melissa Maginnis, included Avery Bond, a Ph.D. student in molecular and biomedical sciences, and Claudia Desjardins, then a university laboratory assistant in wastewater analysis. The chemical engineering team, based at UMass Amherst, consisted of professor Jessica Schiffman and Ph.D. student Shao-Hsiang Hung. The team was joined by Andrew Holmes, a biocontainment research scientist with 91±¬ÁĎ Cooperative Extension. 

Regan first pitched the initial concept for liquid-coated air filters to capture bacteria-containing aerosols to his dissertation committee in March of 2019, based on conversations with military researchers and concerns for detecting potential contamination during medical evacuations. He also featured it in a presentation for the 2020 91±¬ÁĎ Student Symposium titled “Optimizing Liquid-Gated Membranes for Bioaerosol Capture and Release, which earned him the Dr. Susan J. Hunter Presidential Research Impact Award. 

The concept was further developed and refined when Howell, Maginnis, Schiffman, and Holmes realized that this could also apply to virus-containing aerosols in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic and applied for funding from the National Science Foundation. In 2020, the project was awarded a $225,000 NSF EAGER award — an early concept grant that supports  “untested, but potentially transformative research ideas or approaches.”

“COVID-19 has been a constant reminder of the important role biosurveillance capabilities provide for decision makers to have detailed information for reducing biological risks” says Regan, now a fellow at the Janne E. Nolan Center on Strategic Weapons, an institute of the Council on Strategic Risks in Washington, D.C. “In the last year alone, the world has experienced high-consequence pathogens including an outbreak of monkeypox (or mpox), a resurgence of Ebola Sudan and high case numbers of Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infection (RSV). The need for pathogen early warning could not be greater, and it is our hope that further investment in liquid-coated air filters can help advance biosurveillance capabilities for aerosol detection.” 

Contact: Marcus Wolf, 207.581.3721; marcus.wolf@maine.edu

A team of researchers led by Josh Kelley, associate professor of biochemistry at 91±¬ÁĎ, study G-proteins in yeast in hopes that it can tell us how these proteins work in humans. A common way that human cells detect the outside world and receive signals from other parts of the body is through receptors that span the cell membrane called G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCR). GPCRs detect chemical signals outside the cell, and turn on a G-protein inside the cell to initiate an internal cell signal. Yeast use a GPCR to detect and grow toward potential mating partners. 

However, many proteins in the mating pathway are shared with the pathway that controls cell division. This means that when the cell is going through cell division and it gets a signal from a potential mate, it must choose which pathway to use. What the cell is supposed to do is complete cell division first, and then respond to the mating signal, but how this delay in response to the mating signal is mediated is not known.   

“Cell division is a critical process. When division is abnormal, the cell is no longer able to function properly and in humans, diseases such as cancer can arise,” says Cory Johnson, former Ph.D. student in the Graduate School of Biomedical Science and Engineering at the 91±¬ÁĎ who conducted the research for his thesis. 

During the mating response, an enzyme known as MAP Kinase (MAPK) modifies the regulator of G-protein signaling, or RGS. The RGS turns off the mating pathway, but the reason for the modification was not known. The researchers used strains of yeast with different RGS mutants to examine the effect of the MAPK signaling on where RGS goes during the mating response, and how signaling proteins were distributed through the cell. They found that MAPK modification of the RGS controls where the RGS can be found, but also where the MAPK itself is localized.

Most surprisingly, the scientists found that phosphorylation of RGS promotes the completion of cytokinesis — the final division of cells at the end of mitosis — before pheromone-induced growth toward mating partners. They found that the RGS interacts with a protein known to control the end of mitosis, called Kel1. RGS binding to Kel1 turned out to be controlled by the MAPK modification of the RGS, finally answering the long-standing question of why this modification was occurring. Failure to modify the RGS leads to failed cytokinesis, which can have catastrophic effects on the cell. 

“We were surprised to see such a striking result because until now there was no evidence that the RGS was involved in regulating cell division,” says Johnson.

“Broadly, this research is exciting because it sheds light on a potential signaling nexus within cells, where two incoming messages are received and the cells interpret which signal has higher priority to be followed,” says William Simke, co-author of the study and former master’s student at 91±¬ÁĎ.

“We hope that our data can inform the scientific community of new potential mechanisms related to the development of disease,” says Johnson.

The was published in August 2022 in the journal Life Science Alliance. 

Contact: Sam Schipani, samantha.schipani@maine.edu

Talbot came to the 91±¬ÁĎ as an assistant professor in 2019 and is now one of five researchers at the university who specializes in using zebrafish as a model organism for scientific studies — a test subject used as a proxy for human beings. 

He first learned about zebrafish being used in research while he was an undergraduate at Cornell University and was instantly fascinated by the versatile fish. Scientists can genetically modify zebrafish to exhibit diseases and disorders similar to those of humans, then easily observe and experiment on the fast-growing fish throughout each stage of their development.

“We can do these cool experiments in a fish that would be impossible in other model organisms,” Talbot says. “They can lay an egg in the morning that grows into an embryo with functional muscle and brain by the next day. For the first few days, they’re transparent. You can look at the fish under a microscope and see to the very center of their body. We can watch tissues as they form, develop and degenerate in real time. That’s the power of a zebrafish. It gives an extraordinarily clear view of development, while retaining the cellular context that would be lost in cell culture.”

Talbot went on to the University of Oregon, which he says is the birthplace of zebrafish biology harkening back to the 1970s with pioneering research by George Streisinger. As he completed his research about skeletal development with Charles Kimmel, Talbot found that the zebrafish biology community was inherently collaborative in a way that appealed to him as a scientist.

“Everyone shares their tools prolifically,” Talbot says. “This is one of the hidden advantages of zebrafish as a model organism — we have each other’s backs in this famously collaborative community.”

The online , lists over 1,500 registered labs that use zebrafish for research.  

“Just a few years ago that number was below 1,000,” Talbot says. “It is a community that keeps growing rapidly.”

It was that collaborative spirit that motivated Talbot, in part, to create , a venue for scientists to share mutations of zebrafish that have effects that aren’t relevant to their research, but other scientists might find useful or interesting. 

Talbot had already developed a streamlined process of creating zebrafish mutants using gene-cutting enzymes called TALENs, which he updated for use with CRISPR and then openly shared with fellow researchers. However, the process of making a zebrafish mutant that will be an effective test subject for a particular study is tricky. Pinpointing and mutating a gene is relatively easy, but the result of that mutation isn’t truly known until the initially mutated fish have had a chance to breed and pass the mutation on to subsequent generations — a process that can take over a year.

“Only then do you learn if it’s a result that is important to your own project,” Talbot says. “It takes enormous time and effort to generate and confirm a mutant; I think the community can become more efficient by quickly sharing information about mutants that have too-subtle effects, or sometimes too-severe ones, so someone else doesn’t have to invest all that time independently.” 

In his own research on muscle development, Talbot developed mutants of zebrafish that affected other parts of the body, but he didn’t want these “backburner” mutants to go to waste. 

“I had a choice: I could just move on, start studying effects that are irrelevant to my own focus or I could give away the findings,” Talbot says. “So, I decided to share my trove of off-topic mutants and data.”

Talbot started by offering his mutants to other zebrafish scientists at conferences, many of which were happily adopted for research projects. After one seminar, he hatched a plan with a long-time colleague April DeLaurier to set up a zebrafish sharing system that could be accessed by the whole community. They reached out to ZFIN to create ZebraShare, so zebrafish biologists around the world could swap and share their mutants. 

The zebrafish biology community took notice. Talbot was awarded the 2022 Chi-Bin Chien award from the International Zebrafish Society. Chi-Bin Chien was a famously generous zebrafish researcher who developed many tools for the zebrafish community that he handed out freely. When he passed away in 2011 the International Zebrafish Society established an award in his name. 

According to their website, this award “recognizes outstanding graduate students, postdoctoral trainees, or recently appointed faculty members from any country who have made significant contributions to the field of zebrafish research and have exhibited the generosity and openness that characterized and motivated Chi-Bin Chien.”

“I feel very bashful thinking of myself as generous, because our culture teaches us not to make that claim; however, the zebrafish community values generosity, and this award recognizes generosity, so I think this is the right moment to embrace that trait,” Talbot says. 

Talbot insists, though, that science is never about one individual’s work. He credits DeLaurier for co-creating ZebraShare, as well as Douglas Howe and Leyla Ruzicka, who he says “brought the idea to life in ZFIN.”

He also says there was also extensive student involvement in this project. For instance, Mika Gallati was a 91±¬ÁĎ undergraduate when she started working with the mutants they first publicized through ZebraShare.

Talbot hopes that winning the award will help spread the word about the ZebraShare system. 

“I think this can really take off,” Talbot says. “When one finds an off-topic effect, it’s tempting to just move on because every publication requires immense effort. But that defect, or even a lack of defect, could be interesting to someone else. So, now you can easily let people know what you’ve learned by making a ZebraShare entry in ZFIN. That way the information is available and someone else could potentially run with your finding. I think this is a way to help optimize the research efforts of a whole community.”

In the meantime, his lab at 91±¬ÁĎ is currently working on “two big projects” with zebrafish, one looking at the cues that control muscle cell migration and growth, and another at muscle differentiation genes in connection with a disease, arthrogryposis.

As for his own “backburner” zebrafish mutants, Talbot says, “We found a home for all of them.”

Contact: Sam Schipani, samantha.schipani@maine.edu