BIOLOGY DEPARTMENT

For the first time in 2 years, members of the Biology Department were all together in the new science facility. The newly renovated space has allowed the department to offer more courses and labs than it has been able to do for several years.

Each year at graduation, the Biology Department awards prizes to five outstanding majors. We are pleased to announce that this year’s recipients were Zuzana Tothova, who received the Conant-Harrington Prize for exemplary performance in the biology major; Tim Menza and Liana Thompson, who were awarded the First and Second Benedict Prize, respectively for excellence in biology; Meg Cooley, who received the Dwight Prize as the ranking student in botany; and Bailey McCallum, who was awarded the Grant Prize for the student demonstrating excellence in a broad range of areas in biology. Eleven seniors were nominated for induction into Sigma Xi, the national scientific research society. Theresa O’Brien received a Beckman Foundation Scholarship during her senior year. Sheila McMurrich and Erica Dwyer were chosen to work at the Whitehead Institute this summer as Whitehead Scholars.

The department is pleased to welcome Manuel Morales who will be joining the department this year as Assistant Professor. Professor Morales received his BA from Kenyon and his Ph.D. from University of Connecticut. His expertise is in the field of ecology.

Bill DeWitt will be stepping down as Chair of Biology to pursue his teaching and research. He will be succeeded by Heather Williams.

This year Professor Altschuler taught BIOL 306, Advanced Molecular Genetics, BIOL 014, Humanity—the Next Generation (during WSP), and BIOL 132, Human Biology and Social Issues. All these courses were enriched by headline-grabbing breakthroughs in genome research (the annotation of the human genome, development of new cancer drugs, announcements of human cloning plans, debates over embryo cell research) that happened as we were discussing the topics in class. In her research lab Professor Altschuler continued developing chromosome fragmentation vectors to be used in mapping and probing the genome of Tetrahymena thermophila. Several students spent time in the lab this year working on the project: Margaret Radzik ’01, Shauna Dineen ’04, Jacqueline Hom ’04, Christie Schueler ’04, and Josh Weisenbeck ’04. In June 2000, Professor Altschuler presented a poster on her research (co-authored with Anh Nguyen ’99) at the Genetics Society Meeting (a joint US-Canadian meeting) in Vancouver, BC.

Visiting Associate Professor Lois Banta joined us in July on a three-year appointment replacing Nancy Roseman, who will be serving as Dean of the College during that time. Banta comes to us most recently from the Plant Science Institute of Leiden University in the Netherlands, where she was on sabbatical as a Fulbright Senior Fellow. Prior to her appointment in Leiden, she was on the faculty at Haverford College for 8 years. In the fall of 2000, Banta taught a new junior/senior elective course BIOL 315, entitled Microbiology: Diversity, Cellular Physiology, and Interactions. In the spring of 2001, she taught a seminar course for non-majors, BIOL 136, Agricultural Biotechnology in Developing Economies.

Banta's research focuses on the plant pathogen Agrobacterium tumefaciens, which is best known for its unique ability to deliver DNA to host plant cells. She is particularly interested in the assembly and functioning of the multi-protein complex responsible for the DNA delivery. Because this transport complex also has homologs in a variety of other bacteria including those that cause whooping cough, Legionnaire’s disease, and chronic stomach inflammation, Banta's research has relevance to mammalian pathogenesis as well. Independent study student Erin Troy ’01, recent graduate Aimee Vasse ’01, and honors thesis student Maywa Montenegro ’02 participated in this project. They were joined over Winter Study by Aidan Finley ’04 and Dave Lewis ’03. The research in the Banta lab is supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation entitled “Protein-Protein Interactions Mediating Substrate Recognition by the VirB Complex of Agrobacterium tumefaciens.”

Over the past year, Banta, with co-authors at the University of Washington in Seattle, published two papers in the Journal of Bacteriology: “The chvH Locus of Agrobacterium tumefaciens Encodes a Homolog of the Elongation Factor P”, and “Genetic and Environmental Factors Affecting T-Pilus Formation”, with a group at the University of California at Davis.

During this academic year, Banta served as an external reviewer for the Cell Biology and Metabolic Biochemistry Programs of the National Science Foundation, the United States Department of Agriculture Post-doctoral Award Program, and the City University of New York Research Award Program.

On campus, Banta contributed to two panel discussions sponsored by the Center for Environmental Studies. In the fall, she spoke at the symposium on “Biotechnology: Opportunity, Threat, Controversy,” and in the spring, she participated in a panel on “Poverty, Overconsumption, and the Environment.” She also delivered a talk in conjunction with the “Walk Through Time” project in the Science Center, spoke in the Bronfman brown-bag lunch series, and was a guest speaker at the Center for Development Economics.

This past year Prof. Adler continued her research on long term regulation of molecules important to synaptic transmission and neuronal commuication, using PC12 cells, a secondary cell line that's a model for sympathetic neurons. She also taught the Neuroscience Senior Seminar in the fall, as well as co-teaching Introduction to Neuroscience with Prof. Solomon of the Psychology Department in the spring. Prof. Adler continues to work on her book, "Lymphoma, A Beginner's Guide". The book is in the final stages of revision.
Prof. Adler gave a Summer Science Research Lunch Talk on her research on zinc regulation of neuropeptide Y (NPY). She presented a poster at the meeting for the Society of Neuroscience in New Orleans last November and co-authored a paper along with Paul Schwartz, Kevin Stephans '00, and SaraGrote '01 in Brain Research entitled "Zinc Elevates Neuropeptide Y Levels in Rat Pheochromocytoma Cells by a Mechanism Independent of L-Channel Mediated Inhibition of Release". This research, which is the first demonstration that zinc can regulate the expression of NPY, which is believed to act as an endogenous anticonvulsant, could have implications with regard to seizure susceptibility.
Prof. Adler supervised several students over the summer (Sara Grote '01, Becky Semble '01 and Leah Sharpe '01). All worked on a project concerning the role of neuronal activity, and the subsequent influx of calcium into the neuron, on regulation of the enzyme acetylcholinesterase, which terminates the action of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. Sara and Becky continued this work in their Honors theses. Yang Wang '01 joined the lab in the spring for an Independent Study, and worked on a project aimed at highlighting the contribution of different classes of calcium channels on acetylcholinesterase activity. He will be continuing this research during the summer of 2001. All five students, Prof. Adler and PaulSchwartz are coauthors on the abstract of a poster that will be presented at the meeting of the Society for Neuroscience next fall in San Diego.

During this past year, Professor Dan Lynch taught BIOL 101, The Cell, and BIOL 322, Biochemistry II: Metabolism. He also continued his research on plant sphingolipid biochemistry, funded by grants from the NSF and the NIH, and supervised the honors thesis projects of Gildade Boursiquot ’01 and Brooke Wright ’01. Matt Luedke, ’02 began thesis work in the spring and will continue in the fall. Last summer, Brooke Wright, Matt Luedke and Katy Schorling ’01 worked in the lab. Prof. Lynch attended meetings in Cardiff and presented a paper co-authored by Julie Cantatore ’99, titled “Compartmentation and Topology of Glucosylcermide Synthesis” published in Biochemical Society Transactions. Professor Lynch served on an NSF review panel in the fall and served as a reviewer for the journals Crop Science and Journal of Biological Chemistry.

Assistant Professor Rob Savage was on leave for the 2000-2001 academic year. During this period, he continued his research at Williams with one senior honors thesis student Duncan Meiklejohn ’01. Duncan and three former thesis students Andrew Werbrock ’00, Ariana Sainz ’99 and Janet Iwasa ’99 co-authored a paper entitled “A Polychaete Hunchback Ortholog” which appeared in Developmental Biology. In December ’00, Professor Savage was awarded a three-year grant in the amount of $292,489 from the National Science Foundation for a project entitled “The Roles of Segmentation Gene Homologues in Annelids.”

In April 2001, Professor Savage and John Finnerty (Boston University) co-chaired a session at the Northeast Regional Meeting for the Society of Developmental Biology at Woods Hole, MA. The session was entitled “Further Exploration in Hox Genes: Upstream, Downstream and Out on a Limb” and it examined the relationship between the regulation of Hox genes and morphological change in the animal body plans. Professor Savage was an invited instructor for an evolution and development course offered by the University of Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras. The course was designed for graduate students interested in experimental approaches to the study of animal development. Prof. Savage also served as a reviewer for several professional journals, NSF and for NASA Ground Based Life Sciences Panel in Washington D.C.

Visiting Assistant Professor Ken Schmidt taught BIOL 203, Ecology in the fall and BIOL 302, Communities and Ecosystems and BIOL 402T, Conservation Biology, with Prof. Henry Art. Prof. Schmidt received an NSF award for his project entitled: “Incidental Predation in Songbirds: Using Behavioral Indicators to Determine Ecological Processes and Scales.” His grant focuses on using experimental monitoring approaches to understand songbird reproductive ecology in temperate deciduous forests of the Hudson Valley, NY. This research will incorporate Williams undergraduate students. Currently, Nathan Briggs ’03 is participating in this research. This grant culminates three years of research that has explored connections between acorn production, rodent (white-footed mouse, eastern chipmunk) densities, and songbird reproductive success.

Professor Schmidt published three research papers including two published in the journal Ecology and a third in Evolutionary Ecology Research. He also attended the Ecological Society of America’s annual meeting in Snowbird, Utah where he presented a 15-min. talk.

Assistant Professor Steve Swoap was on leave in the fall semester and taught BIOL 205, Physiology, in the spring of 2001. He served as a reviewer for the American Journal of Physiology, the Journal of Neuroendocrinology, and the Journal of Applied Physiology. He was recently awarded the Arthur C. Guyton Young Investigator Award for Integrative Physiology from the American Physiological society. Swoap currently has two active grants from NIH “Regulation of PGAM-M Expression with Muscle Unweighting” and an NSF grant “CAREER: Mechanisms of Caloric-Restriction Induced Hypotension”.

Professor Zottoli taught BIOL 411, Plasticity in the Nervous System, in the fall and BIOL 304, Neurobiology, in the spring. He served as honors thesis advisor for Robert Adamo, Josh Easter and Dafina Westbrooks. Research in his laboratory focuses on the neural basis of behavior and responses of the nervous system to injury. Professor Zottoli is the director of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) grant to Williams College, chair of the Animal Care and Use Committee and on the Neuroscience Advisory Committee. He was elected as President of the Grass Foundation in July. The Grass Foundation is a small not-for-profit, private foundation chartered to support research and education in neuroscience.

Professor Zottoli directed an HHMI-supported Williams College program at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA during July and August 2000. Ben Angarita ’03, Josh Easter ’01, Nick Hiza ’02, Kuda Mutyambizi ’03, Natalie Stephens ’03 and C. J. Tyson ’02 participated in this program. The program included reading papers of various scientists in residence at the MBL, meeting with each scientist to discuss the papers and career path issues and then conducting a laboratory exercise that related to the scientist's area of interest. In addition, students had the opportunity to attend course lectures and evening seminars. Finally, students were able to conduct original research on identified neurons in fish.

Dr. Winslow Briggs, Carnegie Institute

Biology Class of 1960 Scholar Speaker
“Phototropins: A New Family of Plant Photoreceptors”
Dr. Amy Cheng-Vollmer, Swarthmore

“The Universal Stress Protein: Its Role in the Regulation of Stress Response in E. coli”
Dr. Graeme Davis, Williams ’89, UC San Francisco

“Molecular Mechanisms of Structural and Functional Synaptic Development”
Dr. Jay Dunlap, Dartmouth

“The Circadian System in a Model Eukaryote”
Dr. Phil Hinds, Harvard

“Function of the Retinoblastoma Protein in Differentiation and Cell Cycle Exit”
Dr. Harvey Lodish, MIT

“Erythropoietin and the Control of Red Cell Production: EPO as Hormone, Drug, and Drug of Abuse”

Dr. Charles Martin, Rutgers University
Merck Scholar

“New Insights into the Regulation of OLE1 Gene Expression Involved in Modifying Membrane Fluidity”
Dr. Jeffrey Palmer, Indiana University
Biology Class of 1960 Scholar Speaker

“Evolutionary Transfer of Mitochondrial Genes to the Nucleus: When, What, How and Why?”
Dr. Hidde Ploegh, Harvard

“On the Fence: The (Cell)(Bio)(Chemical) Immunology of a Host-Pathogen Relationship”
Dr. Chris Walsh, Harvard Medical School
BIMO Class of 1960 Scholar Speaker

“The Biosynthesis of Nonribosomal Peptide Antibiotics: Enzymatic Assembly Lines”
Dr. Shozo Yokoyama, Syracuse University

“Molecular Genetics and Evolution of Color Vision in Vertebrates”

Marsha Altschuler

“The Human Genome Project: The Common thread Unraveled”
Berkshire Athenaeum, Pittsfield, MA.
Lois Banta

“Presence of RSF1010 in Agrobacterium tumefaciens Results in Altered Vir Protein Content”
Rob Savage

“RNAi: An Experimental method for the Study of Gene Regulation in Indirect and Direct Development in Annelids”
University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras

“Hunchback Orthologs in Annelids”
Colgate University, Hamilton College

“Annelid Hunchback Expression Patterns and the Evolution of Gap Gene Function”
Northeast regional Meeting for the Society for Developmental Biology, Woods Hole, MA.
Ken Schmidt

“Threats to Songbird Populations in a Changing World”
Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Ontario.

“Where the wild Things Are Not: Enemy-free Space and New considerations for Predator-prey Interaction”
Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Ontario

“Experimental Removals of Strong and Weak Predators: Mice and Chipmunks Preying on Songbird Nests”
Ecological Society of America, Snowbird, Utah.
Steve Swoap

“Disuse Muscle Atrophy: Consequences, mechanisms, and Countermeasures”
National Meeting f the American College of sports Medicine in Indianapolis, IN.

“How Does Muscle Adapt to Exercise”
American Physiological Society Meeting in Portland, ME.