BIOLOGY DEPARTMENT

The Biology Department continually strives to offer the best possible curriculum not only within the biological sciences, but also within the other interdisciplinary programs in the sciences. To that end, the department has hired two new full-time faculty members for next year. Lara Hutson, who comes to us from the University of Utah Medical Center, received her undergraduate degree from UC San Diego and her Ph.D. from University of Washington. Lara will be offering a fall senior seminar course entitled “Cell Dynamics in Living Systems” and a spring course entitled “Mechanisms of Nervous System Development and Plasticity.” This latter course will further allow biology to tap into the interdisciplinary Neuroscience Program.

Claire Ting, a plant biologist, received her undergraduate degree from Yale University and her Ph.D. from Cornell. Claire comes to us from MIT. She will be offering a fall senior seminar course entitled, Life at Extremes: Molecular Mechanisms, and a spring course, Integrative Plant Biology: Fundamentals and New Frontiers. Claire’s hiring serves to strengthen the department’s plant biology offerings.

Each year at graduation, the biology Department awards prizes to several outstanding majors. This year’s recipients were Jessica Tierney and Jessica O’Brien, who received the Benedict Prize in Biology, Malin Pinsky, the Conant-Harrington prize for exemplary performance in the biology major, Ken-ichi Ueda, the Dwight Prize for excellence in Botany, and Jennifer Barone, the Grant Prize for the student demonstrating excellence in a broad range of areas in biology. Thirteen seniors were nominated for induction into Sigma Xi, the national scientific research society. Stephen Kelleher and Cameron Marshall were selected to work at the Whitehead Institute this summer as Whitehead Scholars.

The Biology Department continued to participate in the Class of 1960 Scholars. Several distinguished scientists were invited to meet with students and faculty. Among those invited were Dr. Donald Price, Johns Hopkins University, Dr. John Collier, Harvard Medical School, Dr. Chad Oliver, Yale University. Twelve students were selected to be Class of 1960 Scholars for the spring/fall 2003.

Professor Altschuler taught Genetics (BIOL 202) in the fall and Human Biology and Social Issues (BIOL132) in the spring semester. Class discussions were enlivened by major news events such as the 50th anniversary of the DNA double helix and the Raelians‘ claims to have cloned several babies. Prof. Altschuler continued her research into the mysteries of the organization of the Tetrahymena thermophila genome with the assistance of Ohm Deshpande ’04, Andrew Huang ’04, and Luis Taboada ’02 during summer 2002, Salem Fevrier ’05 during the fall semester, and Mary Flynn ’04 during the spring semester. The students participated in the design and construction of “fragmentation vectors” which should aid in the structural mapping and functional analysis of individual Tetrahymena chromosomes. Prof. Altschuler also gave a six-lecture series during the spring semester on “RNA: A Molecule for all Seasons” as part of the Berkshire Institute for Lifetime Learning.

Professor Art continues as the Director of the Center for Environmental Studies at Williams and teaching courses in both the Biology and Environmental Studies curricula. In the fall semester, he co-taught Environmental Planning and Design (ENVI 302) with Sarah Gardner, and in the spring semester, he taught Communities and Ecosystems (BIOL 302), a course that was redesigned to focus on the Hopkins Memorial Forest and its databases. He continues research on the biotic responses to land use legacies in the Hopkins Forest along with a newer dimension of examining the agricultural history of the Berkshire region.

Visiting Associate Professor Lois Banta continued her research on the plant pathogen Agrobacterium tumefaciens, which is best known for its unique ability to deliver DNA to host plant cells, thus stably altering the genetic makeup of the plant. Transferred DNA (T-DNA) processing and transfer are mediated by a number of tumor-inducing (Ti) plasmid-encoded virulence (Vir) proteins. Movement of the T-DNA requires the eleven products of the virB operon, as well as the VirD4 protein. The goal of the research in the Banta lab is to probe the interactions between the VirB pore and the transported substrates, which include not only the T-DNA, but also at least two proteins, VirE2 and VirF. One of the honors students this year, Ken-ichi Ueda ’03, continued the thesis work of Susan Levin ’02 by investigating a novel mechanism for regulation of transcription of a subset of the virB genes. Post-doctoral fellow Bronwyn Butcher, formerly a Ph.D. student Stellenbosch University in South Africa, explored the interplay between attachment to the host plant and assembly of the VirB transport machinery. Over the summer, Caty Sumner and Kate Roberts pursued one aspect of this project, demonstrating that at least one of the VirB proteins is not properly assembled into the membrane in bacterial cells that are defective in the ability to attach to host cells. The substantial sequence homologies between VirB proteins and the proteins required for pertussis toxin localization, as well as for pathogenicity in Helicobacter pylori, Legionella pneumophila, and several other bacteria, indicate that these findings regarding assembly of the VirB pore may have important implications for the assembly and functioning of multi-protein transporters responsible for the delivery of a variety of pathogenic substrates to mammalian host cells.

A second honors student in the lab, Emily Hatch ’03, used the yeast dihybrid system and gel-shift analysis to characterize the functions of two other virulence proteins, VirC1 and VirC2. Professor Banta has postulated that VirC1 and VirC2 work together to tether the Ti plasmid, through VirC1’s known affinity for a sequence adjacent to the T-DNA, to the bacterial cell membrane. Such intimate association between a transport apparatus and the Ti plasmid would ensure that, in the presence of an attached plant cell, the T-DNA could transit directly into the recipient cell. Finally, during Winter Study, Ashleigh Theberge ’06 continued an independent project on the effects of the herbicide Round-Up on Fischerella, a photosynthesizing bacterium that provides important nutrients in rice paddies. Professor Banta’s research was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation entitled “Protein-Protein Interactions Mediating Substrate Recognition by the VirB Complex of Agrobacterium tumefaciens.”

In November, the entire Banta lab attended the 23rd Annual Crown Gall Conference in St. Paul, MN. At the meeting, Ken-ichi Ueda and Bronwyn Butcher presented a poster that was co-authored by recent graduate Susan Levin ’02.

This year, Banta taught Advanced Molecular Genetics (BIOL 306) in the fall and Metabolic Biochemistry (BIOL 322) in the spring. The lab portion of the former course was comprised of a semester-long investigative research project using macroarray analysis to characterize the responses of tobacco cells to Agrobacterium infection. This project is part of an on-going collaboration between the Banta lab and the lab of Stan Gelvin at Purdue University. During this academic year, Banta served as an external reviewer for the National Science Foundation, the Consortium for Plant Biotechnology, and the journals Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and Gastronomica. She also gave guest lectures in two physics courses, “Science and Religious Experience” and “Science and Pseudo-Science,” and at the Center for Development Economics.

In February, Banta gave a Faculty Research Lecture entitled “Feast, Famine, or Frankenfoods? Biotechnology and Global Food Production.” Professor Banta also served on the Biochemistry/Molecular Biology advisory committee, the Bioinformatics, Genomics and Proteomics advisory committee, and the Campus Environmental Advisory Committee (CEAC). She chaired the Curriculum Development session at a campus-wide forum entitled “Environmentalism: Should Williams be a Leader or a Follower?”

During the 2002-2003 academic year, Professor Joan Edwards taught Biology and Social Issues of the Tropics (BIOL 134) in the fall, and Field Botany (BIOL 220) in the spring. Field botany had 49 students who diligently went into the field weekly to learn the local flora. This was especially notable since snow persisted in Williamstown well into the “spring”. Despite the weather, students learned over 130 different taxa! Prof. Edwards supervised two honors students. Kimberly Kemper ’03 studied the larvae of the sawfly, Empria obscurata. Empria obscurata is remarkable because it is transparent and turns the color of whatever it eats. Since its main host plant is shrubby cinquefoil (Potentilla fruiticosa), it turns green when eating leaves and bright yellow when eating flower petals. Sarah Klionsky ’03 studied flower longevity patterns in shoreline and forest habitats. Flowers along the shoreline tended to have shorter longevities than their forest counterparts.

In June, Prof. Edwards served on a review committee for Trinity College’s new field station located just outside of Hartford, CT. In January, she also gave a seminar at Trinity College. The seminar presented vignettes of four different plant species all of which have back-up pollination systems: Lonicera canadensis (Fly Bush Honeysuckle) which is backed up by varying its flower longevity; Peraxilla tetrapetala (New Zealand Mistletoe) which is bird pollinated but backed up by native New Zealand bee pollinators; Lilium philadelphicum (Wood Lily) which prolongs its pollen donor phase by closing its anther sacs in the rain; and Cornus canadensis (Bunchberry) which is insect pollinated but backs up its biotic pollinators with explosively discharged pollen. High-speed photography shows that the tiny (3 mm in diameter) flowers of Cornus canadensis open explosively in 3 milliseconds and can discharge pollen over 21 cm. In April, Prof. Edwards attended the Organization for Tropical Studies 40th anniversary symposium at OTS’s Palo Verde Field Station and in San Jose, Costa Rica. She continues to serve as College Marshal overseeing both Convocation and Commencement and was also a member of the College’s interview panel for a second year in a row.

Professor Dan Lynch taught The Cell (BIOL 101) in the fall and began his sabbatical leave in January. Last summer, Teresa O’Brien and Stephen Kelleher worked in the Lynch lab on aspects of sphingolipid metabolism in plants. Lynch is spending his sabbatical furthering his research and writing scientific papers.

Assistant Professor Manuel Morales taught Ecology (BIOL 203) in the fall and Current Topics in Ecology (BIOL 402) in the spring. During this past year, he also supervised three honors students: Jennifer Barone, Angus Beal, and Nathan Briggs. In August, he presented a poster entitled “Effects of Top-Down and Bottom-Up Forces in an ant-Plant Mutualism” at the Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of America in Tucson, AZ. The poster was based in large part on the honors thesis of Brooke Ray Smith ’02.

Professor Wendy Raymond enjoyed both continuing and new activities during the 2002-03 academic year. She taught Immunology (BIOL 313) in the fall and she inaugurated Genomics (BIOL 206) in the spring, a new tutorial aimed at sophomores. Students in the genomics tutorial read some of the latest breaking news in genomics research, along with “classics” (from 2001) that reveal the power of genome research to answer intriguing evolutionary and cell biology questions. The genomics tutorial is included in a new academic program initiated by many science faculty, including Raymond, called “Bioinformatics, Genomics, and Proteomics”.

Raymond’s research program investigating cell-cycle control in yeast continued in the summer of 2002 with Cara Cipriano ’03, Kevin Hsueh ’03, and Joel Schmid ’03. As seniors, Kevin and Joel continued working in Raymond’s lab, completing thesis and independent study projects, respectively. They were joined by first-year students Ellen Crocker and Simone Bràs, who got their first tastes of scientific research at Williams. Raymond presented two posters at the July 2002 New England Regional Yeast Meeting at Cornell University, which Joel Schmid also attended. Raymond attended the international Yeast Genetics and Molecular Biology meeting in Madison, Wisconsin in August 2002.

For the third year, Raymond organized the interdisciplinary Biochemistry and Molecular Biology journal club, which brings students, faculty, and staff together in a casual weekly setting to discuss recently published research articles. She also began serving as the Biology Department’s graduate education advisor. Raymond joined an invited panel of faculty members at the fall Windows on Williams retreat; she joined a similar faculty-student panel during Previews for newly accepted students in the spring. Raymond continued her efforts to improve the quality of child care for Williams faculty and staff, joining with others to win faculty support for a new college Child Care Committee and to gain the College’s commitment to build a new, dedicated childcare center. She serves as a member of the ad hoc Child Care Building Committee, which will guide the planning stages for a new childcare facility. Raymond served on the College’s Committee on Educational Policy, and she will chair this committee during the 2003-04 academic year.

This past year Robert Savage taught Developmental Biology (BIOL 301) in the fall and the spring semester sequence introductory biology course, The Organism (BIOL 102), with David Smith. Professor Savage continued his research on the development and evolution of segmentation in annelids currently supported by the National Science Foundation. Last summer Williams College students Ian Warrington ’03 and Cameron Marshall ’05 collected over 28,000 polychaete embryos, which were then used as the raw material to generate a subtractive cDNA library. Maria Recco, research technician, and Savage continued to work on the project over the past year, and will continue this work for many years to come. As part of her honors project, Karen Thome ’03 characterized the spatiotemporal distribution of the segmental precursor cells in the polychaete Capitella capitata. She discovered that the first twelve segments of the adult worm formed all at one time in development and not in a sequential manner as we expected. In addition, Ila Sheren ’05 and Tynisha Smalls ’06 examined the RNA accumulation patterns of two previously uncharacterized genes expressed in the Capitella embryo. Tynisha plans to continue the project this summer.

Prof. Savage gave a research seminar at Boston University this past spring. It was a wonderful opportunity to visit Pat Burton ’00 who is starting his fourth year in the Ecology, Behavior and Evolution Department at BU. Savage also served as an external reviewer for NSF.

During the 2002-2003 academic year Professor David C. Smith taught Evolution (BIOL 305) in the fall and The Organism (BIOL 102) in the spring. Prof. Smith supervised two honors students who both spent 8 week with Prof. Smith at Isle Royale Wilderness National Park. Malin Pinsky ’03 studied long-term population trends in chorus frog populations at the northeastern end of Isle Royale. Malin used 23 years of data from seven different small islands to model spatial and temporal population dynamics. One remarkable result was synchrony among the seven sub-populations suggesting weather patterns are important in driving the overall population dynamics. Lisa Marco ’03 studied the evolution of plasticity in tadpole development by looking at phenotypic variation in response to habitat heterogeneity. She studied the effect of predators (dragonfly nymphs) on shape changes in the tadpoles. Prof. Smith continues with his ongoing study of the boreal chorus frog (Pseudacris triseriata). He continues with his long-term population census and is also exploring microevolutionary patterns by developing microsatellites to understand the genetic structure of the population. Prof. Smith attended the Organization for Tropical Studies 40th Anniversary Symposium in April at OTS’s Palo Verde Field Station and in San Jose, Costa Rica and he spoke to the Elderhostel class at Rock Harbor, Isle Royale in June.

In the fall of 2002, Associate Professor Steve Swoap taught BIOL 409, Mammalian Molecular Physiology, followed by Physiology (BIOL 205) in the spring. Swoap attended three national meetings this past year, including Experimental Biology ’03 (joined by two of his thesis students, Brigitte Teissedre ’03 and Natalie Stephens ’03). Both students presented their thesis work at this meeting in San Diego, CA. Swoap also presented work at the “Power of Comparative Physiology-Evolution, Integration, and Application” meetings in San Diego, CA in August 2002, as well as the American Heart Association meetings in April 2003 in San Antonio, TX. Assoc. Prof. Swoap served as a reviewer for numerous journals over the past year, including the American Journal of Physiology: Cell, American Journal of Physiology: Regulatory, Physiological Genomics, Life Sciences, Journal of Cell Biology, and the Journal of Applied Physiology. Swoap is also an active reviewer of grants for the skeletal muscle section of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He has recently written a number of articles for the publication, Health Quarterly (<http://www.healthquarterly.com>. ) This series on the “Biology of the Bulge” for the non-scientist focuses on the science of obesity and weight loss.

Professor Heather Williams taught the Senior Seminar in Neuroscience and team-taught Introduction to Neuroscience (with Prof. Zimmerberg of the Psychology Department) in the fall of 2002. In the spring of 2003, she offered an upper-level course in Sensory Biology. She continued as Chair of the Biology Department.

Prof. Williams was part of the organizing committee for “Singing in the Brain”, a conference held in December at Hunter College, and was part of the panel discussing the prospects of the field. She served as a reviewer for several professional journals and for the NSF and the NIH.

Steve Zottoli has been on leave this academic year. He remained on campus and administered the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) grant to Williams College. Last summer he continued the Williams College-Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) program, which is funded by the HHMI, Howard and Nan Schow and the Essel grant to Williams. Six students spent 8 weeks at the MBL attending lectures, seminars and participating in an original research project. He served as a member of the MBL taskforce on governance/administrative structure and is currently a member of the search committee for a Chief Academic and Scientific Officer at the MBL. He continued as the President of The Grass Foundation, a not-for-profit philanthropic organization that funds various programs in neuroscience. In addition, he is on the External Advisory Board for Biomedical Research Infrastructure Network (BRIN) program for the state of New Mexico, funded by NIH. Zottoli attended the Society for Neuroscience meeting in Orlando in the fall of 2002. He continues as a faculty member in the Summer Program in Neuroscience, Ethics and Survival at the MBL.