SOLS

year report 5-year report table of contents

SOLS Founding Director: Vision, 1 Graduate Learning, 55 Robert E. Page, Jr. Discovery, 4 Graduate Student Support, 56 Editor: Margaret Coulombe Biotechnology and Biomedicine, 4 Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training program (IGERT), 56 Ecology and Environment, 7 Design: Jacob Sahertian Frontiers in Life Sciences (FILS) Evolution, 11 Conference Series, 58 Images: Gro Amdam, Apple Inc., Human Dimensions of Biology, 14 Outreach, 60 Arizona State University: Libraries, Behavior and Neuroscience, 17 Graduate Partners in Science Education Embryo Project Encyclopedia, Cell and Developmental Biology, 20 Natural History Collections; (GPSE), 61 Urban Ecology and Sustainability Page Baluch, Douglas Chandler, Ask A Biologist, 61 Margaret Coulombe, Pierre Science, 22 Deviche, Sabine Deviche, James Research Funding Highlights, 26 Resources for Discovery, 63 Elser, William (Bill) Engstrom, Natural History Collections, 63 Frances L. Fawcett, Leah R. Honors and Achievement Gerber, Anthony Gill, Bert Highlights, 29 Core Facilities, 66 Hölldobler, Charlotte Johnston, School of Life Sciences Bioimaging People, 30 Lisa Jones-Engel, Charles Facility, 67 Biomedicine and Biotechnology Faculty, 31 Kazilek, Kenro Kusumi, Leslie R. DNA Laboratory, 68 Landrum, Jacob Mayfield, NASA Basic Medical Sciences Faculty, 32 Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Grass Roots Studio, 68 Cellular and Molecular Biosciences Information Center, Susanne Neuer, Honey Bee Research Facility, 68 Faculty, 33 John C. Phillips, Angela Picco, Visualization Laboratory, 69 Robert Roberson, Jacob Sahertian, Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Computer Teaching Facilities, 69 Siri-Christine Seehuus, Valeria Sciences, 34 Souza, TimeTree Consortium: Genomics, Evolution and Bioinformatics, 35 Connections, 69 timetree.org and Tom Story Human Dimensions of Biology, 39 Centers and Institutes, 69 Contributors: ASU Research Organismal, Integrative and Systems Appendices, 70 Biology, 43 Magazine, John Alcock, Carol Bear, 1: ASU Demographics, 70 Dave Brown, Mike Butler, Arianne Engagement in Undergraduate Cease, Josephine Clark-Curtiss, 2: SOLS Funding Summary, 71 Sharon Crook, Skip Derra, James Training, 46 3: Leadership, 71 Elser and the RTI Committee, Undergraduate and Post Global Engagement, 72 Jennifer Fewell, Anna Fields, Elaine Baccalaureate Research, 47 Finke, Carol Hughes, Kate Ihle, Barbara Kennedy (Penn. State), School of Life Science Undergraduate Sudhir Kumar, Barbara Markley, Research (SOLUR), 48 Kevin McGraw, phil.cdc.gov (public Minority Research at Arizona State domain), Stephen Pyne, Patricia University (MARC), 49 Sahertian, Scot Schoenborn, Research Experiences for Undergraduates Wendi Simonson, Judith Smith, (REU), 49 Philip Tarrant and Marcella Welton Post-Baccalaureate Research Education Program (PREP), 50 sols.asu.edu

The School of Life Sciences is an academic unit of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

1626/0909/250 vision

A message from Robert E. Page, Jr., Founding Director

In the last five years, the School of Life Sciences (SOLS) has provided a vital hub for creative excellence at Arizona State University, with more than 670 faculty, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and staff, and research that ranges from studies on biodiesel and biohydrogen to vaccine development and the conservation of whales. As ASU’s first academic unit to fully reflect President Michael Crow’s integrated, interdisciplinary vision for the New American University, the School of Life Sciences offers active and evolving platforms for collaborative, cutting-edge research and faculty whose discovery is freed from traditional institutional boundaries. School of Life Sciences counts among its faculty a Pulitzer Prize winning author, a a author, a Pulitzer Prize winning among its faculty Sciences counts of Life School ISIThomson of Sciences, National Academy of the and Fellows highly cited author German Society, of Arts and Sciences, American Philosophical American Academy of Sciences, Association – Leopoldina, Brazilian Academy Academy of Sciences Fulbright, MacArthur and Royal Society, Society, in Science, Linnaean for Women leaders are at the heart leaders and up-and-coming These Guggenheim Foundations. origins, at ASU, centers including sustainability, and research of many key initiatives serve as directors of Life Sciences faculty also School The biodesign and others. Biodesign Institute and of innovation on campus, including the for leading centers Disease and and Functional Genomics, Infectious its Centers for Evolutionary the Biology and Society, in Medicine, the Center for and Innovations Vaccinology, and for Science Policy the Consortium and Complexity, Center for Social Dynamics the ecoSERVICES in Society, Outcomes, the Center for Nanotechnology group and, Center. Genomics Research the Translational within the business community, can be found in its investment in achievements central One of the school’s It is home to SOLUR,undergraduate and graduate research. MARC, preMARC, PREP, REU and IGERT with focus on science as it is practiced, programs, teaching In 2003-2008,empowerment of those traditionally underrepresented. the faculty and rank to sixth in and pushed ASU’s publications students published more the 1,106 U.S. Scientific’s and publication efforts, according to Thomson the nation for research of School for ecology and environmental sciences (2001-2005). 10, Top University’s Group, a collaborative Social Insect Research Life Sciences has also developed the and termites has establishedguild whose work with ants, bees, wasps ASU institute in sociobiology and social insect studies. internationally as the top research at ASU offers new insights into aging, epigenetics and now Social insect research the basis for the evolution of social behavior development of disease, as well charting from genes to superorganisms. in education, strives to provide leadership and input globally, of Life Sciences School on seven continents, coincident with investment in outreach. and research scholarship projects knowledge and enthusiasm about the life sciences to the public, school The and digestible information tailoredrecognizing an increasing need for reliable for a with flagship with local and regional schools range of audiences. It works extensively as Graduate Partners for Science Education and Ask A Biologist. It programs, such science communication skills to students aims to engage life-long learners and teach a via its award-winning SOLS and Science Studio podcast, SOLS Magazine Takes serves the community of Life Sciences School Hike and ASU Darwinfest events. The & Roll Paint-a- as the Rock directly via a multi-year commitment to programs such disabled, women benefit the elderly, thon, Chrysalis which Camp Kesem, Shelter and in families suffering displaced by domestic violence and children and children from cancer. The experiment to contain first five years ofThe have been years of discovery. SOLS beyond life sciences within a structure without disciplinary boundaries has succeeded and outreach. research has made great strides in teaching, expectations. school The But, what will the next five years bring? Certainlychallenging and be they will be the and evolving ASU and, most certainly, centered on adapting to a rapidly changing of Life Sciences will continue to be central to the vision of President Crow and School the mission of the university. SOLS 2009 | 5-year report vision 2 The fragmentation of biology is ending

School of Life Sciences (SOLS) at Arizona State Sustainability, Barrett, The Honors College, Department University was founded on the vision that the future of of Mathematics and Statistics, Department of Chemistry biology lies at the interfaces: of traditional life science and Biochemistry, The University of Arizona College of disciplines, of natural and social sciences, and of basic Medicine – Phoenix in partnership with Arizona State and applied research. SOLS is dedicated to training University) and non-academic units (Biodesign Institute, the future scientists, scholars and entrepreneurs Global Institute of Sustainability). who will work at these intersections, developing solutions to issues of pressing human concern, such Life science faculty have also played a leading role in as the ecological impacts of urbanization, the need the development of new, university-wide interdisciplinary for affordable vaccines in the developing world and graduate programs, including Biological Design, sustainable bioenergy systems, endangered species and Environmental Life Sciences and Neuroscience. ecosystem conservation. Providing a new model for cross-campus collaboration, SOLS-led graduate programs in behavior and in During the past five years, life sciences faculty and evolution are currently underway. students have sought to bring this vision into tangible form with commitment to cutting-edge work, both School of Life Sciences is deeply dedicated to training at within core disciplines and at disciplinary boundaries. the undergraduate level, teaching science as science is A focus that has inspired both “curiosity-driven” and practiced. Thus, SOLS faculty emphasize the importance “use-inspired” approaches (and everything in between), of hands-on learning in classroom laboratories and are spanning domains from the biological physics of a dedicated mentors to students, involving them in the molecular motor to the environmental history of fire. most fundamental work in the research laboratories. Teaching in the school reaches an ever-growing number One mechanism that propels faculty achievement is of life sciences majors as well as a broad cross-section the flexible academic structure of the school. Faculty of other ASU students for whom biology is an important members are organized into seven “faculty groups” part of their education. that focus on broad areas of biology and where important decisions for hiring, retention and curriculum An evolving work-in-progress, SOLS seeks a unified can originate. Faculty are also encouraged to pursue understanding of living systems, improving the human their scholarship in various inter-disciplinary and condition and communicating it to the future. This trans-disciplinary endeavors, such as affiliations or report offers a snapshot of the most recent innovations, joint appointments with other academic (School of adaptations and diversifications on this journey.

SOLS 2009 | 5-year report 3 discovery

Biotechnology and Biomedicine

The sequences of large numbers of genomes, including humans, other vertebrates and most of their pathogens, are either known or will be in the near future. This “genomic revolution” has transformed biology into a science that is limited largely by our ability to process and utilize the almost bewildering amount of available sequence data. Our main challenges are to assign functions to newly discovered genes and to describe how they interact with environmental signals to produce diverse biological phenomena. Moreover, we now have the tools to take this wealth of information and apply it to benefit humans and the environment by developing innovations in medicine, agriculture and engineering.

Microorganisms rule the world and many infectious ones have plagued mankind for centuries. Pathogenic organisms are evolving resistance to antibiotics and finding new host and environments to live in; however, the rapid evolution of new pathologies, infectious or not, leaves telling genetic traces. To meet the challenges presented by this rapidly changing microbial world, School of Life Science faculty and students are engaged genetic engineering, vaccine innovation and discovery in infectious disease research and understanding of emergent disease, as well as, developing new tools and new approaches, including space travel.

Core faculty and students in life sciences are also employed in basic and applied bioenergy research leading to the conversion of solar energy to chemical energy by photosynthetic organisms and increased biofuels yield (e.g., diesel and hydrogen). Such studies are interdisciplinary and include, for example, metabolic engineering, microbiology, biochemistry, -omics (genomics, proteomics and metabolomics) and microbial ecology. Discovery: Biotechnology and Biomedicine

Energy of the Future: Investing in global public alternative fuels and the storage health challenges of chemical energy

What comes after oil? Let’s be direct and go for the Malaria kills a child somewhere around the world sun. Nothing is more direct than photosynthesis – the every 30 seconds and is responsible for 350-500 process that made oil in the first place. No organism million clinical cases and one million deaths each year. is easier to grow or more direct in its ability to harvest Ananias Escalante uses advanced mathematical solar energy than photosynthetic bacteria, the models and experimental data to study the spread of evolutionary ancestor of plants. malaria – the number one killer of the tropics. The first alert to new developing pathogens as well as analysis These are the tenets held by Willem Vermaas and of how to best combat established diseases is through Jens Appel. Cyanobacteria are photoautotrophic epidemiology and evaluation of drug effectiveness. organisms able to live just by using sunlight, water For that reason, Escalante has been enlisted by the and some minerals. Found on land and sea, they National Institutes of Health to undertake several also have a genome that is open to manipulation by studies of malaria. One global comparative study standard molecular biological techniques and provide focuses on the evolution of antimalarial resistance, an efficient means to utilize solar energy without in order to understand which types of populations competing with agriculture and food production. The are most prone to the emergence of drug resistance goals of Vermaas and Appel are two-fold. They work or to the reemergence of drug sensitivity. He hopes via genetic engineering to get cyanobacteria to make this work will provide theoretical tools to evaluate fuel-like lipids rather than sugars, which can then be potential drug policies (e.g. combination therapy or extracted to produce a new form of diesel, and they drug rotation) in situations likely to be encountered tinker with their enzymes, which have the capacity in different endemic areas. His papers in Infection, to produce biohydrogen. In the Journal of Biological Genetics and Evolution and Antimicrobial Agents and Chemistry and Biochimica et Biophysica Acta, they Chemotherapy demonstrate that drug susceptible have demonstrated new features of the photosystem parasites do not reappear after drug use is stopped proteins in these bacteria and shown the capacity to – making drug resistance a longer-term problem than enhance hydrogen evolution. previously recognized. Escalante is also studying the evolution of malarial parasites in Asian macaques and simian retroviruses in Bangladesh, hoping to solve some of the genetic mysteries behind the host shift of disease from animals to humans. His research involves a network of U.S. partners, including the Center for Disease Control, and international collaborators in Bangladesh, Cameroon, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Peru, Tanzania and Venezuela.

SOLS 2009 | 5-year report 5 Discovery: Biotechnology and Biomedicine

Developing biosensing nanodevices to revolutionize disease detection

Arizona State University researcher Wayne Frasch Antibacterial clay: the next has developed a biosensing nanodevice for standard screening of the human body for disease. It is hoped topical penicillin? the device may eliminate long lines at airport security checkpoints and revolutionize health screenings for diseases like anthrax, cancer and antibiotic resistant Clay is most commonly associated with the sublime Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Even more incredible experience of the European spa where visitors have than the device itself is that it is based on the world’s been masked, soaked and basted with this touted tiniest rotary motor: a biological engine operating curative since the Romans ruled. If ASU microbiologist at the molecular scale. Frasch and his colleagues Shelley Haydel’s research on the antibacterial published an article outlining the technology entitled: properties of clays realizes its full potential, smectite “Single-molecule detection of DNA via sequence- clay could one day rise above cosmetic use to take its specific links between F1-ATPase motors and gold place comfortably with antibacterial behemoths like nanorod sensors” in the journal Lab on a Chip, and penicillin. “We use maggots and leeches in hospitals, featured in the online journal Chemical Biology. so why not clay?” Haydel poses. “I had a professor in Frasch’s motor involves the enzyme F1-adenosine graduate school say, ‘Maybe perhaps once in your life, triphosphatase, better known as F1- ATPase. F1- in your scientific career, you’ll come across something ATPase breaks down adenosine triphosphate (ATP) that can change the world.’ Sometimes I think: Is this to adenosine diphosphate (ADP), releasing energy. it? Will this help some people?” Haydel has been This enzyme, only 10 to 12 nanometers in diameter, awarded a $1.6 million grant by the National Institutes has an axle that spins and produces torque. This tiny of Health to investigate how minerals from clay inhibit wonder is part of a complex of proteins key to creating pathogens. The hope is that these clays could provide energy in all living things, including photosynthesis inexpensive, highly-effective antimicrobials to fight in plants. It was through his own detailed study of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) the rotational mechanism of the F1-ATPase, which infections. These “superbugs” are increasingly operates like a three-cylinder Mazda rotary motor, that resistant to multiple antibiotics and cause thousands Frasch conceived of a way to take this tiny biological of deaths each year. The clays could provide easily powerhouse and couple it with science applications stored and transported, topical cures to other outside of the cell. skin diseases, such as Buruli ulcer, which affects communities in central Africa and leads to amputation, infection and disfigurement.

6 SOLS 2009 | 5-year report Ecology and Environment

Life sciences research in the 21st century will bring exciting leaps in our understanding of how genes and the environment, evolution and development shape the functions of molecules, cells, brains, organisms, behaviors, ecosystems and societies, as well as the conceptual and social foundations of science. From Gila monsters, giant insects and conservation genetics of bison to global cycling of nutrients and emergent disease (and on all seven continents), SOLS researchers are on the forefront of studying the co-evolution of organisms and their environments. Discovery: Ecology and Environment

School of Life Sciences is a core center for at ASU, life sciences’ biologists partner with planetary environmental sciences at ASU with faculty and geologists to assess the potential for life (astrobiology) students engaged in trans-disciplinary research, on Europa, one of Jupiter’s icy moons hypothesized to collaborating with urban planners and policy makers, hold a vast ocean underneath its icy shell, and examine and as key participants within the Global Institute of the evolution of the earliest of life on earth. In the field Sustainability and School of Sustainability. Faculty at the of environmental physiology, faculty and students intersection of policy and the environment ask a diverse explore the physiological potential of plants, animals and range of questions, from how socioeconomic processes microbes in environments ranging from high altitudes to drive land use and land cover change in North America deserts and grasslands, and even in ancient scenarios, and China, to how trade impacts invasive species, such as the late Paleozoic. emergent disease and bioeconomics, to how farming done centuries ago in the American Southwest impacts Imagining the current and future fingerprints of our landscapes today. A non-traditional setting that is a rich current land-use practices, including effects on nutrient environment for life sciences biologists has been the city cycling, conservation practices and policies, our oceans itself. Phoenix is one of two NSF-funded urban Long and water resources, is driving discovery, innovation and Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites nation-wide. solutions to the challenges of the future.

Experts are also working to unravel the fundamental relationships between the elemental composition of microbes and their environments (biogeochemistry). In coordination with the NASA Astrobiology Institute 8 SOLS 2009 | 5-year report discovery Discovery: Ecology and Environment

Global Climate Change: How giant At the intersection of water, insects once ruled the planet diversity and deserts

Change in Earth’s atmosphere is not, surprisingly, Wesley Powell, the great explorer of the American new. Big swings in atmospheric oxygen range from West, noted that if it was possible to spread all 30 percent to 13 percent in Earth’s ancient past, to available surface water evenly across the western U.S., today’s 21 percent. So why the current concern? there would still be a desert very similar to the one Such past changes have also been linked to profound Powell encountered on his journeys. Powell’s insights outcomes, such as gigantism in insects in the Permian were nearly prophetic. Since Powell’s adventures, age and catastrophic extinctions of species in the almost all of the great rivers in the American Triassic period – the evolution of all we see around us. West have been dammed, diverted or tapped for It gives one pause when considering the future. What groundwater for the sake of agriculture and municipal will the shift in the present day greenhouse gases and water supplies. Nowhere are these changes more UV radiation ultimately mean? A pair of scientists in poignant and relevant than in Arizona. John Sabo’s School of Life Sciences thinks the answers might be research employs large scale field experiments, stable found through the creation of mini-worlds. isotopic tracers and lab physiology to understand links

Professor Jon Harrison and post doctoral fellow between the water cycle and animal performance, John VandenBrooks are leading an effort to establish abundance and species diversity. Most of his work a Variable Atmosphere Laboratory (VAL) on ASU’s focuses on riparian and river food webs. For example, Polytechnic campus that would support 50-70 his students study links between ground water mini-worlds and enable the small scale creation aquifers and animals in riparian forests. Here they are of atmospheric conditions found from inner cities finding that riparian trees deliver groundwater and to Mount Everest to Mars. In each of the VAL alleviate water-stress to riparian animals via a daily rain modules, scientists could manipulate a wide range of of green, water-laden leaves. Sabo also has projects atmospheres, creating conditions that might exist in that examine the effects of dams on energy flow the future or recreating those of ancient Earth, notes through aquatic food webs. One aspect of this work is VandenBrooks. By having the capacity to manipulate to understand how dams alter the relative dependence trace gases like ozone, temperature, humidity, UV of top predators on aquatic and terrestrial sources radiation, barometric pressure and carbon dioxide, of carbon, and thus energy. All of this work is geared they could examine the effects of inner-city pollution or towards understanding the sustainable management even simulate extraterrestrial atmospheres. of water resources for humans and biodiversity.

The inspiration to create the Variable Atmospheric Laboratory grew out of needs and questions intrinsic in VandenBrooks’ and Harrison’s own research studies. The duo investigates the effects of atmospheric oxygen on the development and evolution of insects, in particular the apparent correlation between the presence of high oxygen levels in ancient earth and gigantism in insects in the Carboniferous and Permian periods. discoverySOLS 2009 | 5-year report 9 Discovery: Ecology and Environment

M ODIS image (4 km resolution) showing chlorophyll a levels for 2006 (purple areas indicate low productivity while high productivity is indicated in red)

Visualizing microorganisms from space

What if you could spy on something only a few millionths ecology and how it affects primary production and of a meter (microns) across from space? Seem far- carbon flux in the ocean. One of the key satellites used fetched? Scientists studying phytoplankton in the for measuring ocean primary production from space oceans have discovered when enough of these tiny is SeaWifs (Sea-viewing Wide Field-of view Sensor). unicellular organisms come together, they become Neuer is now also adapting this process to include visible from space. In fact the reason phytoplankton are microorganisms in smaller bodies of water, such as the easier to see from space (than something significantly Salt River reservoirs in Arizona. larger, like the Great Wall of China) is because they photosynthesize. By absorbing some wavelengths of The growing population of the Phoenix metropolitan light and reflecting others, the photosynthetic pigments area will increase the demand for water in central in these micro-organisms produce distinctive colors. Arizona. Resource management authorities recognize that the limited water supply stored in our reservoirs is Large numbers of phytoplankton (a thimble of water a precious resource. Neuer hopes that by combining can contain tens or even hundreds of thousands of views from space with views through the microscope, individuals) floating together in the ocean change the SOLS can contribute to ongoing efforts to improve color of the light that reflects back into space. It is this water quality in all the reservoirs across Arizona. More change in color that is visible to specially designed significantly, if these experimental monitoring techniques satellite sensors passing high above the Earth. prove to be successful, they have the potential to provide similar benefits to understanding of watersheds Susanne Neuer’s group in the School of Life Sciences across the planet. uses satellite imagery to support research projects aimed at increasing understanding of phytoplankton

10 SOLS 2009 | 5-year report Evolution

With apologies to Dobzhansky, nothing in SOLS makes sense except in light of evolution. Evolutionary perspectives permeate our work. Why did social behaviors arise in some species and not others? When did humans and chimpanzees diverge during the history of life? How can we establish and keep track of the world’s species and their evolutionary relationships? How do new infectious diseases emerge to threaten humans? How do old nemeses like malaria change over time? What do whales and hippos have in common? How does life cope with extremes of temperature and aridity and how does this relate to a future world affected by climate change? Discovery: Evolution

Faculty and students investigative approaches run case, ISI Ecology and Environment). A variety of the gamut of the evolutionary sciences, including substantial and influential books with evolutionary high-level bioinformatics analyses of genomics themes have been authored or edited by SOLS databases, theoretical simulation, population faculty members in recent years, including “The genetics, comparative anatomy and physiology, Timetree of Life,” “From Embryology to Evo Devo: taxonomy and experimental evolution. Key The History of Developmental Evolution” and “Bird connections and collaborations relevant to Coloration: Function and Evolution,” “An Enthusiasm evolution occur through numerous Centers, for Orchids: Sex and Deception in Plant Evolution” Institutes and research programs, including: the and the “Organization of Insect Societies: From Center for Social Dynamics and Complexity, the Genome to Sociocomplexity.” Center for Evolutionary & Functional Genomics (Biodesign), the Center for Infectious Disease & Meanwhile, undergraduate courses and research Vaccinology (Biodesign), the International Institute highly relevant to evolution include bioinformatics for Species Exploration and ASU’s Astrobiology and molecular evolution; genes, development Institute (NASA). and evolution organic evolution origins, evolution and creation and the Darwinian revolution. At the Research during the past five years has produced graduate level, 2009 will see the launch of a new more than 90 peer-reviewed scientific publications Ph.D. degree program in Evolutionary Biology, (Thomson ISI Web of Science), including seven an inter-disciplinary effort that connects SOLS since 2005 that qualify as “highly cited” (citation researchers to colleagues across the ASU campus. frequency in the top 1% of the discipline; in this

A virtual world expands species discovery

Quentin Wheeler broke new “ground” when he launched ASU’s International Institute for Species Exploration (IISE). Wheeler, ASU vice president and Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, developed IISE to engage museums and research institutions globally, blending computer engineering with taxonomy to build cyberinfrastructure – virtual connections between collections – that will assist scientists, enlist the public and accelerate species discovery. Two projects, the Top 10 New Species and the State of Observed Illustration of Orbison whirligig beetle Species (SOS) report, have captured the public imagination and heightened awareness of the biodiversity crisis. The SOS is a “report card on the state of knowledge of the earth’s species.” In 2008, it revealed the discovery and description of 16,969 new species, in partnership with the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, the International Plant Names Index and Thompson Scientific (the publisher of Zoological Record). IISE’s key partners include Spain, the United Kingdom, China, Belgium, Slovakia, Russia, Mexico and Australia. In addition to developing new tools and advancing access and species identification online, IISE is actively expanding physical museum collections. Some of Wheeler’s own recent discoveries include new species of beetles that he has named to honor of Roy Orbison (2008) and television’s host of Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert in 2009.

Shocking pink millipede “We are surrounded by such an exuberance of species Desmoxytes purpurosea diversity that we too often take it for granted. Charting the species of the world and their unique attributes are essential parts of understanding the history of life and is in our own self-interest as we face the challenges of living on a rapidly changing planet” – Quentin Wheeler

12 SOLS 2009 | 5-year report Discovery: Evolution

Darwinfest

SOLS evolutionary biologists are playing an important role in public education through their involvement in ASU’s 2009 Darwinfest celebrations (darwinfest.asu.edu), which include Darwin Distinguished Lecture Series, The Future of Evolution Lecture Series, speakers in the School of Life Sciences Seminar Series and a workshop developed to Insect study revolutionizes understanding empower teachers, Translating Evolutionary Science into the of social systems and disease Public Classroom.

ASU’s currency in social insect study is rising faster than the Euro against the dollar on the world scene, as host to School of Life Sciences’ Social Insect Research Group, led by Pulitzer Prize winning author and scientist Bert Hölldobler. The group has built strong interdisciplinary ties and long-standing institutional relationships with universities and research institutes globally. Focusing on social insects as model systems for understanding behavior, faculty and students explore biology’s most complex problems, such as the development and evolution of social systems and aging.

Social insects play a dominant role in terrestrial ecology and their astounding evolutionary success is based on remarkable systems of division of labor involving hundreds and thousands of individual organisms. “Such cooperative organizations can only work by means of integrating communication systems,” Hölldobler says. “One of the frontiers in experimental sociobiology is the exploration of the genetic foundation of this remarkable cooperative behavior, and tracking the feedback loops within these societies that make them to highly integrated ‘superorganisms’.” SOLS scientists have also discovered links between behavior, epigenetics and aging, taking understanding of human systems in new directions. Faculty and students in the group pursue a host of novel research programs, from behavioral ecology, neuroscience, biomedicine to building understanding around the evolution of genes, ecosystems, social systems, networks and complex adaptive systems.

SOLS 2009 | 5-year report 13 Human Dimensions of Biology

Unlike many science departments, the School of Life Sciences is unique among biology programs in its systematic focus on the human dimensions of biology. Historical, philosophical, conceptual, ethical, legal and policy considerations are integrated into teaching and research throughout the school. Such research challenges show biology to be much more nuanced and much more humanly engaged than it might seem. Through research and outreach projects, courses, workshops and reading groups, faculty and students are challenged to think not only about how science works and how it changes over time, but also about the people who carry out the science, the institutions in which they work, about their conceptual and methodological assumptions and the practices they adopt. Furthermore, they think about the broader implications of their scientific work, including its ethical aspects and what it means to carry out research responsibly.

Researchers focused on human dimensions in biology lead the exploration at the intersection of biology and society, carrying questions into classrooms and collaborations. As leaders in Edmund Beecher Wilson, 1856-1939 professional societies and in informing decisions related to Embryo Project Encyclopedia science policy and law, SOLS faculty engage in the examination of interactions of humans and the environment in diverse ways. Faculty explore core questions that underpin the discussions of “Life,” studying the interplay of people, practices and policy, applying biology to human problems so that we can leave the legacy of life to our future generations. Discovery: Human Dimensions of Biology

The Embryo Project

Led by Jane Maienschein, Regents’ Professor, President’s Professor and Parents Association Professor at ASU, faculty leader and director of the Center for Biology and Society, an ambitious group of philosophers, bioethicists, historians, scientists, lawyers and policy experts have launched a detailed study of the history of embryo research to understand how society, technology and culture have affected the course of science. The Embryo Project, which examines embryology and developmental biology in its scientific, cultural and legal contexts over time, offers a cutting-edge digital encyclopedia (embryo.asu.edu) in conjunction with the ASU Library, the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory and the Max-Planck Institute for the History of Science. The project is developing not only a repository of digital objects centered around embryo research, but also new solutions to bridge the divide between traditional scholarship in the humanities and the explosion of information in the digital universe.

The Embryo Project group includes SOLS professors Manfred Laubichler, Gary Marchant, director of the Center for Law, Science and Technology, Jason Robert and Andrew Hamilton and librarian John Howard and other colleagues at ASU, in the U.S. and Europe.

Whose View of Life? Embryos, Cloning and Stem Cells

A 2004 Independent Publisher Book Awards Finalist in the Science Category, Maienschein’s “View of Life” brings “current debate into sharper focus by examining developments in stem cell research, cloning and embryology in historical and philosophical context and by exploring legal, social and ethical issues at the heart of what has become a political controversy.” (Harvard Press).

Documenting World’s Mammals in Crisis

From majestic African elephants to tiny and often unappreciated rodents, mammals on Earth are in a state of crisis. One in four mammal species on Earth is being pushed to extinction, according to the Global Mammal Assessment, the most comprehensive assessment of the world’s mammals.

Writing in the October 2008 issue of Science, (“The Status of the World’s Land and Marine Mammals: Diversity, Threat, and Knowledge”) and unveiling a “Red List” of endangered mammal species (at the International Union for Conservation of Nature World Conservation Congress in Barcelona, Spain), the researchers who worked on the exhaustive study say that from 25 percent to 36 percent of species may be in danger of extinction.

SOLS 2009 | 5-year report 15 Discovery: Human Dimensions of Biology

“It is frightening that after millions and millions of years of evolution that A Guide to the have given rise to the biodiversity of mammals we are perched on a crisis where 25 percent of species are threatened with being lost forever,” Mammals of China, said SOLS’ Andrew Smith, who played a key role in the mammalian Andrew T. Smith assessment. Smith and his research assistant, Charlotte Johnston, are and Yan Xie (eds) two of the 103 authors of the Science paper. Not just another guidebook, this The Global Mammal Assessment was conducted by more than 1,800 527-page volume describes every scientists from more than 130 countries working under the auspices of mammal found in the fourth largest the International Union for Conservation of Nature. It was made possible country on earth. Containing by the volunteer help of IUCN Species Survival Commission’s specialist 61 plates, six maps and 25 groups and collaborations between top institutions and universities, habitat photos (all in color), a including Arizona State University, Texas A&M University, University of glossary and a key to the orders Virginia, Conservation International, Sapienza Università di Roma and the of Chinese mammals, this book Zoological Society of London. is a comprehensive compilation of the systematics, identification, distribution, natural history and conservation status of more than Engineers seek out bio-inspired solutions 550 species. Highly readable, beautifully illustrated and easy Stephen Pratt’s ants carrying a to use. Published by Princeton force sensor, University Press (2008). allowing him to develop understanding about teamwork and measurable collective effort for application in robotics.

Hungry lions on the savanna or porpoises in the sea work as teams to catch prey. Schooling fish dart in unison to escape a predator. Even “Meerkat Manor” depicts complex groups with clearly defined duties. What do these complex activities all have in common? For Stephen Pratt, assistant professor in Arizona State University’s School of Life Sciences, they represent different aspects of the hunt, but in ways that most people could barely begin to imagine.

ASU and Pratt hosted engineers, computer scientists, biologists and social scientists at a recent workshop – Heterogeneous Unmanned Networked Teams (HUNT) – that focused on developing bio-inspired solutions to engineering problems.

The workshop is part of a five-year project of the same name funded by the Office of Naval Research (ONR). The effort is led by 10 engineers and computer scientists from the University of Pennsylvania, University of California, Berkeley, and the Georgia Institute of Technology, in addition to ASU’s Pratt, who is the sole biologist in the group. Why would naval research and other engineering research institutions look to nature for bio-inspired solutions? “Robustness, scalability and the ability to function without complex central control are things that are really desirable in an artificial system,” Pratt points out. “All kinds of natural systems have them; from the movement of fish in schools and birds in flocks to social insects building specific, complex nest structures.”

16 SOLS 2009 | 5-year report Behavior and Neuroscience

The study of animal behavior is one of the most interdisciplinary enterprises in biology. As Niko Tinbergen pointed out, long ago, to explain any behavior fully requires information about its development, its underlying physiological mechanisms, its adaptive value and its evolutionary origin and modifications. Therefore, genetics, developmental biology, physiology, ecology and evolutionary biology must all be employed to most fully understand behavior. In addition, building an understanding of behavior also involves an examination of the molecular, cellular and cognitive systems that underpin the relationship between behavior and the brain.

School of Life Sciences employs an integrative and interdisciplinary approach in studies of behavior and neuroscience, examining fundamental questions at different levels of biological organization, with an eye on the interconnections between the mechanisms and their evolution. For example, core faculty explore the complex social systems of ants and honeybees on multiple levels, from genes to social interactions to modeling of human systems. Other faculty consider the adaptive value of color patterns exhibited by birds and butterflies while also looking at the physiology and development of the systems that produce the color patterns. Still other researchers work with an increasingly sophisticated array of tools and animal, cellular and insect models to expand understanding of how nervous systems adapt to their environments and develop models for human neurological conditions. Relationships with other academic units at ASU, such as the Center for Social Dynamics and Complexity, Center for Biology and Society, and partners offsite, such as Barrow Neurological Institute and other clinical partners, make ASU one of the broadest and strongest centers for behavior research in the nation and a burgeoning center of growth in neuroscience. ‘Sniffing’ out cheaters

An “honest indicator” has been discovered by a scientific team at Arizona State University that reveals reproductive cheating. But before you run out to buy an infidelity identification kit, know that it only works for ants. While it’s well-known that workers in ant colonies typically support one reproductive female – a queen, it turns out that cheating can be a problem, and not just for humans. Cheating is found in all sorts of animal and insect groups, including other highly organized social organisms, such as ants.

Humans cheat on their partners roughly 15-18 percent of the time (according to scientific studies). However, worker ants that stray from acceptable celibate social norms rarely, if ever, are successful. Cheaters are actively weeded out by other workers and brought back into line, through a process called policing. But how can workers in an ant colony, with hundreds to thousands of sister-workers around them, locate one cheater in an ant hill?

Through fertility hydrocarbons, says Jürgen Liebig, an assistant professor in the School of Life Sciences and member of the Center for Social Dynamic and Complexity in ASU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. According to research findings published in the journal Current Biology, hydrocarbons on the outside cuticle of fertile ants form “a particular chemical signature blend.” A cocktail that an ant apparently can’t deny, cover up or lie about and which brands a cheater much like the red “A” on the bosom of Hester Prynne in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter.”

18 SOLS 2009 | 5-year report Discovery: Behavior and Neuroscience

Large scale modeling of nervous system function?

Computational models based on detailed neuroanatomical and electrophysiological data have been used for many years to aid in understanding nervous system function. Increasingly, large-scale models are essential tools for bridging multiple levels of organization; however, different parts of a complex nervous system model are implemented optimally in different simulators. Since 2002, Sharon Crook has been actively coordinating an effort to develop standards for describing these types of models in order to facilitate exchange and to create a language that promotes interoperability between different simulators and other tools. In 2005, to aid in this process, the International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility (INCF) was established with the goal of fostering scientific interaction and knowledge by developing, maintaining and evaluating international programs, standards and infrastructure for neuroinformatics in 14 countries around the world. Recently, the INCF established a program for Large-Scale Modeling, which focuses on setting standards for simulator interoperability. Crook has been appointed to the Oversight Committee for Description Standards in Neural Network Modeling as part of this effort (neuroml.org).

Sound discoveries in brain health

Great discoveries—how are they made? Sometimes, you have to “kick out the jams” and take risks. Other times it’s relentless patience and methodical testing. Of course, sometimes a mere accident holds the key.

William (Jamie) Tyler says that his “Aha” moment occurred in graduate school during an aural overload of the bands “Dr. Dre” and “Rage Against the Machine.” His revolutionary discovery?; that ultrasound can be harnessed to remotely stimulate brain circuits, making the noninvasive modulation of the activity of neural circuits in the intact brain possible. Tyler says the technique opens new doors in uses that range from medical treatments to video gaming.

“The prospects are exhilarating,” Tyler says. “The improved patient access that low-intensity, low-frequency ultrasound confers over surgical intervention or gene- therapy means that literally millions of people might be helped through use of ultrasonic neuromodulation.”

Tyler and his colleagues are now carefully characterizing the influence of ultrasound on intact brain circuits and pursuing translational neuroscience research. The goal is to take low-intensity ultrasound from the laboratory bench into pre-clinical trials.

“There was a time when I thought that making a novel discovery in the lab was the hard part. I’ve found that’s only where it begins,” Tyler says. “The real challenge, effort, time and money come into play when transforming that discovery into a medical treatment.”

SOLS 2009 | 5-year report 19 Cell and Developmental Biology

In the last five years, the School of Life Sciences has nearly doubled its faculty in cell and developmental biology, with a strong emphasis on neurobiology, infection and immunity. Teaching and research activities in the areas of genetics, cellular and developmental biology focus on understanding the fundamental molecular events that are at the core of all life. These pursuits cover a broad range of specialized disciplines, including biochemistry, biophysics, molecular biology, structural biology, genetics, genomics, bioinformatics, cell biology, developmental biology, tumor biology, microbiology, immunology and pathogenesis.

Faculty and students examine sperm-egg interaction during fertilization, the telomerase ribonucleotide complex, the molecular mechanisms of proteins involved in intercellular signaling, and the regulation of gene expression in Drosophila, Salmonella typhimurium, Escherichia coli and Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Other model organisms include plants, fish, arthropods and vertebrates and provide new tools and information for use in applied fields from medicine to alternative fuels.

In the area of prokaryotic research, studies focus on elucidating the molecular mechanisms of transport of molecules into and out of bacterial cells, assembly and function of outer membrane proteins, resistance to host antimicrobial peptides, understanding the antibacterial effects found in natural clays, the effects of space flight on microbial physiology, the mechanisms of pathogenicity of significant human pathogens and transitions from active growth to persistence or latency. From insights about the development of birth defects and scoliosis to discovery of how low frequency ultrasound can remotely stimulate neurons, the diversity of research and innovative approaches is also reflected in the range of technical approaches, including sophisticated techniques of bioinformatics, molecular genetics, functional genomics, modeling, mass spectrometry and bioimaging. Discovery: Cell and Developmental Biology

How to mimic outer space on Earth: Space ills and Earth cures

The technology created by NASA scientists and engineers has done plenty to help humanity over the past five decades. All that brainpower and technical know-how has spawned and improved satellites. It has also led to the creation of flat-screen televisions, robotic wheelchairs, water purification systems and cell phones. Sick flies shed light Could it now also hold the key to what ails us here on Earth? on human immunity

Cheryl Nickerson has bet her career on it. Nickerson is an Strong parallels exist in the earthbound microbiologist in the School of Life Sciences and regulation of immune system researcher in the Biodesign Institute at ASU. Her NASA-funded function in animals as diverse as research supports the development of innovative experimental flies, mice and humans. Salmonella models for infectious disease and drug development, on Earth and infection is not a positive experience in space. in either humans or, as it turns out, flies. By infecting the common Nickerson wants to transform our understanding of the forces that laboratory fruit fly Drosophila shape nasty pathogens and their ability to cause disease. melanogaster with a Salmonella strain known for causing humans “Those tax dollars we invest in NASA’s manned space programs intestinal grief, researchers in propel new product discovery that impacts our lives on a daily the School of Life Sciences at basis, including advances in health and medicine,” Nickerson says. Arizona State University have shed “So the fact that we have the potential to provide novel cures and light on some key cell regulatory therapeutics to treat infectious diseases as a result of the manned processes—with broad implications space program should come as no surprise.” for understanding embryonic development, immune function and congenital diseases in humans. Froggy goes Frandsen, J., Gunn, B., Muratoglu, a-courting: S., Fossett, N. and Newfeld, S.J. Chemical in (2008) Salmonella pathogenesis frog eggs lures reveals that BMP signaling regulates blood cell homeostasis and immune males to mate responses in Drosophila. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 105:14952-14957.

Douglas Chandler has built a In frogs, these peptides act like reproductive mechanisms may career investigating all the bits designer perfumes. Males are lured spawn new ways to enhance fertility and pieces and nuance that to the right spot to meet Princess or ensure contraception,” says promotes romance in the pond. Froggy. If it’s good enough for frogs, Chandler, a professor in the School Frogs are his subject of study. what about humans? of Life Sciences. The ASU scientist has isolated a sexual chemoattractant in the eggs Chandler has cloned Allurin. He has Bioimaging plays a major role in of female frogs. The substance also sequenced it genetically and Chandler’s research and he, along is exactly what it sounds like, a found that it is structurally related with co-author Robert Roberson, chemical that helps female frogs to a number of mammalian sperm has published a new reference and attract their charming prince. binding proteins. Recent studies text in the field titled “Bioimaging: Appropriately, Chandler named the have show that it also attracts Current Concepts in Light and substance Allurin. He says that his mammalian sperm. Electron Microscopy.” find is the first such discovery in vertebrates. The chemical is 184 “Intensive study of the relationships amino acids that say: “Hey Daddy, between these sperm attracting come to Momma!” proteins and mammalian

SOLS 2009 | 5-year report 21 Urban Ecology and Sustainability Science

The School of Life Sciences fosters a culture work on processes that directly or indirectly affect of basic research and teaching with an eye sustainability science, studying the role and effects toward applicability. This is perhaps nowhere as of climate change and human activity on a variety conspicuous as in the cross-cutting interest of our of ecosystems that range from the open oceans to faculty and students in promoting sustainability of deserts and lakes. Importantly, and rather uniquely, our planet’s resources and the natural and social ASU has long been focused on the biogeochemistry systems it hosts. A wide range of scientists and and sustainability of a city’s rapidly evolving urban students pursue conservation biology to molecular ecosystem system. The focus on urban ecology biology through this lens, tapping into resources in School of Life Sciences has attracted key and producing tools, services and information that researchers and vaulted ASU to the forefront in informs policy from whales in the open ocean to this field, with the school providing leadership in bacteria in the clinic. Many labs in life sciences, and the Central Arizona Long-Term Ecology Research collaborating units and partners across ASU, are program (CAP LTER) in urban ecology, thus active in the area of bioeconomics, bioenergy and connecting SOLS efforts with those of the Global ecoservices. Within the large umbrella of ecosystem Institute of Sustainability, the School of Sustainability, ecology, which encompasses the study of fluxes of the Center for Bioenergy and Photosynthesis and key elements and energy in ecosystems, researchers initiatives across ASU. Discovery: Urban Ecology and Sustainability Science

Ecology and Conservation of the San Pedro River

Juliet Stromberg and Barbara Tellman’s 2009 publication “The Ecology and Conservation of the San Pedro” examines one of the last undammed perennial rivers What fingerprints are in the Southwest and illustrates important processes common to many desert riparian our current land-use ecosystems. Although historic land uses practices leaving? and climatic extremes have led to aquifer depletion, river entrenchment and other Urban ecological studies offer pivotal insights in how to navigate a changes, the river still sustains a rich sustainable urban future. As soon-to-be dominant ecosystems, cities and varied selection of life. Resilient to harbor a wealth of ideas and creative accomplishments, as they many factors, portions of the San Pedro have over centuries of urban living. Increasing public understanding have become increasingly threatened by that cities are more than miles of roadways, steel and glass means groundwater pumping and other impacts that urban ecosystems can be managed and that costs to citizens of population growth. and environments can be understood and balanced. Cities can transform ecosystems in multiple ways, through modification of An interdisciplinary team of fifty-seven land use, land cover and watersheds and exposure to altered contributors – biologists, ecologists, physical, chemical and biological conditions characteristic of urban geomorphologists, historians, hydrologists, environments. Phoenix is one of two NSF-funded urban Long Term lawyers, political scientists – weave together Ecological Research (LTER) sites nation-wide. The project involves threads from their diverse perspectives to extensive collaboration, partnering scientists with urban planners, reveal the processes that shape the past, policy makers and other academics. Researchers Nancy Grimm present and future of the San Pedro’s and Sharon Hall are working in connection with LTER, Global riparian and aquatic ecosystems. They Institute of Sustainability and School of Life Sciences to create new review the biological communities, stream understanding about the interplay between cities, their inhabitants hydrology and geomorphology, then look at and the environment. conservation and management challenges along three sections of the San Pedro. From Have you ever thought about the ecology of a culverted city stream? the headwaters in Mexico to its confluence Nancy Grimm, LTER co-director and professor in the School of with the Gila River, the authors describe the Life Sciences, and her colleagues study structure and function legal and policy issues and their interface of ecosystems, predominantly streams, in arid lands ranging from with science; as well as activities related to pristine to very urban. Her latest work, published in the journal mitigation, conservation and restoration; and Nature, has shown how critical small streams are in the removal of a prognosis of the potential for sustaining nitrogen that would otherwise contaminate rivers, bays and oceans. the basin’s riparian system, as well as important lessons for restoring physical Hall’s projects focus on how human activity has altered nutrient processes and biotic communities to rivers cycling. Her group has found, for example, that desert-scaped in arid and semiarid regions. (Excerpt from yards function very differently than outlying deserts despite having University of Arizona online review) a remarkably similar appearance. Hall has also examined the long- term effects of human-altered landscapes, but over a pre-historic time-scale. The fingerprint left by farming done centuries ago can still be found in the American Southwest. Hall’s latest project will soon take such questions overseas, to the Fynbos shrublands in the Cape Town metropolitan area, South Africa.

Grimm N.B., Faeth S.H., Golubiewski N.E., et al. Global change and the ecology of cities. Science 319(5864): 756-760 (2008).

Hall S.J., Ahmed B., Ortiz P., Davies R., Sponseller R., Grimm N.B. Urbanization alters soil microbial functioning in the Sonoran Desert. Ecosystems, in press (2009).

SOLS 2009 | 5-year report 23 Discovery: Urban Ecology and Sustainability Science

Wooing sustainable collaborations in China

Jianguo (Jingle) Wu, James Elser and their students work at the Inner Mongolia Grassland Ecosystem Research Station (IMGERS) as part of an ASU-China collaborative, supported by funds from the National Science Foundation and Chinese National Science Foundation (NSFC) to study the world’s largest grassland. They hope to develop a better understanding of this semi-arid ecosystem and thus improve local and regional management practices. In addition, this research effort is expected to provide significant educational, cultural and research experiences for U.S. and Chinese students, and establish “a long-term scientific platform in the Inner Mongolia Grassland for U.S.-China collaborations on ecological research, particularly in biocomplexity and sustainability science for years to come,” says Wu, professor in School of Life Sciences, School of Sustainability, member of the Global Institute of Sustainability and advisor to the ASU President’s Office on China Affairs. At ASU, Wu has created the Landscape Ecology and Sustainability Laboratory to study the “relationship between landscape pattern and biodiversity/ecosystem processes, urbanization and its ecological consequences, land use and land cover modeling, biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, scaling and integration of ecological, economic and social processes for developing sustainable landscapes.” Wu was selected as a Leopold Leadership Program Fellow in 2009 for his scientific excellence, leadership qualities and desire to expand his communication and outreach skills beyond traditional scientific circles. Wu says. “My selection is reflective more of the overall strength of our interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary programs than anything that I have accomplished as an individual.”

24 SOLS 2009 | 5-year report Discovery: Urban Ecology and Sustainability Science

‘Sex in the city’: finch feathers and physiology in Phoenix

“Do the birds in my backyard look the same as those of the lower 48 states. The fact that they do well both in your backyard?” Bird-lovers often marvel (and in natural and urban settings begged the question of compete!) over the beautifully colored species they whether or not finch colors varied as a function of their attract to their feeders and windows, but at a local bird proximity to humans. Given the close link between club meeting Kevin McGraw proposed a variation of feather coloration and individual health, there are this question. Within a species, might there be several reasons to suspect that pollution, habitat differences in the color intensities of individuals from modifications and heat-island effects, among other one backyard to the next? If so, how might where you things, in urban environs might decrease an individual’s live - in the city or the desert, say – impact the colors health and consequently induce them to grow less- of backyard bird visitors? attractive plumage.

So began a new line of research in his laboratory, McGraw undertook the first studies on this topic in early integrating years of research on the color patterns of summer 2006. A striking pattern emerged – desert male house finches with an urban-ecology approach dwellers were much redder in coloration than urban to studying native wildlife in this rapidly growing city inhabitants. To evolutionary biologists and behavioral of Phoenix. Male house finches display unrivaled ecologists, this stands as an important microgeographic color variability – from deep red through intermediate means of studying variation in color and mating patterns orange to drab yellow – and females have been – yes, “sex in the city”. But to conservation biologists favored over time to prefer the reddest males as and others interested in how humans impact natural mates, as these individuals are in superior health and populations, it is lesson as innovative, early means of condition. Historically, house finches inhabited the assessing human impacts on animal populations – “the desert ecosystems of Mexico, Arizona and California, canary in the coalmine”, so to speak (house finches are but, as their name connotes, they have taken to human close relatives of canaries!). Photo storybook: habitations and now can be found in nearly every one (asu.edu/vppa/photogallery/birds/1.htm).

SOLS 2009 | 5-year report 25 Research Funding Highlights

2005 2006

Roy Curtiss III undertook to develop a live A $4.3 million MacArthur Foundation Award was recombinant attenuated Salmonella anti-pneumococcal directed to Ann Kinzig and other ASU partners to vaccine for newborns with support from the Bill and fund a study that advances “conservation in a social Melinda Gates Foundation. Professor and director of context.” Efforts of the Global Institute of Sustainability, the Center for Infectious Disease and Vaccinology School of Life Sciences and College of Liberal Arts in the Biodesign Institute, Curtiss III received $14.8 and Sciences led to the launch of the ecoSERVICES million grant from the Grand Challenges in Global program, coordinated by Kinzig and Charles Perrings. Health Initiative. Perrings and Kinzig, members of the Human Dimensions faculty group in School of Life Sciences, are also core The National Science Foundation IGERT (Integrative participants of Diversitas, the international program of Graduate Education and Research Training) program biodiversity science and Biodiversity and Ecosystem in Urban Ecology was funded for a second five-year Services Training Network (BESTNet), a research period. Totalling $3.2 million, the project supports 20 coordination network funded by the National Science graduate students from six disciplinary units. Stuart Foundation and various other training initiatives. Fisher, Ann Kinzig and Nancy Grimm are among eight ASU scientists involved, in addition to Charles Tsafrir Mor, assistant professor, received more than Redman of the Global Institute of Sustainability. $2.5 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health to pursue technology related to express human In the close of 2004, Brenda Hogue, associate enzymes in plants and test their potential as catalytic professor, established at ASU Post-Baccalaureate bioscavengers of nerve agents. Research Education Program (PREP), a minority access training program that reaches across campus Ronald Rutowski, professor, was awarded $1.8 funded with a $1.63 million award from the National million grant through the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes of Health. Institute to develop AzBioNet. The network is an opportunity for undergraduate students to interact and develop professional relationships with scientists who work at major research and medical institutions in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Collaborators include: Jane Maienschein, Regent’s professor and director of the Center for Biology and Society; Mark Jacobs, dean of Barrett, The Honors College; and James Collins, assistant director of biological sciences at the National Science Foundation, on leave from School of Life Sciences where he is a Virginia M. Ullman Professor.

Professors Jianguo Wu and James Elser were awarded a $1.07 million National Science Foundation grant to test biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationships in an ecological stoichiometry framework in Inner Mongolia, China. China additionally contributed roughly $2.2 million to the project, which extends to 2011.

26 SOLS 2009 | 5-year report Research Funding Highlights

2007 2008

Willem Vermaas, professor, was a key architect in Assistant Professor Juergen Liebig is one of a trio of two ASU bioenergy projects involving biodiesel and scientists taking an audacious approach to studying biohydrogen research, utilizing his genetically engineered gene regulation, using the ant to model human aging, cyanobacteria. The Biohydrogen Project ($2.5 million with support from a Howard Hughes Medical Institute over five years) is one of the first grants funded by (HHMI). His team received one of eight awards through the ASU President’s Intellectual Fusion fund. The a pilot program, The Collaborative Innovation Awards, second project supported by $2.2 million from Science which disbursed $40 million. Foundation of Arizona, focuses on cyanobacteria for generating solar-powered, carbon neutral and cost- Ananias Escalante, associate professor, received three effective biodiesel and enlists life sciences colleagues grants amounting to more than an estimated $3 million Roy Curtiss III, Ferran Garcia Pichel, Robert from the National Institutes of Health to investigate Roberson – led by Bruce Rittman in the Center for evolution and malaria. In concert with collaborators, Environmental Biotechnology in the Biodesign Institute. he will pursue 1) “Global comparative study of the evolution of antimalarial drug resistance,” 2) “Evolution Professors James Elser and Sudhir Kumar shared of Plasmodium vivax and Asian macaque malarias,” and a $1 million award with former ASU colleague William with Lisa Jones-Engels of the National Primate Research Fagan, now with the University of Maryland, College Park Center, 3) “The evolution, recombination and emergence to develop a bioinformatics database linking ecological of Simian retroviruses in Bangladesh.” discovery with the genome. The National Institutes of Health awarded Professor George Poste, Del E. Webb Distinguished Professor of Rajeev Misra $1.29 million to examine “assembly of E. Biology in SOLS and director of the Biodesign Institute, coli outer membrane proteins.” Misra’s laboratory studies in partnership with Jeffrey Trent, member of the SOLS bacterial outer membrane-associated events including Biomedicine and Biotechnology faculty group and transport of toxins, efflux of antibiotics and targeting and director of the Translational Genomics Research Institute assembly of outer membrane proteins. (TGen) were part of the “partnership for personalized medicine,” a $45 million initiative to oversee a new A $1 million grant was awarded to Andrew Smith, venture to develop personalized diagnostics. Led by Parents Association Professor and associate director 2001 Nobel laureate Lee Hartwell, the initiative was of undergraduate programs. Smith and his colleagues funded by The Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust ($35 were funded by the National Science Foundation to do million) and The Flinn Foundation. collaborative research that focuses on the linkages of culture, policy and science: “Determinants of grassland Bertram Jacobs, SOLS professor and researcher in dynamics in Tibetan highlands: livestock, wildlife, the Biodesign Institute at ASU, received nearly $1.5 and the culture and political economy of pastoralism.” million in awards from the National Institutes of Health for Smith’s collaborators include lead investigator research to develop a safer smallpox vaccine and another Richard Harris from Ecosystem and Conservation $700,000, shared with SOLS associate professor Science at the University of Montana and researchers Yung Chang. from the University of Colorado, Northwest Plateau Institute of Biology (China) and East China Normal University (China).

SOLS 2009 | 5-year report 27 Research Funding Highlights

2009

Pioneering studies with insect models for aging, Gro Amdam, associate professor, was awarded $1 million to pursue a collaboration with Johns Hopkins Medical School (2009). This award builds upon Amdam’s significant honors and awards in 2006 - 2008. Amdam was one of twenty chosen by the Research Council of Norway (2007) as a Young Outstanding Scientist and received a $1.6 million prize to characterize the genetic and physiological basis of the pollen hoarding behavioral syndrome in honey bees. The same year, Amdam also became ASU’s first Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences, supported by the Pew Charitable Trusts. Amdam has gone on to receive an additional $3.2 million in grants from the Norwegian Research Council to examine plasticity in social life history of the honeybee and develop the honeybee as a model for aging

Susanne Neuer and James Elser, in partnership 2008 (continued) with Ariel Anbar, associate professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration and lead investigator of Professors Roy Curtiss III and Josie Clark-Curtiss the NASA Astrobiology Institute: Follow the Elements, received $1.89 million to support development of were awarded $6.4 million to develop understanding a “recombinant attenuated Salmonella vaccines for around the evolution in ancient oceans by examining humans” from the National Institutes of Health. Curtiss III the chemical elements thought to be the early building also received a grant from the Aeras Global TB Vaccine blocks of life on Earth. Their goal: to understand how Foundation, Collaborative Research Project to evaluate these elements “shape the distribution of life, the state a recombinant attenuated Salmonella system for optimal of the environment and the course of evolution.” delivery of genetically engineered bacteriophage. The National Center for Complementary and Assistant professor Douglas Lake, also a researcher Alternative Medicine awarded Shelley Haydel, in the Center for Metabolic Study, received $1.2 million assistant professor, more than $1.66 million to from the William Keck Foundation to study “frameshifts examine the “antibacterial activities of natural minerals as cancer vaccine targets – in connection with Stephen and alternative treatment for infections.” Her study Albert Johnston, SOLS professor and researcher in will investigate the broad-spectrum antibacterial the Biodesign Institute. Johnson and his collaborators are characteristics of the clay minerals and determine the pursuing the development of a breast cancer vaccine, mechanism of action of these bioactive minerals. Her with $7.5 million in funding through the Department of work could open a new avenue for topical treatment of Defense’s Innovator Award. MRSA Mycobacterium ulcerans and other disease.

The National Institutes of Health awarded professor Charles Arntzen more than $1.4 million to examine plant derived MAb therapeutics for West Nile Virus, in connection with Qiang Chen with the Biodesign Institute at ASU.

28 SOLS 2009 | 5-year report Honors and Achievement Highlights

NASA Astrobiology Institute project at Yellowstone National Park

School of Life Sciences faculty were recognized for • Pew Biomedical Scholar Award, Pew Charitable teaching, innovation and scholarship, regionally, nationally Trusts (Gro Amdam, 2007) and internationally. A partial list for 2005-2009 includes: • Thomson ISI Highly Cited Author (Robert E. Page, Jr., 2005-present) • Administrative Judge to the Atomic Safety and • Trevarinus Medal,Verband Deutscher Biologen, Licensing Board, U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Germany (Bert Hölldobler, 2007) Commission (Kenneth Mossman, 2008) • Young Outstanding Scientist, Norwegian Research • Advisory Council to the National Institutes of Health Council (Gro Amdam, 2007) National Center for Research Resources • Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin Fellow (Manfred (James Collins, 2008) Laubichler, Robert E. Page, Jr., 2009) • Albert Einstein Award (George Poste, 2006) • American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellow Life sciences faculty recognized for their (Robert E. Page, Jr., 2006) contributions to ASU (2005-2009): • American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellows (Richard Creath, James • Parents Association Professor of the Year Elser, Nancy Grimm, Jon Harrison, Ann Kinzig, Sudhir (Andrew Smith, 2008; James Elser, 2009) Kumar, Daniel Sarewitz, Jianguo Wu) • ASU Faculty Exemplars (Jennifer Fewell, • AAAS Award for International Cooperation Ferran Garcia-Pichel, Leah Gerber, Ann Kinzig, (Jianguo Wu, 2006) Sudhir Kumar, Manfred Laubichler, Kevin McGraw, • American Society of Plant Biologists Fellow Jason Robert) (Charles Arntzen, 2007) • ASU Centennial Professorship (Guy Cardineau) • Arizona Bioscience Researcher of the Year • ASU Faculty Achievement Award in Young (Roy Curtiss III, 2007) Investigator (Manfred Laubichler) • Basmajian Award, American Association of • ASU Commission for the Status of Women Anatomists (Rebecca Fisher, 2008) Outstanding Achievement and Contribution Award • Centennial Award, American Society of Plant (Jennifer Fewell, 2008; Susanne Neuer, 2009) Biologists (Charles Arntzen, 2007) • ASU Council of Academic Advisors (CAA) Award • Eugene P. Odum Education Award, Ecological for Advising (David Capco) Society of American (Stuart Fisher, 2008) • Patricia Guran Scholar and Activist Award • Guggenheim Fellowship (Jennifer Fewell, 2009) (Jennifer Fewell) • German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina Fellow • CLAS Gary Krahenbuhl Difference Maker Award (Robert E. Page, Jr., 2009) (James Collins, 2005; Jane Maienschein, 2006). • Governor’s Celebration of Innovation Award • CLAS Dean’s Quality Teaching Award in honor of (Tsafrir Mor, 2005; Bert Jacobs, 2006) Zebulon Pearce, Natural Science (Manfred Laubichler, • Kenneth E. Boulding Memorial Award 2005-2006; Valerie Stout, 2006-2007) (Charles Perrings, 2008) • CLAS Hall of Fame, Distinguished Faculty Award • Leopold Leadership Program Fellow (Stephen Pyne, 2007) (Jianguo Wu, 2009) • CLAS Distinguished Researcher Award • Outstanding Young Investigator Award, Animal (James Elser, 2008) Behavior Society and American Ornithologists’ Union (Kevin McGraw, 2005)

SOLS 2009 | 5-year report 29 people

School of Life Sciences presents an innovative model for life sciences research and education, providing a wide spectrum of focused experiences for undergraduates and graduate students. Faculty and students work to provide leadership locally and globally, engaging in research technology, policy development, medical discovery, scholarship and outreach – combining cutting edge multidisciplinary approaches with collaborative on and off campus partners.

Our faculty and students work to expand access and opportunities to students. School of Life Sciences creates a learning environment that promotes the development of skills in the life sciences and awareness of key life science issues, which empowers graduates to be effective citizens and scientists in the 21st century.

More than 670 individuals contribute to School of Life Sciences, in a variety of capacities. There are more than 95 tenure track faculty, 23 medical college faculty, four clinical faculty, 45 research faculty, 252 graduate research associates and 258 staff and student workers. More than 2,182 students are majoring in life sciences undergraduate programs. More than half of our students are female.

The faculty in School of Life Sciences are divided into seven faculty groups

• Biomedicine and Biotechnology • Basic Medical Sciences • Cellular and Molecular Biosciences • Genomics, Evolution and Bioinformatics • Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Science • Human Dimensions of Biology • Organismal, Integrative and Systems Biology People

Biomedicine and Biotechnology Faculty

Faculty in biomedicine and biotechnology work at the cutting edge of bioengineering to promote human and animal health, with focus on basic and applied research, technologies and education focusing on medicine, bioindustry and agriculture. Research pursuits include recombinant DNA applications, development of novel pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, biomaterials and biological production platforms, studies of host – microbe interactions and disease mechanisms and bioremediation.

Genomes to Vaccines Groundbreaking methods for vaccine production Stephen Johnston and Katherine Sykes aim to develop Bertram Jacobs focus is a uniform system to mobilize the constructing new vaccines for genomic sequences of pathogens the HIV virus that could have a into modern, effective vaccines. profound affect on our ability to Using innovative technology fight this disease. Jacobs studies Green vaccines developed in their laboratories (the the molecular biology of vaccinia gene gun and genetic immunization), virus, and especially the viral E3L Charles Arntzen, Hugh Mason they deliver DNA expression gene, which modulates host immune and Tsafrir Mor’s studies take cassettes into an animal, resulting in responses. His mutant E3L deletion vaccine research into the plant production of foreign proteins that vaccinia virus is weakened and less realm. Innovations in agricultural provoke immune responses. If the dangerous in animals, yet produces biotechnology allow plants to responses protect the animal against excellent immune responses, be harnessed to produce large infection by the actual pathogen, the properties that make it a strong amounts of valuable recombinant protective antigens encoded in these vaccine candidate, as well as a proteins at relatively low cost, gene cassettes can be discovered potential vector to deliver foreign including vaccines and antibodies. without any bias toward the expected genes encoding vaccine proteins. These faculty also pursue projects vaccine value of a particular microbial in protein engineering, which uses protein. After evaluation of enough recombinant DNA methods to create pathogen genomes, they hope to novel proteins. One project works to elucidate rules that allow accurate fuse functional elements of vaccine prediction the best vaccine for any proteins with targeting domains of particular pathogen. Several other other proteins that promote efficient members of this faculty group are uptake and processing by the creating new and better methods for immune system cells. Elucidation production of recombinant proteins, of immune system signaling including vaccines and therapeutic pathways (facilitated by genome agents like antibodies. Ultimately, sequencing and gene identification), pathogen genes discovered by the also provides opportunities to “Genes to Vaccines” approach can fine-tune immune responses to be plugged into any of a number vaccines using novel means that of systems that are optimized for engage specific receptors to initiate particular kinds of protein. immunological signals.

SOLS 2009 | 5-year report 31 People

Basic Medical Sciences Faculty

Basic Medical Sciences is a blended faculty with appointments at both ASU and the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix in Partnership with Arizona State University. Since 2007, this faculty offers expertise in areas such as anatomy, behavioral science, biochemistry/molecular biology, biomedical informatics, cancer biology, cell and developmental biology, genetics, immunobiology, microbiology, neuroscience, pathology, pharmacology and physiology. Innovative, cutting-edge training is offered with strong partnerships with hospitals, clinicians and medical practitioners in the Phoenix area. Basic Medical Science Award-winning faculty are developing transformative research, elucidating the anatomist lends muscle societal impacts of emerging medical and technological discovery to Hippocratic oaths and launching the next generation of clinicians. and understanding The segmentation hippopotami clock: a spine in the making “What do hippopotami and medical students have in common?” Rebecca Kenro Kusumi’s group Fisher makes you want to ask focuses on the early questions. Not just why there is the development of the huge hippo skull on her desk or what the spine, which is regulated stuffed raccoon-like creature above her by developmental keyboard is, but deeper queries about molecular oscillators. species evolution and how one short His group is working to career can span the study of large semi- apply data from animal aquatic animals closely related to whales and cell culture models (yes, whales) to empowering future to finding the genetic physicians. causes of vertebral birth defects. The vertebral column derives from embryonic precursors called somites, which are formed in Fisher is an assistant professor in a process regulated by a “segmentation clock.” Although it is School of Life Sciences and the known that genes in the notch and wnt signaling pathways are department of Basic Medical Sciences involved in the segmentation clock, the regulatory machinery of at the University of Arizona College of this clock is not fully understood. Kusumi has played a pioneering Medicine – Phoenix in partnership with role in studying defects in somitogenesis that can lead to birth Arizona State University. defects ranging from congenital scoliosis and cranial disorders to abnormalities in soft tissue such as the liver. As reported It is Fisher’s out-of-the box scholarship, in Developmental Biology, Developmental Dynamics and in as well as her creative course Birth Defects Research, he finds that defects in the notch development and teaching of anatomy, and wnt signaling pathways are at work and that fundamental which garnered her the coveted oscillatory patterns in gene expression during somitogenesis, if Basmajian Award from the American disrupted, can lead to abnormalities. Kusumi has also worked to Association of Anatomists; an award that establish the International Consortium for Vertebral Anomalies recognizes exceptional health science and Scoliosis, a group of geneticists and orthopedic surgeons faculty who are in the formative stages of interested in identifying the developmental origins of spinal birth their career. defects. Their collaborative aim is to identify the genetic etiology of human vertebral disorders, including congenital scoliosis, Fisher R. The Phylogeny of the red Klippel-Feil syndrome, Jarcho-Levin syndrome and caudal panda (Ailurus fulgens): evidence from agenesis. This group has developed a unique clinical database of the hindlimb. Journal of Anatomy 213(5): congenital vertebral defect cases for molecular analysis, to aid in 607-628 (2008). the goal of finding the genetic and developmental causes of spinal birth defects.

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Cellular and Molecular Biosciences Faculty

The Cell and Molecular Biosciences Faculty is comprised of a diverse group of individuals with the common interests of understanding fundamental aspects of cellular biology of prokaryotes and eukaryotes, frequently through understanding the molecular mechanisms involved in important cellular processes.

Defense Against Transgenic Crops Understanding Immunity Tuberculosis Roberto Gaxiola’s work seeks to Inflammation is now recognized as One of our toughest opponents find ways to improve productivity being pivotal in the development of is tuberculosis, a bacterium in marginal agricultural lands. He many diseases known to constitute that is difficult to grow. It hides recently established a collaboration metabolic syndrome and which within immune system’s cells to develop transgenic sugar include obesity, insulin resistance, just as the HIV virus does and is cane with Arnoldo R. Facanha hypertension and atherothrombosis. becoming increasingly resistant Director of Center for Biosciences A hallmark of chronic inflammation to antibiotic intervention. and Biotechnology with North is the migration of leukocytes from Fluminense State University, the peripheral blood and their Josephine Clark-Curtiss and Campos dos Goytacazes, accumulation and activation within her team are leading the way Brazil. Their project entails the tissues. Research in the Tatiana in preventing this bacterium generation of transgenic sugarcane Ugarova’s laboratory focuses on from once again becoming a with enhanced root and shoot integrin receptors which mediate world-wide scourge. Recently development, enhanced water and leukocyte adhesion and migration summarized in the Annual nutrient use efficiency and very likely, during the immune-inflammatory Review of Microbiology, her enhanced sucrose production. The response and which regulate work seeks to understand how root system is an extremely attractive numerous leukocyte effector macrophages fight the infection candidate for engineering crops functions. The types of analyses and how their defenses can be and to step up productivity as an employed in the laboratory range improved upon. enhanced root mass is expected to from basic studies of integrin increase crop biomass and seed structure to investigation of yields. The transgenic sugarcane’s molecular and cellular models phenotypes are associated with of inflammation, obesity and the up-regulation of the H+-Ppase thrombosis. Ugarova studies the gene. Gaxiola’s group is working signaling processes by which to examine how over-expression in integrins mediate cell adhesion candidate crops could enhance food and cell migration events required and fuel production, i.e., rice, corn, for immune cell function in articles sweet sorghum, medicago, alfalfa published in Biochemistry and and cotton. Experimental Cell Research.

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Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Sciences

School of Life Sciences’ research and publication efforts in ecology, evolution and environmental sciences contributed substantially to landing ASU at the sixth spot in Thomson Scientific’s U.S. University’s Top 10 for ecology and environmental sciences (2005). The breadth of ASU’s expertise includes environmental sciences and ecology at levels of organisms, populations, communities and ecosystems, physiological ecology, behavior, biodiversity, landscape ecology, restoration ecology, conservation biology, evolutionary biology and phylogenetics/systematics, running the gamut from human urban activity to ant studies.

ASU researcher weighs in on Disease Ecology International Whaling Commission debate Washing our hands during flu For decades there has been a associate professor in the School season can decrease our chances controversy about whales eating of Life Sciences in ASU’s College of getting the flu, but how does fish in the tropics. The “whales eat of Liberal Arts and Sciences. the ecology of disease work in fish” debate has been at the heart Gerber and her collaborators populations of other organisms? of policy decisions about the culling construct ecosystem models, in Amphibians tend to be particularly of whales and is pivotal to the future this case that account for feeding susceptible to environmental factors of commercial whaling in the region. interactions between whales and such as contaminated waters Today, however, chalk one up for fish, to understand the role that and pathogens are no exception. the whales. baleen whales play in tropical Researchers from James Collins’ marine ecosystems in western group investigate why pathogens The controversy appears to be Africa and the Caribbean, where cause some amphibian populations nothing more than a whale of a baleen whales are known to breed. to decline, even to the point of tale, according to research by ASU The scientists used global and extinction, and how diseases scientist Leah Gerber. In a paper regional data, validated through emerge and spread. Collins supported by the Lenfest Ocean scientific workshops in Senegal and heads an international team of 26 Program and Pew Charitable Barbados, to determine whether investigators under two grants Trusts and published in the journal competition was occurring. from the National Science Science, Gerber and her co- Foundation. His most recent authors show that the controversial “It is important for countries that work, published in the journal practice, culling of whales to are dependent on marine fisheries Conservation Biology, focuses on attempt to restore dwindling fish to have the best information tiger salamanders, the bait trade and populations in tropical oceans, is available based on sound science,” the role of commerce in the spread not scientifically sound. says Gerber. “Our hope is that our of ranaviruses and the chytrid study provides guidance for future fungus that is devastating global “Culling whales will not increase policy decisions.” frog populations. Collins is the fisheries catches in tropical waters,” Assistant Director of the Directorate says Gerber, lead author and for Biological Sciences National Science Foundation and Virginia M. Ullman Professor of Biology for the School of Life Sciences.

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Genomics, Evolution and Bioinformatics

School of Life Sciences faculty at Arizona State University are pioneers in the growing field of genomic, evolutionary and bioinformatic studies, with interests that range from the development and evolution of life on earth, to how DNA and proteins contribute to the emergence and treatment of disease. This is a diverse faculty group whose core focus is on developing empirical, experimental, computational and theoretical studies of the patterns and processes that shape the diversity of genomes and their products.

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New “Timetree of Life” Initiative Illuminates the Antiquity of Life on Earth

Scientists and non-scientists now have easy access of pathogens, and organisms that facilitate their spread, to information about when living species and their to astrobiology, where scientists study the origin, ancestors originated, information that previously was development and impacts of life in the universe. difficult to find or inaccessible. Free access to the information is part of the new Timetree of Life initiative TimeTreeWeb is an innovative on-line resource for developed by Sudhir Kumar, a professor of life scientists and non-scientists to explore the full timescale sciences and researcher at Arizona State University’s of life, down to the level of individual species. With this Biodesign Institute, in collaboration with Blair Hedges, a Web resource, “finding the time when two species professor of biology at Penn State University. last shared a common ancestor is as simple as giving their names to TimeTreeWeb and pressing the search The Timetree of Life project debuted with the button,” says Kumar. TimeTreeWeb then translates simultaneous release of a major online resource called common and scientific names into appropriate search “TimeTreeWeb”, and a book titled “The Timetree terms and uses a unique “tree-climbing” system to of Life” (Oxford University Press), which is written produce a time of divergence after searching through all by a consortium of 105 experts on specific groups published studies, including those in “The Timetree of of organisms and is edited by Kumar and Hedges. Life” book. Over 800 studies currently are searchable in Nobel laureate James D. Watson, co-discoverer of the the TimeTreeWeb, with more being added continuously. structure of DNA, comments in his foreword to the book, “I look in wonder at The Timetree of Life, at the As part of the output of TimeTreeWeb, users get the breadth of life that it covers, and the extraordinary data time estimate from “The Timetree of Life” book, where presented in it.” an expert has applied a quality judgment, as well as the absolute average of the estimates from all the studies. “The ultimate goal of the Timetree of Life initiative is to chart the timescale of life – to discover when each Each chapter of “The Timetree of Life” book is a review species and all their ancestors originated, all the way of the evolutionary history of the families (groups of back to the origin of life some four billion years ago,” species) within a particular group of organisms, such Hedges says. Many researchers long have studied the as mosses, ferns, fungi, beetles, sea urchins, frogs and times of origin of individual species in order to piece toads, turtles, owls, primates, and many others. The together a Tree of Life, but now the Timetree of Life chapters each contain a photograph of a representative project provides a synthesis of the time-calibrated Tree organism, a color-coded timetree showing how the of Life, in addition to adding much new information from families are related and when they split from their previously unpublished scientific studies. closest relative, and a table with divergence times. Each chapter of the book was subjected to a rigorous “The TimeTreeWeb tool belongs to a new genre of scientific review by other experts in the respective field. resources that lets anyone easily mine knowledge previously locked up in technical research articles, As an ongoing service to the scientific community, without needing to know the jargon of the field,” says Kumar and Hedges plan to continue adding new data Kumar. “For example, if you type in ‘cat’ and ‘dog,’” to TimeTreeWeb from future peer-reviewed studies. Hedges adds, “the program will navigate through the They also will develop programs that will make it easier timetree of life to the point where the cat and dog to access the information and to explore the timetree species split, and it will find all the studies bearing on of life, and easier for scientists to deposit new data that divergence. Within a few seconds, you will learn in TimeTreeWeb. Once deposited, each data set first that your pet cat and dog diverged in evolutionary time will be reviewed by members of a board of experts about 50 to 60 million years ago.” before it can be integrated into TimeTreeWeb. “One of our goals is to have a rigorous system that is nearly Timetrees can have broad impacts in the natural self-perpetuating and is run largely by the scientific sciences: from helping researchers track the evolution community,” Kumar said.

36 SOLS 2009 | 5-year report From chickens to drug discovery: Can genetics help engineer a better world?

Roy Curtiss III is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, director of the Center for Infectious Disease and Vaccinology at the Biodesign Institute, in addition to being a faculty member in the School of Life Sciences. His laboratory focuses on the design, construction and evaluation of live, genetically engineered vaccines to prevent the morbidity and mortality associated with infectious diseases of humans and agriculturally important animals. These vaccines are designed for stability, needle-free delivery and very low cost of manufacture, distribution and use. A major objective is to make these vaccines widely available in the developing world with the ultimate aim to enhance animal and human productivity and well-being.

He holds a series of patents on vaccines for both animals and humans, and, in 2005, was awarded $14.8 million by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation under the Grand Challenges in Global Health Initiative to develop of affordable vaccines for pediatric pneumonia. His scientific journey started as a youth, when he raised prize winning chickens, flowers, vegetables and ducks in upstate New York. His rich array of interests and creative research experiences with bacterial genetics, avian, plant and phage genetics has led to his pursuit to develop vaccines based on Salmonella strains that have been genetically engineered. He has altered the function of pathogenesis-producing proteins to create live organisms that drive immunological responses without the usual dangers of bacterial virulence. In addition to working toward the prevention of pediatric disease, tuberculosis, enteric pathogens, hepatitis and influenza viruses, Curtiss has broader interests in the genetic manipulation of living organisms to improve nutrient content of foods, nutrient utilization, control of cancers and cardiovascular diseases, prevention of food losses, control of fertility, elimination of toxic wastes and generation of alternate energy sources.

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People

Human Dimensions of Biology

Human Dimensions of Biology encompasses perspectives, research and education on human interactions with nature and the environment (such as conservation biology and urban ecology); the science of humans (including human behavior and evolution); science as a human endeavor (through history and philosophy of science); and the interplay of science and society (in the context of education, public policy, law and daily life). Researchers in this group examine bioethics, policy and law; history and philosophy of science; Arizona plants and paleobotany; biodiversity and species discovery; immunophilosophy and the cultural history of fire and exploration; and the changing face of humans and nature, including ecosystem services, sustainability science and conservation. The group is unique among life science departments in being ranked among the top 10 nationally in the philosophy of biology by the Philosophical Gourmet Report, published by Blackwell, which recognizes School of Life Sciences’ extraordinary effective, nontraditional model.

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(which he co-founded) and a communicating editor of Archive for History of the Exact Sciences. He also serves on the executive committee of the International Society for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Biology.

He and Maienschein have recently authored “Form and Function in Developmental Evolution” published by Cambridge University Press and Manfred Laubichler is a member “From Embryology to Evo–Devo: A of the Center for Biology and History of Developmental Evolution” Society, co-director of the Embryo published by Massachusetts Project with Jane Maienschein. Institute of Technology Press, 2007. Laubichler was the recipient of a NSF CAREER award for his “Evo-Devo” serves as a history of work on the history and theory evolutionary thought and offers of developmental biology and historic markers for the complex designated an ASU Faculty process by which two once Exemplar by President Michael Crow connected and then independent in 2007. He has co-edited six books theories of evolution and and authored numerous articles and development have again became opinion pieces. He is an External synthesized into the relatively Faculty Member of the Konrad new science of evolutionary Lorenz Institute for Evolution and developmental (Evo-Devo) biology. Cognition Research in Altenberg, A compilation of papers developed Austria, a Visiting Scholar at the Max at a forum of historians, biologists Planck Institute for the History of and philosophers gathered at the Science in Berlin, Germany and a Dibner Institute at MIT, “Evo-Devo” Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg challenges the reader to step zu Berlin (Institute for Advanced outside black-and-white static Study). Laubichler is associate worlds and acknowledge that editor of the Journal of Experimental everything under the sun is subject Zoology, Part B: Molecular and to adaptation and change, including Developmental Evolution and of the way we think about change. the new journal Biological Theory

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Daniel Sarewitz directs the Consortium for Science, Policy, and Outcomes (CSPO) Washington, DC, office. CSPO is a central emphasis of President Michael Crow’s New American University. This consortium and Sarewitz’s research probes the interactions among the creation, deployment, use and consequences of scientific research and technological innovation. His group views science and technology as the products of human decision processes that take place in diverse institutional, political, economic and cultural settings, and also as integral components of complex, dynamic human-natural-technological Ann Kinzig comes to SOLS with biodiversity science, the Biodiversity systems. Sarewitz seeks to better a background in both physics and and Ecosystem Services Training characterize and understand these ecology and a focus on coupled Network (BESTNet) an National settings and systems in order to social-ecological systems, their Science Foundation-funded improve public discourse, decision resilience and sustainability. She research coordination network, processes, institutional structures co-directs the interdisciplinary and Advancing Conservation and governance regimes that ecoSERVICES group (with Charles in a Social Context (ACSC), a mediate the co-evolution of Perrings), which studies the causes multimillion dollar project funded science, technology and society, and consequences of changes in by The John D. and Catherine and to thereby improve the biodiversity and ecosystem services T. MacArthur Foundation. Aside societal outcomes of science – the benefits that people get from from these projects, ecoSERVICE and technology. functioning ecosystems (not just advises the United Nations foods, fuels, fibers, water, genetic Environment Programme and has materials, chemical compounds and been closely involved in steps to the like, but also aesthetic, spiritual, create an Intergovernmental Panel moral, recreational, educational on Biodiversity and Ecosystem and scientific services and the Services. More tightly focused role of ecosystems in regulating projects include work on infectious flows of both of these). This group wildlife diseases in the great lakes includes a number of faculty and region and on the sustainability research associates and focuses and resilience of urban energy and both on the global drivers and water infrastructures. Kinzig’s work local responses to biodiversity also connects with the Resilience change. It implements several Alliance – a Stockholm-based international research projects, research network. The hallmark of including the ecoSERVICES the group is that it spans economics core project of DIVERSITAS – and ecology. the international programme of

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The newest faculty member of the Human Dimensions of Biology is Eli Fenichel, who came in August 2008 from Michigan State University. He uses a systems approach and methods from both ecology and economics to understand ecological-economic feedbacks and inform ecosystem Invasive species are part of the price of doing business management and policy. Fenichel’s work has impacted wildlife-livestock When the sun rides low on the an issue that, he says, currently and fish disease management horizon and winter chills wrap attracts more expenditures than any and policy and sport fish stocking us all in down and fleece, global other environmental problem. policies. In the past year alone, he trade brings blueberries from has published three peer-reviewed South America and oranges Perrings has been associated with articles, with two slated to appear from Israel. But trade in exotic the development of the field of in 2009. These papers focus on goods also comes with significant ecological economics since the the treatment of survey response local economic costs, explains 1980s. He is a past president of the choices that express uncertainty Charles Perrings, professor of International Society for Ecological in state preference valuation environmental economics in the Economics and is the 2008 winner of environmental amenities (to School of Life Sciences. In the of the Kenneth E. Boulding Memorial appear in Land Economics) and a rush to market, products also Award for his contributions in this simulation model of management bring hitchhikers: invasive species. area. He has just published (through effects on bacterial kidney disease in These exotics often overtake Sage Press) Ecological Economics, Lake Michigan Chinook salmon (to native species, ravage agriculture, a four volume collection of papers appear in Ecological Applications). fisheries and forestry and damage on the origins and development of ecosystems and, ultimately, the field. He is also the co-director economics. Disproportionately so in of the ecoSERVICES group in the developing countries’ economies, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Perrings says. Perrings puts forward with Ann Kinzig. focus SOLS 2009 | 5-year report 41 Setting policy on fire

Fire has captured the imagination of humans since into an old professor (and former mule hauler) who prehistory. Stephen Pyne, MacArthur Fellow and challenged him to write. Fire shapes peoples’ lives and Regents’ Professor in the School of Life Sciences, none more than Steve Pyne. He has produced more has made fire and fire policy his business. A firefighter, than 20 books, the majority on fire and fire history, and explorer, historian and expert, this prolific author of created a field of study. “Burning Bush” and “Fire on many award-winning books and the “go-to” authority the Rim” were named as New York Times Book Review when fires rage across landscapes and TV screens. “Notable Books of the Year.” He has also served as a Pyne examines how fire, its use, misuse and its senior advisor on PBS’s NOVA (Fire Wars). The Los biological nature have shaped our world, before and Angeles Times selected him for the Robert Kirsch because of man, and addresses how fire policies of Award (1995) for: “a living author whose residence the past still reverberate in our present nationally and or focus has been in the West and whose career globally. He is one of the world’s foremost experts contributions merit body-of-work recognition.” Ironically, on fire, a member of the U.N.-ISDR Wildfire Advisory the book he feels he will be best known for is The Ice, Group and NOAA Science Advisory Group, Working about his experience in Antarctica, named by New York Group on Fire Weather. Pyne says his career all ties Times Book Review as among “Best Books of 1987.” In back to his first adventure, at age 18, on the rim of the 2009, two works will be released: “Voice and Vision: A Grand Canyon. A high school graduate in Phoenix, he Guide to Writing History and Other Serious Nonfiction” joined a fire crew for “one season.” He returned to the and “Seeking Newer Worlds: The Saga of the Voyager front lines every summer for 15 years. In between those Mission.” His books complement the core courses he summers, Pyne earned a bachelor’s degree in English teaches on fire, writing and exploration at ASU. He has from Stanford University and master’s and doctoral also worked with Ben Minteer and Paul Hirt (History) degrees in American civilization from the University to develop an environmental humanities course for the of Texas, Austin. It was on the “Rim” too that he ran School of Sustainability. Organismal, Integrative and Systems Biology

Studies of the physiological capabilities, constraints and trade-offs of desert reptiles are capturing audiences in schoolrooms and in National Geographic. In Dale DeNardo’s group, researchers have discovered that a Gila monster’s extra-large bladder can hold water for lengthy dry periods, while it packs away food reserves in its expandable tail.

Faculty in organismal, integrative and systems biology focus on the organism and its component systems and mechanisms, especially an integrative perspective on structure and function of organisms, interactions between organisms, interactions of organisms with their environments and the evolution of organismal function and diversity.

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Carsten Duch Bert Hölldobler Patterns of circuit remolding are found in motor “If alien scientists had landed to study the Earth’s systems – the neurons that control the coordinated pre-human biosphere, one of their first projects would movement of muscles. Nowhere is this remodeling have been to set up beehives and ant farms,” insists more striking than during metamorphosis in flies. Bert Hölldobler, Foundation Professor and member Carsten Duch has shown that during this process, of the National Academy of Sciences, the American motor neurons that once controlled the squirming Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical movement of a maggot now are redesigned to Society and a member of the German Academy of become neurons that drive the powerful flight Science – Leopoldina. “This is our biased guess, muscles of the wing to provide flight. Using a of course, because Ed Wilson and I have been combination of laser scanning confocal microscopy, fascinated by the social insects and in particular by electron microscopy and advanced 3-D modeling the ants, during our entire scientific lives.” techniques, as recently reported in the Journal of Neuroscience and NeuroImage, Duch has shown Roughly 13,000 species of ants have been that the dendritic and axonal processes of these described, Hölldobler says, and another estimated neurons undergo dramatic changes in morphology 17,000 still elude discovery. With hundreds of that reflect the new connections they make in order different forms, habits, quirks and lifestyles, ants are to change their function. among the most fascinating creatures on the planet, from the tiny Temnothorax species, long-lived and Duch C., Mentel T. Activity affects dendritic shape gregarious, whose entire colony can fit in a nutshell, and synapse elimination during steroid controlled to the intricate activity of nature’s underground dendritic retraction in Manduca sexta. Neuroscience farmers, the leafcutter ants. 24(4): 9826-9837 (2004).

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Superorganisms, those self-organized entities that emerge from countless interactions of hundreds, thousands or millions of individuals tightly knit by altruistic cooperation, complex communication and division of labor, find their highest expression in the insects, according to Hölldobler. And while the concept of the collective – the superorganism – is not new and indeed has been popularized in novels, movies and television, it is gaining new impetus and understanding as scientists, such as Hölldobler and Wilson, open up for view a part of the living world previously glimpsed by only a very few. By examining ants, bees, wasps, termites and other species, biologists can now trace the evolution of superorganisms in exacting detail, all the way from their antecedents among solitary species to the origin of the most complex forms. Hölldobler and Wilson offer a rich history, set of experiences and knowledge base that allows an early clear look at one of the major transitions of life, which proceeds from molecule through cell to organism, superorganism and population, and finally to ecosystem. In their first major collaboration since “Social insects play a very important role in almost all land their Pulitzer Prize-winning The Ants, ecosystems,” says Hölldobler. “The nature of our planet without ants, Bert Hölldobler and Edward O. Wilson, bees or termites would look very different. The tremendous ecological two of the most renowned biologists in success of these social insects, whose biomass is close to that of the world, present a brilliant new look all humans, is certainly due to their elaborate systems of division at social evolution. Written in fine detail, but for a broad readership, the book of labor and complex social organizations. In fact, ant societies are chronicles the remarkable growth of considerably more complex than those of any other animal species. knowledge concerning the social insects They are fantastic model systems for the study of social complexity during the past two decades and provides and the evolution of social life on Earth.” a deep look in to a part of the living world hitherto glimpsed by only a very few.

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Gro Amdam: The buzz about aging

For some, it may be hard to imagine that the bees buzzing between strands of orange flowers of the desert mallow could potentially usher in a medical breakthrough. However, in the right hands, the insects best known for their banded coloration, social life and skills with pollination could someday be the key to advancements in biomedical neuroscience of aging – if Gro Amdam has her way.

With more than $6 million in support from the Pew Charitable Trusts and Norwegian Research Council, Amdam will join two lines of study that have never been coupled: the emerging field of honeybee comparative neurogerontology – in which Amdam has published the first work on plasticity of neuronal oxidative damage – and honeybee behavioral physiology, where cumulative data show that age-related cell damage can be reversed. Amdam has written or co-written publications in Nature, Public Library of Science Biology, Advances Pierre Deviche: The brains in Cancer Research, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Experimental Gerontology and behind bird song Behavioral Brain Research in the past year, laying the foundation for this work. Her group has documented Some birds don’t sing the same tune in winter, as in that social reversal, which triggers old bees (that spring. Their song is a seasonal, hormone-dependent usually forage outside of the hive) to revert to tasks and sexually dimorphic behavior controlled by specific normally performed by younger bees (that nurse larvae interconnected brain regions. Pierre Deviche studies within the hive), is associated with reversal of several the neural plasticity that characterizes these adult physiological markers of senescence. Her findings, and songbirds. The continuous incorporation of new supporting findings from other groups, Amdam says, cells and elimination of others leads to some brain indicate that “behavioral reversal triggers a systemic regions’ volumes changing significantly seasonally response, one which translates into a unique cascade concurrent with vocal behavior production. Deviche’s of cell repair in bees.” Preliminary data collected in her study of behavioral neuroendocrinology, physiological laboratory suggest that this cascade can include the adaptation to extreme environments and vertebrate central nervous system. Perhaps four years from now, reproductive endocrinology involves multi-disciplinary with some work by Amdam, we will find that the mythic approaches, with a goal to elucidate the links “Fountain of Youth” will turn out to be a hive. between gonadal hormones, vocal behavior and its neuroanatomical substrate, and to decipher the underlying cellular mechanisms involved.

In addition to the study of communication in birds, Deviche contributes extensively to communicating about science in the public realm. He has recorded and edited Southwest bird song recordings for ASU’s science Web site for children: Ask A Biologist (http:// askabiologist.asu.edu/expstuff/experiments/birdsongs/) He is also a co-organizer and guide for the “SOLS Takes a Hike” nature hike since 2006.

Deviche P. Reproductive physiology: Songbird study removes long-standing neuroendocrinology research roadblock. Endocrinology 150: 1561-1562 (2009).

SOLS 2009 | 5-year report 45 Engagement in Undergraduate Training

ASU is a national leader in offering an education based on merit and training undergraduates in research. During the past five years, School of Life Sciences’ active and substantive investment in discovery-based teaching has brought hands-on lessons to thousands of students, in addition to putting students in research settings that take them to the heart of cutting-edge and transformational research. Undergraduate research spans bioengineering, vaccine development and emergent disease to examination of the interaction of history and ecology in structuring communities in South America, and from the effective development of marine reserves and conservation policy to insights about ecosystems, energy flow, nutrient cycling and the evolution of malaria – empowering students as active participants in their own education.

Undergraduate Degree Programs

Students can pursue bachelor’s degrees in:

• Microbiology • Molecular Biosciences and Biotechnology • Clinical Laboratory Sciences • Biological Sciences (concentrations in: Animal Physiology and Behavior; Biology and Society; Conservation Biology and Ecological Sustainability; Ecology and Evolution; Genetics, Cell and Developmental Biology; Genomics and Bioinformatics; Plant Biology; History & Philosophy of Science (certificate) )

Faculty members in the life sciences have been recognized internationally, nationally, regionally and by ASU, students and their peers, for teaching and research excellence. School of Life Sciences attracts students with diverse backgrounds and interests and faculty whose creative approach to science and technology launches discipline-bending research programs. As a result, the undergraduate headcount in the Life Sciences has increased yearly, from 1,375 in 2003-2004 to 2,182 students in 2009, with 91% of graduates reporting high satisfaction with their training and experience. In addition, a multitude of students from other units participate in life sciences courses and programs each year.

2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07* 2007-08* Undergraduate Headcount (Fall) ...... 1,375 1,505 1,632 1,820 1,917 Master’s Headcount (Fall) 46 43 50 47 27 Doctoral Headcount (Fall) 170 170 179 176 142 Undergraduate Degrees awarded ...... 264 267 270 314 382 Master’s Degrees awarded ...... 17 14 16 21 12 Doctoral Degrees awarded ...... 21 22 25 25 18 Tenured/Tenure Track (T/TT) faculty 68 74 80 83 101

*The graduate program structure changed in 2007 and the numbers do not reflect the actual number housed in SOLS but only those still in our old majors. Graduate students in SOLS have the option of receiving degrees in one of several programs that are housed in SOLS or the ASU Graduate College.

46 SOLS 2009 | 5-year report Undergraduate

School of Life Sciences Enrollment Diversity (2009)

Type Number Percentage Asian/Pacific Islander ...... 243 11.1 % Black/African American 93 4.2% Hispanic/Latino ...... 317 14.5 % American Indian/Alaska Native 48 2.1% Non Resident Alien 22 1.0% White 1,300 59.5 %

Not Available ...... 159 7.2% Female 1,232 56.4% Male ...... 950 43.5% Minority students 701 32.1% Total Students 2,182

Student Support and Advising Undergraduate and To support students in their efforts, School Post Baccalaureate Research of Life Sciences has developed the Student School of Life Sciences has invested in four major Academic Advising and Student Services Office. programs tailored to mentor students and provide intensive Under the leadership of Scot Schoenborn, undergraduate training in research: the office works to enhance the student experience, provide guidance on classes, career • Minority Access to Research Careers (MARC) opportunities and degree requirements. The • Pre-MARC office takes great pride in making certain that • School of Life Science Undergraduate Research (SOLUR) students can meet often with advisors who • Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) can provide them with the information and guidance needed to make appropriate academic choices. Advisors think of it as a “continuous interaction” that starts as early as the first term of study for freshmen. The office also administers an internship program for career training, as students mature in their majors.

Learning Resource Center In 2006, the school added the Learning Resource Center, which offers students their own multi-function space dedicated to learning and community-building within the life sciences complex. The center offers students a meeting place, access to cutting-edge computers and software, in addition to tutoring and other resources, in a supportive, interactive learning environment. The space is a critical element in the SOLS undergraduate program because it provides students an environment from which to consolidate and extend what they have learned in their classes and in research labs. The center also provides student organizations in the life sciences a home for campus and community outreach programs.

SOLS 2009 | 5-year report 47 Undergraduate

School of Life Science Undergraduate Research (SOLUR)

The SOLUR program welcomes applications from any ASU student that is inquisitive and interested in exploring the life sciences. In 2009, more than 100 students per semester have worked or will work with mentors in the laboratory or in a field setting as apprentices, researchers or fellows. At each level, students’ responsibilities are matched to their background and research skills. Students are paid an hourly wage for their work and, as they advance from apprentice to fellow, have the opportunity to translate their projects into intensive preparation for postgraduate study in the life sciences. Thinking about other disciplines is part of the process of developing “out-of-the-box” solutions to life science research questions. Students are encouraged to make connections to other disciplines, such as chemistry and biochemistry, engineering, mathematics, physics, psychology, anthropology, kinesiology, philosophy, communications, humanities, social sciences and geosciences.

Focus On...

Ronald Rutowski, professor in the Organismal, Integrative and Systems Biology faculty group, is at the helm of the undergraduate research program, with support from SOLUR Program Manager Carol Bear. In 2006, Rutowski led a successful proposal, with collaborators Jane Maienschein, James Collins and Mark Jacobs to obtain a $1.8 million grant through the Howard Hughes Ronald Rutowski Carol Bear Medical Institute. They developed the Arizona Biosciences Network (AzBioNet: azbionet.asu.edu). In connection with SOLUR, this network builds opportunities for undergraduate students to interact and develop professional relationships with scientists who work at major research and medical institutions in the Phoenix metropolitan area. The SOLUR program hosts an annual poster symposium and a seminar to develop communication and networking skills, in addition to an understanding of the modern research enterprise Jane Maienschein James Collins and the opportunities it offers. Connecting students and potential mentors, AzBioNet also established mentoring workshops, held each semester to help faculty hone their skills as mentors.

Mark Jacobs

48 SOLS 2009 | 5-year report Minority Research at Arizona State University (MARC) The state of Arizona has a large and diverse minority population and is predicted to become a “minority-majority” state in the next decade. The undergraduate face of ASU is also becoming increasingly diverse. Approximately 25% of ASU students self-identified as Hispanic (13%), African American (4%) or American Indian (3%) in 2005. Demographics in School of Life Sciences reveal that roughly 32% of students are members of minority groups and more than half are female (56%). To meet the need for increased cultural diversity in the workforce and diverse perspectives in research, MARC at ASU has training a select group of Focus On... talented undergraduates from underrepresented groups. Since its inception in 1995, MARC has mentored 77 Carol Bear started working with students (2007) with support from the National Institutes undergraduate research program in of Health. Trainees have primarily been Hispanic (52.7%), 1999. She says, “I love to hear from African American (14.9%) and Native American (27%). Many former students, finding out what of these graduates have gone on to pursue postgraduate they are doing now. It is a wonderful degrees at medical schools and research institutions, built feeling to hear that they would have careers in biotechnology or biomedicine, or gone on to other never made it to where they are training programs. now without their involvement in the SOLUR program.” Pre-MARC The Pre-MARC Program at Arizona State University was established in 1998 to increase the participation of students from underrepresented groups in careers related REU student achievements to biomedical research. It is designed to give freshmen and sophomores early exposure to research careers by involving Research: them in the scientific process. Pre-MARC trainees work “Observing extracellular with scientists in a research laboratory and attend a weekly enzyme activity in the School seminar to gain practical skills in research and explore of Life Sciences” science as a career. – Ahmed Bony (2007)

Winner of the College of Liberal Research Experiences for Arts and Sciences Dean’s Circle Undergraduates (REU) Scholarship (2009) Undergraduate students are invited to apply for summer fellowships sponsored by supplements acquired from Faculty mentors: National Science Foundation-funded School of Life Sciences Nancy Grimm and Sharon Hall faculty members. These REU supplements offer opportunities for exceptional undergraduate students to gain experience Research: conducting individual research projects. Students interact “How light affects germination with mentors, other undergraduate students, graduate of the fern, Pyrrosia lingua” students, postdoctoral scholars and faculty conduct a – Tia Alquist (2007) diverse range of research projects. Appointments commonly include a summer stipend of roughly $3,000, with support for Winner of the Danielle Aronson housing and travel, if needed. Students also receive six hours Memorial Scholarship (2009) of course credit and a tuition waiver. Extraordinary mentorship and research experiences directly translate into exceptional Faculty mentor: student achievement overall. Leslie Towill

SOLS 2009 | 5-year report 49 Post-Baccalaureate Research Education Program (PREP) Lichen reveal air pollution patterns

In 2004, Associate Professor With summer just around the According to Zambo, this means Brenda Hogue established corner, undergraduate life sciences that as the lichen take up airborne PREP in Biomedical Sciences students can look forward to a nutrients, they take up pollutants. with a $1.6 million grant from the unique work experience through Over time, findings from the study National Institute of General Medical the Research Experiences for of lichen can be compared to local Sciences. The program is designed Undergraduates (REU) program industry’s toxic release inventories for underrepresented students in the School of Life Sciences. to generate a very complete pattern who have recently completed Students participate in ongoing of regional air pollution, one that their bachelor’s degree and need School of Life Sciences research also takes into account unrecorded to obtain more experience and projects and are paid to spend 10 heavy metal releases, like the preparation before entering a weeks of their summer conducting vanadium, nickel and chromium that doctoral program in the biomedical full-time, hand-on studies at the are released from car tire wear. sciences. PREP scholars work as bench or in the field. By arming technicians in a laboratory on a their futures with a competitive Zambo’s work is part of ongoing research project under the direction edge, a walk in the park and a stroll research directed by mentors of an experienced ASU faculty with a Xanthoparmelia never looked Thomas Nash, professor and mentor, with graduate students so good. curator of the ASU lichen herbarium, and/or postdoctoral fellows. They and Ken Sweat, a lecturer at the also participate in other activities Xanthoparmelia is a genus of lichen West campus. Zambo presented designed to strengthen skills commonly found on rocks in Arizona his work in the REU poster session important for graduate study, and was the focus of research held in summer, then went on to including seminars, lab meetings, for Thomas Zambo, who majored participate in the Central Arizona- journal clubs and a course on ethical in life sciences at ASU’s West Phoenix Long Term Ecological conduct in research. In addition, campus. He participated in a survey Research Project poster symposium participants attend local or national of lichen in and around 28 study during the year, giving a presentation scientific conferences and present sites in Maricopa County to see if on “Geographic patterns of mercury their work. The program director concentrations of airborne heavy deposition using the Lichen and faculty advisory committee help metals, such as copper, lead, zinc, Xanthoparmelia in Maricopa scholars identify the research area nickel and aluminum, had changed in County, AZ.” and mentor that best matches their the last 10 years. interests and goals. Scholars receive a salary and participate in a one to “Lichen are long-lived and two year program, dependent on remarkably good indicators of air each individualized development quality,” Zambo says. “This is a result plan. Applicants must be U.S. of their unique nutrient uptake – citizens or permanent residents and from the air. Because nutrient levels have completed their undergraduate are so low in the air, lichen are very degree within the last three years. efficient accumulators.”

50 SOLS 2009 | 5-year report 2009 Parents Professor of the Year: James Elser

– Teaching undergraduates to said Kazilek, director of technology integration and think independently outreach in School of Life Sciences. “His enthusiastic – Unearthing a solution to cancer delivery of subject matter is clearly engaging for the and infection students in his non-major biology class, a class of – Measuring the effects of human activity nearly 800 students per semester.” on small ecosystems Kazilek also remarked that Elser is a true asset to the James Elser, professor of biology in the School of community as the director of research and training Life Sciences, does all of this and more; these are the initiatives in School of Life Sciences, bringing in a reasons why the ASU Parents Association named him substantial number of research activities to faculty and the 2009 Professor of the Year. students. He also notes, “Professor Elser never forgets what gets most people interested in science: getting in “By my count, since coming to ASU, Jim Elser has touch with the beauty and wonder of the living world.” taught over 12,000 undergraduate students,” notes With this in mind, Elser established the SOLS Takes a Charles Kazilek, Elser’s nominator. To get a sense of the Hike event, a series of guided hikes in local parks. enormity of the amount of undergraduate students that Elser has taught, 12,000 students fill ASU’s Gammage Professor of the Year is funded through an endowment Auditorium four times. It is also akin to teaching one in through the ASU Parents Association. 2009 was five of ASU’s current enrollment. the association’s 25th anniversary. In addition to the prestigious designations, the Professor of the An ASU professor since 1990, Elser was chosen from Year receives $20,000 – $10,000 of which funds 39 colleagues as a true element of change – dedicated undergraduate student assistance and is distributed to solving the challenges of our time and inspiring his over two years. Elser will use a portion of his award to students to do the same. “Having worked with Jim for send one of his undergraduate research students to more than 20 years, I can say he is the kind of professor study abroad at a high mountain lake research site that you hope your own child will be fortunate to have,” in Norway.

SOLS 2009 | 5-year report 51 excellencein Teaching and Training

Focus On: David Brown, Elizabeth Davidson, David Pearson

In their teaching, School of Life Sciences faculty incorporate a wealth of experiences and perspectives. Three in particular offer exceptional insights as working professionals, conservationists, authors and academic scientists. A 27-year career at Arizona Game and Fish offered and public health systems owe to the microbiologists of Dave Brown a number of adventures, but when he the past who labored to uncover how minute pathogens retired, in 1989, his eye was squarely on Arizona State control insect vectors and pests. Davidson has also University’s wildlife/conservation biology program. As a taught a range of students and classes. One class, faculty associate in School of Life Sciences, he’s taught Professional Values in Science, empowers students Biology 410, 411 and 412, but his favorite has been to confront and find solutions to proposed significant Bio 410, a demanding course that involves overnight academic and ethical issues, incorporating outside trips and students’ hands-on experiences. In an era speakers and interactive discussions. when field biology courses routinely disappear from American universities, Brown has packed his bag and Also creating a national and international presence taken his classes on the road, giving students a chance for School of Life Sciences, while training the next to learn field techniques – from mist netting bats to generation of life science professionals, is research seining fish – in the field. Brown has also taught Bio 428 professor David Pearson. Pearson’s research interests (Biogeography) and Popular Science Writing – a course range from basic entomology to conservation questions, that he and ASU professor emeritus John Alcock team- such as examining what factors that led to local taught for graduate students for nearly 15 years. Brown extinctions of bird populations in the tropics. He has was a natural for this course, as author of more than been a mainstay in the teaching of Biology 100, a non- 18 books. His books include an account of the grizzly majors course, since 1991. Pearson has engaged literally bear’s extinction in the Southwest (“The Last Grizzly”) thousands of students with his humor and enthusiasm, and a review of the writings of the conservationist Aldo while making them aware of how biologists use scientific Leopold (“Aldo Leopold’s Southwest”) and series on the logic to reach their conclusions. Wildlife in Arizona Territory. His most recent publication, “The Travails of Two Woodpeckers,” explains why two of Pearson has authored a range of books. “A Field Guide the largest woodpeckers in the world went extinct in the to the Tiger Beetles of the United States and Canada,” 20th century. Dave guides his students with real warmth, received great acclaim. The illustrations (prepared evoking appreciation for his company as well as his with Charles Kazilek) are enough to make anyone a literary advice. tiger beetle enthusiast – although no one can match Pearson in this regard. He has also authored a series of Elizabeth (Betty) Davidson, a research professor, successful traveler’s guides. Taking readers to Thailand, is also a renaissance person. As a microbiologist with Peru, Brazil and the Galapagos, his books focus on an active research program, Davidson has made major ecotourism and wildlife and have contributed significantly contributions to the study of bacterial pathogens of to the understanding and conservation of these world’s mosquitoes. She has also discovered a virus that few remaining natural areas. Pearson has traveled all may help control introduced crayfish that now clog over the globe, often to give workshops on teaching and Arizona’s streams. In addition, Davidson is part of a conservation to students in Peru, Ecuador, Brazil, India large research team, which includes James Collins, and Madagascar. Just name a spot you’ve gone and he’s professor and associate director of biological sciences probably preceded you. with the National Science Foundation, working on the viruses that are devastating salamanders and frogs in Whether life sciences students are physically transported Arizona and around the world. Her contributions may from the classroom to the field to observe pronghorn help conservationists protect what is left of amphibian with Brown, or just travel in their minds-eye to the forests biodiversity. Davidson has written a popular account of of the Amazon or deep within life cycles that fuel disease the people who have studied the diseases of insects with Pearson and Davidson, these research professionals and other invertebrates (“Big Fleas Have Little Fleas”). It are at the heart of the best teaching and discovery in offers new understanding of how much our agricultural ASU classrooms.

SOLS 2009 | 5-year report 53 Collaborative summer project raises profile of ASU’s Arboretum

As you walk through Arizona State University’s Tempe plant biology after taking her first course with associate campus, you are surrounded by the largest public professor Leslie Towill. Alquist’s unique combination arboretum in the state. Home to more than 900 plant of skills caught the eye of the teaching assistant for her species, the ASU Arboretum was first established in comparative plant diversity course, Frank Farruggia. A 1990. Recognition of the collection came in 1995, doctoral student, Farruggia had used the Arboretum when the ASU Arboretum was named official collection as part of his lesson plans for several years. When holder for edible date palms in North America. Although Alquist approached Farruggia, looking for a summer the official designation came less than 20 years ago, project, Farruggia was ready with one particularly suited the groundwork for the Arboretum was laid early in the to Alquist’s combination of botanical knowledge and century, according to Mike Schantel, grounds assistant artistic skill: a graphic guide to the ASU Arboretum. supervisor. The Arboretum collection is continually Alquist and Farruggia surveyed possible walking routes growing and changing along with the Tempe campus. through campus that combined plant specimens of While primary goals such as education, display and particular interest or significance and notable campus maintenance remain unchanged, the Arboretum is able landmarks. They settled on two routes, the Maroon and to shift to meet the evolving needs of the university. Gold trails, that highlighted 134 important specimens One current focus, according to Schantel, is in low and examples of native Arizona floral landscapes. water use plants, urban agriculture and sustainability, a Alquist condensed their research into a graphic walking direction reflecting ASU’s own focus on sustainability guide to the ASU Arboretum. To support their efforts, and urban desert issues. Classes from several different they garnered funding from the Arizona State History ASU entities directly utilize the Arboretum. For School Museum, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and of Life Sciences, the Arboretum supplies an outdoor the International Institute for Species Exploration headed classroom for such courses as PLB 300: Comparative by Virginia M. Ullman Professor of Natural Sciences and Plant Diversity, PLB 310: The Flora of Arizona and PLB the Environment Quentin Wheeler, vice president and 411: Trees and Shrubs of Arizona. It was in one of these dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. With courses that Tia Alquist had her first exposure to the plans to continue her studies in plant biology in graduate ASU Arboretum as a junior. She started her ASU career school, Alquist hopes to be able to continue her work in as a design studies major, adding a double major in graphic design with imaginative projects such as this.

54 SOLS 2009 | 5-year report Graduate Learning

Faculty and graduate students in life science Doctoral degrees include develop innovative approaches to the core challenges facing society and the sciences, from • Biological Design the evolution of molecules to bioenergy, global • Biology ecosystems to emergent disease and conservation • Biology and Society to biopolicy. Students take classes with and receive • Environmental Life Sciences mentorship from some of the top researchers in the • Philosophy (History and Philosophy of Science) world in bioenergy and behavior, biotechnology, • Human and Social Dimensions of Science and biomedicine and bioinformatics, genomics, Technology conservation and urban ecology, evolutionary • Microbiology science and biogeochemistry, physiology and • Molecular and Cellular Biology neuroscience, sociobiology, behavior and biological • Neuroscience design. Master’s degrees are offered in biology, • Plant Biology biology and society, microbiology, molecular and • Sustainability cell biology and plant biology. Graduate Student Support Student Brown Bag: Pizza and Community In addition to the support offered through the Graduate College at ASU, School of Life Sciences has developed With hundreds of graduate students and a diversity of a series of programs to bolster skills and broaden research interests, School of Life Sciences graduate prospects of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows student community established the student Brown Bag working to advance discovery. The Office of Research as a forum for connection and exchange of ideas. Now in and Training Initiatives (RTI) offers unique training its sixth year, the Friday gatherings bring students (and opportunities and seed funding for research ventures pizza) together for presentations and feedback, skills through the Frontiers in Life Sciences (FILS) annual training and networking and offers the sense of being conference program, Graduate Initiatives for Training part of a large and vibrant community. (GiFT) program, Postdoctoral interdisciplinary Research in the Life Sciences (PIRLS), plus a number of outreach Integrative Graduate Education projects developed to enrich science communication and Research Training (IGERT) with the public, including internships with award-winning School of Life Sciences Magazine (IABC Silver Quill The National Science Foundation Integrative Graduate Award for magazine writing and design) and Science Education and Research Training (IGERT) program in Studio podcast. Urban Ecology was renewed during this last five year cycle, supported by grants totally $3.2 million. IGERT Mentoring Advances Postdocs provides support and training for 20 graduate students and Grad Students (MAPS) from six disciplinary units. Professors in School of Life Sciences, Stuart Fisher, Ann Kinzig and Nancy The newest offering from the RTI Office, MAPS provides Grimm were among eight ASU scientists involved, meaningful information and training opportunities to in addition to Charles Redman of the Global Institute enhance the intellectual and professional development of of Sustainability. Other IGERT programs at ASU postdoctoral researchers and senior graduate students include: Biomolecular Nanotechnology; Neural and and to improve the quality of mentoring by faculty. A Musculoskeletal Adaptation Form and Function; and Arts, nine-month series of events and workshops have been Media and Engineering. developed, with “Mentoring Monday” gatherings around topics salient to success in the sciences; such as, grant writing and funding, science communication and publication, responsible conduct, mentoring and teaching and job searches.

56 SOLS 2009 | 5-year report Synthesis: Graduate training accelerating global discovery

As disciplines become more specified and data accumulates, there is an increasing demand for young scientists to “synthesize” – roughly defined as integrating frameworks and ideas across disciplines in novel ways. Professor Stuart Fisher’s graduate seminar offers the opportunity for graduate students, in SOLS and other schools, to explore the concept and process of synthesis in terms of ecological phenomenon.

Fisher employs unconventional teaching tools including “Jumbles” and radical juxtaposition of concepts – an activity where students make note cards naming organisms, ecosystems and scientific theories. The cards are then grouped randomly and used as a tool to challenge young researchers to think broadly about ways to integrate these topics into a centralized idea. “This class demonstrated that synthetic activities are achievable during my graduate career – not something that only tenured faculty can do,” asserts Karl Wyant, a doctoral student who studies food web ecology. One of Fisher’s goals for the class is that graduate students take away ideas about how to incorporate synthesis into their research and how to teach these ideas to the other young scientists they will mentor. This course fills a niche and complements the empirical courses on campus, providing students an opportunity to integrate diverse knowledge. “It’s a course about critical thinking and training students to solve multi-faceted problems,” Michelle McCrackin, doctoral student explains. McCrackin has been awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to study how nitrogen deposition from anthropogenic sources affects nutrient cycling in lake sediments across Norway. Synthesis is a way to accelerate scientific discovery and address questions of global importance in areas including sustainability, urban planning and conservation.

Fisher is the recipient of the Eugene P. Odom Education Award (2008) that recognizes extraordinary individuals for “outstanding work in ecology education, teaching, outreach and mentoring activities.” Fisher was also one of the authors of the highly collaborative report created by the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC), which was honored with the Nobel Peace Prize, shared with Al Gore, in 2007.

SOLS 2009 | 5-year report 57 Frontiers in Life Sciences Conference Series Putting graduate students at the helm

The Frontiers in Life Sciences (FILS) Conference Series is the The intimate conference format brainchild of School of Life Sciences’ Foundation Director Robert E. generated intense collaborative Page, Jr. and Associate Director of Research and Training Initiatives exchange and synthesis. Four James Elser. Developed to place graduate students in charge of papers were published April 6, development of an internationally relevant program, the first conference 2009 in a special supplement of was launched in 2008. “Iridescence: More than Meets the Eye” the Journal of the Royal Society connected diverse disciplines and researchers around the topic of Interface, including: iridescence. Students developed a proposal, sought external funding and planned each facet of the three day event. Included were panel • Doucet S.M., Meadows discussions, poster presentations, talks and workshops developed M.G. Iridescence: a to catalyze cross-disciplinary discussion, identify new avenues of functional perspective. research and explore the potential for iridescence in nature to provide • Ghiradella H.T., Butler M.W. novel insight in materials sciences, science education and biological Many variations on a few discovery. In addition to intellectual exchange, the conference themes: a broader look at incorporated an outreach event: a dinner and a fashion show with development of iridescent student dancers from ASU Herberger College of the Arts. With scales (and feathers). choreography developed by Jennifer Tsukayama, students on the cat- • Meadows M.G., Butler walk sported iridescent costumes created by costume artists Galina M.W., Morehouse N.I., et Mihaleva and Jacqueline Benard. Dennita Sewell, curator of costume al. Iridescence: views from design at the Phoenix Art Museum, delivered a talk on the use of many angles. iridescence in costuming and fashion – from traditional ceremonial garb • Shawkey M.D., Morehouse to modern day fashion and textiles. An international array of speakers N.I., Vukusic P. A protean attended, coming from Brazil, Canada, Japan, Netherlands, Australia, palette: colour materials Belgium, United Kingdom and the United States. The conference and mixing in birds format offers ASU faculty and graduate students the unique opportunity and butterflies. to interact with innovative, international leaders in their fields and build collaborations between departments and disciplines within ASU.

58 SOLS 2009 | 5-year report Graduate

Building a healthier community All that glitters is not gold

Katherine Brind’Amour took a running start into Sex sells. The thrum and flash of an automobile, the whisper her master’s degree at Arizona State University. of designer silk, the tease of a tattoo, the ching ching of gold A semester into her program, Brind’Amour, who chains and rings are paired in media and on the streets with also received her bachelor’s degree from ASU, come-hither abdominal tautness and the flutter of eyelashes. It was already organizing and running prenatal care is a potent advertising mix, all to say: Pick me. and pregnancy courses at the 1st Way Pregnancy Center in Phoenix. You don’t have to look far to find correlates in the animal and plant kingdoms. Nature’s showy subjects also promote Brind’Amour first became involved with the reproductive success with bright colors and flash, in feathers, center while researching her undergraduate scales, petals and wings. So what is it about bling? With honors thesis on public prenatal healthcare, millions of years of evolution behind them, wouldn’t you think under the tutelage of her thesis advisor, Professor butterflies would be more evolved? Jason Robert. She also worked with the center as a volunteer. It turns out that there’s more substance behind all that flash and glitter than show. In a paper published in the Proceedings With support from Robert, in collaboration with of the Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, biologists Nathan Barbara Wilson of the College of Nursing and Morehouse and Ron Rutowski demonstrate that butterflies Healthcare Innovations, Brind’Amour has worked have taken their colors and flash seriously, into the ultraviolet with 1st Way to create a series of eight classes on wavelengths where humans cannot see, but butterflies can, pregnancy and prenatal health. The classes cover utilizing pigments (pterins) and nanoscale structures that make a wide range of topics from prenatal health and human nanofabrication look downright crude – and female diet, breast-feeding, delivery courses, to sessions butterflies swoon. on healthy relationships, preconception health and fetal development. “What we see as color is really a manipulation of light. We want to understand what optical mechanisms butterflies use One of the goals of the program is to reduce to produce their colors. There is surprisingly little known,” says premature deliveries and low birth weights. The Morehouse, a graduate student and member of the 2008 experience has been rewarding says Brind’Amour, Frontiers in Life Sciences Conference team. “Part of the “I have great support from the center and the reason for that is that the structures used are so small and women really want to be there.” our understanding of the way that light interacts with these surfaces at that scale is really rudimentary.” Brind’Amour has collected data from about 40 of the 300 attendees who meet eligibility criteria and will follow their progress, after delivery, to track Quiz bowl is for the birds birth outcomes. “Who is Alex?” With the correct answer to that question, Birth outcome data, such as birth weight, can be the team of Melissa Meadows, Matthew Toomey and Bobby used to track practical outcomes of the prenatal (Haralambos) Fokidis, graduate students in the School of education. Brind’Amour’s hope is that her Life Sciences, won the inaugural quiz bowl at the 4th North research may allow pregnancy centers throughout American Ornithological Conference. Held in Veracruz, Mexico the valley to set a benchmark for the practical (2006), the conference was the largest ornithological meeting outcomes of their work, and provide them with real in history and was attended by scientists from across the data to present to potential donors and secure Americas. Each member of this three-student team from ASU future funding. was awarded a pair of Audubon Equinox Binoculars. The prize was perfect for the avid and knowledgeable birders, according Brind’Amour graduated in May 2009, but she to Meadows, as her old pair had been stolen. Fokidis also will continue her passion to work with expectant indicated he was in dire need of a new pair of binoculars. mothers. Many scientists work with people when For those of you less well-versed in all things ornithological they are in trouble, in pain and ill. Brind’Amour as Meadows, Toomey and Fokidis: Alex was an African Grey loves her work because she “gets to work with parrot who could label seven colors, count up to six objects, women when there’s an excitement. It’s an and featured prominently in the debate over whether or not important time in their lives.” animals can “think.”

SOLS 2009 | 5-year report 59 outreach Changing the world, one person at a time

Being a central part of the larger fabric of community in the Southwest means giving back and adding value to community members’ lives. ASU and School of Life Sciences have made long-standing commitments to students, life-long learners, parents, teachers and the public through a number of outreach programs and events. Three standouts in the last five years have been Graduate Partners in Science Education (2005), a program that partners with Title I schools, Ask A Biologist, an online science education Web site and SOLS Takes a Hike (2006), a series of guided walks that has connected ASU faculty and graduate students with more than 300 members of the public. In addition, with the advent of Darwin’s 200th birthday, School of Life Sciences Founding Director Robert E. Page, Jr., in collaboration with Quentin Wheeler, VP and Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, hosted ASU Darwinfest (2008-2009) – a year-long celebration of how bold ideas can transform science, technology and society. Coordinated by Margaret Coulombe in School of Life Sciences, Darwinfest engaged 33 partners, on and off campus, and launched the Darwin Distinguished Lecture Series, The Future of Evolution Lecture Series (held at the Arizona Science Center), Translating Evolutionary Science into the Public Classroom Workshop. A plethora of events and discussions have hosted some of the foremost evolutionary scientists and theorists in the world. Estimated attendance of core events from Fall 2008-Spring 2009 (not including Origins Initiative, Daniel Dennett and Jay Melosh lectures) exceeded 3,600, specifically targeting undergraduate students, teachers and members of the public. Many of these ASU events were captured as audiorecordings (podcasts), featured by Apple on iTunesU and will also appear on the National Science Foundation’s Science 360 online science portal. Graduate Partners in Science Education (GPSE) was created by School of Life Sciences doctoral students Nate Morehouse and Jon Davis in 2005 to mentor K-12 students in the life sciences. GPSE recruits life sciences graduate students to work with two science teachers and approximately 45 middle school students in an after-school, hands-on science education program. Mentors spend the fall semester leading the students through modules that foster scientific inquiry. In the spring, the mentors then work with students as they develop and carry out their own experiments (which are subsequently entered in the Arizona Science and Engineering Fair). The program has grown annually and contributed significantly to many children and their families’ futures. In 2008, ten graduate student mentors participated and 19 students - the first in the school’s history - received science fair medals. GPSE’s partner school is Phoenix Preparatory Academy, an underserved school in downtown Phoenix that receives Title I funds. GPSE has also built partnerships with the Phoenix Zoo and the Rio Salado Habitat Restoration Project. Mike Butler, the current director of GPSE, is seeking new ways to extend this program to other schools and colleges at ASU, as well as other universities around the country.

Ask A Biologist First launched by Charles Kazilek in 1997, Ask A Biologist Web site has grown in the last five years in content, connections, participants and in service to teachers, parents, life-long learners and K-12 students locally and nationally. Questions are the lifeblood of Kazilek. As director of technology integration and outreach in the ASU School of Life Sciences, he created the innovative K-12 children’s science education Web site specifically to provide answers to the puzzled, perplexed and just plain curious. A portal for fun and facts, the site receives more than 200 questions a month. As its host Dr. Biology, Kazilek’s Web persona, Kazilek has interpreted more than 20,000 queries in the last 10 years – and has only been stumped a dozen times. Involving more than 100 faculty and student volunteers, Ask A Biologist attracts more than 700,000 unique visitors per year. For its creative content and value to educators, the site has received commendations from Center for Digital Education - Digital Education Achievement Awards (2004), Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and a Silver Quill Award of Excellence from International Association of Business Communicators (2008). In addition to establishing funding from the National Science Foundation to expand into the Web 2.0 format, 2006 also heralded expansion in multimedia, with flash and podcast programs. One resource created by Kazilek for teachers, the Pocket Seed Viewer experiment, was packaged as a training tool and distributed to more than 100,000 fifth grade students in the United Kingdom. In addition to Ask A Biologist’s impact via the Web, Kazilek, as the director of technology integration and outreach, made face-to-face connections Top: K-12 podcasters tour ant lab with doctoral student Rebecca with 5,600 teachers/students (2006) in support of the Clark. Bottom: Ask A Biologist co-host Ramon Santos at the development of curriculum and public programs. mike in the Grass Roots Studio.

SOLS 2009 | 5-year report 61 Phoenix elementary students win ASU podcast contest and interview scientists

Third-graders Taylor Cheatham and Itzany Mendez and fifth-grader Brian Varela from Paul Laurence Dunbar Elementary School were the winners of the first bi-annual “Ask A Biologist” podcast contest. To become a podcast co-host, each student did a podcast interview and submitted a CD, much like a podcast version of “American Idol,” with support from their teachers. Winners, chosen based on their vocal skills, curiosity and creativity by the panel of judges, their parents and teachers visited Arizona State University, interviewed a scientist, with co-host Dr. Biology (Charles Kazilek) and received an Apple iPod Nano.

“Such a wonderful opportunity and day of learning and lessons for us all,” said Helen Rentz, a third-grade teacher at Paul Laurence Dunbar Elementary School. “The children have never had anything like this available to them before. They were very motivated to research, to interview and to podcast, and it’s the first trip for them and their families to ASU.”

“This has definitely made an impact,” adds Joan Howell, teacher with the Accelerated Learning Procedures (ALPS) program in Phoenix in which all three students participate.

Cheatham, Mendez and Varela are the first three of 12 students who will be featured on Ask A Biologist each year.

At the head(phones) of her class, third-grader and podcast contest winner Taylor Cheatman. Resources for Discovery

Natural History Collections

Sustained by the School of Life Sciences, ASU’s Natural History Collections are comprised of nine collections that directly support the university’s teaching, research and public outreach functions. Holdings emphasize flora and fauna from the arid Southwest, especially Arizona and Sonora, Mexico. Collectively, ASU’s holdings have grown to rank among the largest collections of Sonoran desert biota in the world. The collections are organized into four units:

• Vascular Plant Herbarium • Lichen Herbarium • Zoological Collections • Fossil Plant Collections

The Zoological Collections are in turn comprised of six major divisions:

• Herpetology (Amphibians and Reptiles) • Ichthyology (Fish) • Mammalogy (Mammals) • Entomology (Insects) • Malacology (Shells) • Ornithology (Birds)

ASU’s Vascular Plant Herbarium is the second largest herbarium in the Southwest. Managing the more than 270,000 specimens, the herbarium is maintained by Leslie Landrum, curator; Donald J. Pinkava, director emeritus and Marty Wojciechowski, an associate professor in the Genomics, Evolution and Bioinformatics faculty group, in addition to collections manager, Elizabeth Makings. The collections are particularly rich in the Cactaceae, Compositae and Myrtaceae. Its collection of Cataceae is one of the best in the world, particularly rich in cytological voucher specimens.

School of Life Sciences also maintains the ASU Lichen Herbarium and Fossil Plant Collection. The herbarium houses more than 109,000 fully accessioned and databased lichen specimens from all over the world. Collections are particularly rich in the Lecanoraceae and Parmeliaceae. A significant fraction of these specimens are being revised in the context of the Greater Sonoran Desert Flora Project funded by the National Science Foundation and led by Curator Thomas Nash.

Nash, T.H., B.D. Ryan, C. Gries and F. Bungartz (eds.). 2002. Lichen Flora of the Greater Sonoran Desert Region. Vol. I. Lichen Unlimited: Tempe, AZ.

Nash, T.H., B.D. Ryan, C. Gries and F. Bungartz (eds.). 2004. Lichen Flora of the Greater Sonoran Desert Region. Vol. II. Lichen Unlimited: Tempe, AZ.

SOLS 2009 | 5-year report 63 Natural History Collections

The Fossil Plant Collection at ASU is maintained by Kathleen Pigg, associate professor, and includes approximately 5,000 accessioned megafossil specimens, and approximately as many unaccessioned specimens. In addition to the plant megafossils, there are several subcollections including one of fossil and extant pollen, extant wood anatomy and other anatomical sections and morphological specimens.

Zoological collections, curated by Anthony Gill, incorporate fish, birds, mammals, insects, reptiles and amphibians and shells. The Frank Hasbrouk Entomology Collection contains around 650,000 insect specimens, representing 25 orders, 389 families, 3,505 genera, 8,832 species and 1,242 subspecies.

The Ichthyology Collection is extremely valuable for its regional focus on Arizona, southwestern U.S. and northern Mexico. The collection has been historically built around the activities of the late W.L. Minckley, with continued growth through collecting activities by Professors Paul Marsh, Thomas Dowling and Curator Anthony Gill. The collection also serves as the repository for non-game fish surveys by Arizona Department of Game and Fish. It contains around 20,000 registered lots (jars with multiple specimens) and includes numerous threatened and endangered southwestern species. The fish skeletal collection is also noteworthy, consisting of over 1,000 cleared and stained specimens of small fishes and over 100 dry skeletons. The skeletal holdings – and an associated tissue collection – are being developed and expanded to allow research on higher relationships of fishes.

Les Landrum: Making merry with myrtle Some people collect stamps or coins. Les Landrum, herbarium curator for the School of Life Sciences, collects fruit. Guavas, to be specific, or, at least, foods made of or with guavas. His ASU lab, in fact, looks like a grocery store. There are cans, boxes and jars from all over the world with colorful labels describing guava in every form imaginable, and some that are not: guava paste (which is eaten with cheese), jelly and preserves – and even guava soup, baby food and jawbreakers.

The herbarium holds a rich collection of guava; more than 260,000 plant specimens, of which about 6,000 are guavas and their relatives.

Landrum, also a senior research scientist in the School of Life Sciences, says he became interested in the myrtle family when he was a volunteer in the Peace Corps in Chile 35 years ago: “It’s an important economic plant all over the world.”

People have been eating guava for a long time, but no one knows the fruit’s exact origin. The oldest known presence of guavas is in Caral, a 4,000-year- old archeological site on the Peruvian coast. Landrum believes that guavas most likely started in South America, but their use has spread worldwide.

“People have used guavas medicinally,” Landrum said. “They are high in vitamin C, and in South America, people made a tea with the leaves and bark that was good for diarrhea. That knowledge has been passed around the world, to Africa and Malaysia, for instance.”

64 SOLS 2009 | 5-year report New research in Japan has shown that guavas may have properties that inhibit tumors, and researchers in Sudan note that the water extract of guava leaves is used to treat bronchitis, asthma, dysentery and diabetes.

Why should anyone care about the guava, aside from its nutritional and medicinal properties? Landrum says that tracing the tree’s origins and dispersal “might tell us something about how people migrated around the world. There is human interest.”

In addition to eating guavas, Landrum has been writing about them for many years. “My life’s project is to write a monograph about all the approximately 60 species, including their classification, geography and evolutionary history. Knowing these may tell us a lot about the last few million years of biological history in Latin America,” he said.

Without doubt, that will probably mean some new guava treats at the Landrum lab.

Snakes Alive! ASU’s Living Collection

While winding your way through Arizona State Venomous animals were the Stahnke forté. His expertise University, be sure to include a visit to a certain hallway was such that he was once featured on the television in Life Sciences A-wing – the one that houses the show, “What’s My Line?” An anti-venin for scorpion “Living Collection.” stings was still being manufactured in the Life Sciences building into the 1990s. To see a relict of those days “Living” is not the only feature that distinguishes this one only has to look up at the façade on the right side of reptilian collection from other natural history exhibits that the main entrance to the A-wing at 451 E. Tyler, better are normally pickled, dried or stuffed. The reptiles are known as Palm Walk, where an art deco motif contains also special because they are all of known origin, making a scorpion. them valuable for education, outreach and study. The 18 species of rattlesnakes along the north wall cover all of Today, the creatures on exhibit serve both educational the species and subspecies found in Arizona. and scientific functions by helping to develop an appreciation of the diversity of the venomous reptiles Interestingly, no one seems to know exactly how long that exist throughout Arizona. One favorite: the albino the collection has been in place, though most believe specimen of the Western diamondback rattlesnake, its origins extend from the 1960s when the School of Crotalus atrox, the most common venomous species Life Sciences was the Department of Zoology. At that in the state. True albinos are very rare, with uniformly time Herbert Stahnke headed the department, and the pale scales, pink eyes and only a hint of orange scale treatment of bites from scorpions, rattlesnakes and Gila patterning near its rattle-adorned tail. monsters generated enormous interest and anti-venin.

SOLS 2009 | 5-year report 65 core facilities

Summary of nominal square footage (nsf) of space administered by SOLS

Building/Year Total Nsf Research Lab Research Lab Office Office Classrooms/ Greenhouse Service Service Collections

LSA (1950) ...... 45,606 21,489 7,612 10,488 134 5,417 466 LSC (1960) ...... 62,768 24,354 9,218 14,559 583 14,054 LSE (1990) ...... 89,971 34,451 11,389 14,834 759 25,505 3,033 ISTB1 (2006) ...... 17,565 10,471 1,382 3,320 315 2,077 Biodesign A (2005) . . . 21,883 14,747 7,136 Biodesign B (2005) . . . 22,899 16,846 6,053

Total ...... 260,692 122,358 42,790 43,201 1,791 47,053 3,499

Faculty and students are housed in a variety of buildings, including three Life Science wings, and most recently, the Interdisciplinary Science and Technology Building 1 (ISTB1) and Biodesign A and B wings. Biodesign and ISTB1 have provided excellent “open” facilities for more than 25 percent of the faculty. Lab sizes range from 400 to 2,200 nominal square footage (nsf), and average about 1,200 nsf for faculty with experimental research programs. School of Life Sciences Bioimaging Facility

The Bioimaging Facility is co-directed by Douglas Chandler and Robert Roberson. The facility includes two laboratories, the W.M. Keck Bioimaging Laboratory and the Life Sciences Electron Microscopy Laboratory.

Since it’s founding in 1997, the W.M. Keck Bioimaging Laboratory at Arizona State University has served over 100 principal investigators in state-of-the-art research ranging from the imaging of metastasizing cancer cells, photo-ablation of specific cells in the early mouse embryo, visualization of amyloid and synuclein proteins to particle and organelle tracking in living cells. The 2032 sq. ft. facility houses six advanced optical microscopy workstations each with differing capabilities. Instrumentation ranges from laser scanning confocal microscopy and video microscopy to atomic force microscopy. The researchers utilizing this facility come from 14 units across the university and other biomedical research institutes in the Phoenix metropolitan area. During the last 10 years, ASU’s users have brought in over $325 million dollars in research awards. Page Baluch, Keck Lab manager, provides training and imaging courses for undergraduate and graduate students.

The bioimaging facility offers annually formal lecture and laboratory courses in both light and electron microscopy technique at the graduate level. In 2009, undergraduate students will have an opportunity to learn techniques in growing, maintaining and preparing cells for bioimaging in the BIO451 Cell Biotechnology course. Staff is actively involved in teaching, one-on-one instrument training and has received awards from the Nikon Small World and Olympus Bioscapes annual image competitions. In addition staff actively participate in outreach activities and, in conjunction with the bioimaging facility at Northern Arizona University, the annual Ugly Bug contest. The W.M. Keck laboratory is currently expanding to serve a whole new generation of scientists needing imaging technologies to make possible new areas of inquiry including the in vivo study of neuronal signaling in the brain, the development of organisms for production of alternative fuels and the intracellular synthesis and trafficking of proteins in neurons that are important for learning and memory.

In 1962, the Life Science Electron Microscope Laboratory was formed through the acquisition of a single Philips EM 100B transmission electron microscope (TEM) by William T. Northey (Emeritus Professor of Microbiology). Today, this facility carries out research studies ranging from membrane biogenesis and protein trafficking in rapidly frozen cells and to characterization of new pathogenic microbes to development of photosynthetic bacteria stains that will provide the biosynthetic fuels of the future. The current facility houses a Philips CM12S scanning- transmission electron microscope, a Balzers 400D Freeze Etch Unit, a Balzers HPM 010 High Pressure Freezing Unit and state-of-the-art ultramicrotomes and freeze substitution devices, in addition to a Leica Cambridge Stereoscan 360FE from the Motorola Corporation, which is a high resolution field emission SEM retrofitted with a digital imaging system from IXRF. An additional JEOL (Model) TEM is used for both research and teaching activities, particularly in the TEM laboratory course held each fall semester. Management and training activities are provided by David Lowry.

SOLS 2009 | 5-year report 67 Core Facilities

DNA Laboratory During the past five years, the DNA lab has seen considerable expansion, from 900 - 2,000 sq. ft., and acquired new equipment, including an Agilent Microarray scanner, an Agilent Bioanalyzer and an ABI quantitative PCR unit. The acquisition of a capillary DNA sequencer and sample preparation robot has allowed the yearly sequencing sample numbers to increase from 14,000 in 2004 to 47,000 in 2008. Genotyping capabilities were added in 2006 through an upgrade of the DNA sequencer. There are 102 laboratories currently served. Major entities utilizing the DNA Lab are the Biodesign Institute, TGen and most of the research groups in the Phoenix area. In 2007, the DNA Lab supported research projects totaling $4.8 million in ASU Sponsored Project expenditures. A laboratory course, Techniques in Functional Genomics, offers theory and training on the lab’s equipment and use in molecular biology. In addition, fifteen additional undergraduate laboratory sections from Biochemistry 467 and Bio 343 utilize the lab.

Grass Roots Studio What motivates a scientist? How does research today affect the universe tomorrow? How do students see their role in the future of the world we live in? The Grass Roots Studio provides the audio tools to capture the sounds of today’s diverse personalities. Established in 2006, Grass Roots is a professional quality recording studio. The studio is home to the bimonthly Ask A Biologist and Science Studio podcast programs, with hosts Charles Kazilek and Margaret Coulombe, in addition to the Darwin Distinguished Lecture Series, Studio vistor AEPA Science (iTunes U), The Living World Snippets Edward O. Wilson (iTunes U). Each program includes a transcript to meet the needs of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Honey Bee Research Facility Launched in 2005, the Honey Bee Research Facility occupies 7,000 sq. ft. and serves as a field station for the School of Life Sciences Social Insect Research Group. The laboratory and nearby apiaries are managed by Osman Kaftanoglu. The hives are used to study bee genetics, neurobiology, physiology, behavior and ecology. Additionally, researchers teach classes to both hobby and professional bee keepers.

68 SOLS 2009 | 5-year report Core Facilities Connections

School of Life Sciences engages locally and globally in research, innovation, technology, policy development, medical discovery, scholarship and outreach. Extensive multidisciplinary and collaborative relationships include centers and institutes, business and industry, nonprofits and hospitals, and local partners on the ASU campus, Mayo Clinic, Barrow Neurological Institute, Arizona Game and Fish, Salt River Project and other groups.

Centers and Institutes In the last five years, faculty in the School of Life Sciences have undertaken active leadership roles Visualization Laboratory in a growing number of centers The School of Life Sciences Visualization Laboratory (Vislab) is an award- and institutes at ASU, including winning agency that offers design and marketing services in various media, the Center for Social Dynamics including development of websites, illustrations, magazines, book covers, and Complexity (Co-director, print, photography, posters, exhibition and multimedia materials. Jennifer Fewell), Center for Biology and Society (Director, Managed by Jacob Sahertian, the Vislab has raised visibility and Jane Maienschein), International strengthened the visionary spirit at ASU, through marketing and design Institute for Species Exploration support for ASU events, institutes and initiatives, such as Darwinfest, Origins, (Director, Quentin Wheeler), Sichuan University; Center for Biology and Society, Center for Film, Media Consortium for Science, Policy and Popular Culture, International Letters and Cultures and Ira A. Fulton and Outcomes (Director, Daniel School of Engineering. The Vislab has also contributed to various technical Sarewitz) and Biodesign Institute, and design committees at ASU, playing an important role in the development including for Center Infectious of the ASU brand. Diseases and Vaccinology (Director, Roy Curtiss III), Center for Starting as an in-house service center, the Vislab has developed into a Innovations in Medicine (Director, full service agency, invigorating the School of Life Sciences and the ASU Stephen Johnston) and Center for community’s research, education and outreach. With a commitment to Evolutionary Functional Genomics collaborative synergy, the Vislab revenues have increased 60 percent over the (Director, Sudhir Kumar). last five years, bringing it closer to its goal of self-sufficiency. School of Life Sciences faculty are core contributors in the University of Arizona Medical College – Phoenix Computer Teaching Facilities in partnership with Arizona State During 2005-09, The School added state-of-the-art computer technology University, Center for Metabolic in 11 undergraduate teaching laboratories. These laboratories support over Studies, Center for Nanotechnology 5,400 undergraduate students annually. The computers are equipped with and Society, Global Institute real-world software and hardware. This new technology better prepares for Sustainability and School students for success as future researchers and careers in the life sciences. of Sustainability and Center for These efforts are coordinated by Shapard Wolf, SOLS IT Coordinator. Bioenergy and Photosynthesis.

SOLS 2009 | 5-year report 69 Appendices

Appendix 1: ASU Demographics

STUDENTS Undergraduates ...... 53,298 Graduate Students ...... 17,784 Total ...... 67, 082

Life Sciences Majors ...... 2,182

ADMISSIONS First Time Freshman 9,707 New Transfers ...... 5,446 New Non Degree-Seeking ...... 323

FULL TIME/PART TIME Undergraduates Full-time ...... 43,145 81% of total students Undergraduates Part-time 10,153 19% of total students Graduate Students Full-time ...... 8,469 61% of total students Graduate Students Part-time ...... 5,315 39% of total students

UNDERGRADUATE CLASS SIZE DISTRIBUTION 9 or fewer students 9.3% 10–29 students 57.4% 30–49 students ...... 19.5% 50–99 students 9.3% 100 or more students ...... 4.5%

DEGREES GRANTED (2007-2008) Baccalaureate 10,706 Master’s ...... 3,082 Doctoral ...... 418 First Professional ...... 238 Total ...... 14,444

FACULTY/STAFF Faculty 3,095 Other employees ...... 9,581 Total ...... 12,676

FINANCE State Appropriations ...... $480,198,000 Total Research Expenditures . . . . . $300,000,000

NATIONAL RANKING Arizona State University – Top Tier (US News and World Report, 2008) School of Life Sciences – 6th (Thomas Scientific Indicators, Ecology and Environmental Sciences)

For latest ASU fact information: http://uoia.asu.edu/fact-book-2008-09

70 SOLS 2009 | 5-year report Appendix 2: SOLS Funding Summary

Year Fiscal Year Proposal # Funded # Funded ($) Expenditures ($)

2003/2004 . . . . . 2004...... 216...... 112...... $14,549,621...... $13,817,061 2004/2005 . . . . . 2005...... 229...... 137 ...... 19,375,627 ...... 17,899,759 2005/2006 . . . . . 2006...... 231...... 160...... 30,818,390 ...... 24,609,552 2006/2007...... 2007...... 243...... 153...... 28,798,166 ...... 26,276,189 2007/2008...... 2008...... 219...... 203...... 54,079,025 ...... 27,701,606

Proposals Funded #/$ Expenditures

250 250 $60,000,000 $60,000,000

$50,000,000 $50,000,000 200 200

$40,000,000 $40,000,000 150 150

$30,000,000 $30,000,000

100 100 Dollar Value Dollar Value $20,000,000 $20,000,000

50 50 $10,000,000 $10,000,000 Number of Proposals or Awards Number of Proposals or Awards Number of Proposals

0 0 0 0 2004 2005 20042006 20052007 20062008 2007 2008 2004 2005 20042006 20052007 20062008 2007 2008

Fiscal Year Fiscal Year Fiscal Year Fiscal Year

Appendix 3: Leadership

Nationally (and internationally), School of Life Sciences faculty In addition to serving as external reviewers, members of the life have contributed to the advancement of scholarship, education sciences faculty have served on one or more editorial boards of and research globally . School of Life Sciences’ intellectual capital professional society journals from 2002-2009, including Philip includes 22 AAAS fellows, members of the American Academy Hedrick (Conservation Genetics, Journal of Heredity, Heredity, of the Arts and Sciences (Bert Hölldobler, Robert E. Page, Jr. Molecular Ecology and Evolutionary Applications), Brenda Hogue and Stephen Pyne), National Academy of Sciences (Charles (Journal of Virology), Kenro Kusumi (Developmental Biology), Arntzen, Roy Curtiss III and Bert Hölldobler) and German Hugh Mason (BioMed Central), Diana Mass (Clinical Laboratory Academy of Sciences – Leopoldina (Bert Hölldobler and Management Review; American Society for Clinical Pathology), Robert E. Page, Jr.) . In addition, SOLS is home to Foundation Robert E. Page (Apidologie), Dave Pearson (Journal of Insect Professors Bert Hölldobler and Robert E. Page, Jr.; MacArthur Conservation), Jason Scott Robert (Biological Theory) Fellow, Stephen Pyne; Guggenheim Fellows Jennifer Fewell, and Willem Vermaas (Journal of Bacteriology) . Bert Hölldobler, Mark Jacobs and Kenneth Mossman; Del E . Webb Distinguished Professor and Royal Society Fellow, George Many more faculty serve or have served as editors or associate Poste; Parents Association Professors, James Elser, Jane editors for journals, such as Landscape Ecology, Behavioral Ecology Maienschein and Andrew Smith; Regents’ professors: John and Sociobiology, Ecology Letters, American Naturalist, Ecological Alcock, Charles Arntzen, James Elser, Jane Maienschein, Applications, Oecologia, FEMS Microbiological Reviews, Ecological George Poste and Stephen Pyne; Virginia Ullman Professors, Applications, Physiological and Biochemical Zoology, Canotia, James Collins and Phillip Hedrick; President’s Professor Jane Biological Theory, Journal of Experimental Zoology, Molecular, Maienschein and a number of faculty members are among the Developmental Evolution, Archive for History of the Exact Sciences, Founding Fellows and membership of the Arizona Arts Science Functional Ecology, Journal of South African Research, Philosophy and Technology Academy . of Biology, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Acta Theriologica Sinica (China), Mammal Review (UK), Acta Oecologia (The Netherlands), Plant Molecular Biology, Photosynthesis Research, Systematics and Biogeography and Molecular Ecology .

SOLS 2009 | 5-year report 71 global engagement Major International Research projects include:

• Biodiversity and ecosystem services in Inner Mongolia. > $3.5 million in awards, Chinese National Science Foundation • Ecosystem services and “resilience” networks. > $4.5 million in awards (Peru, Tanzania, Vietnam, UK, Barrow, Alaska Trinidad, Thailand, Argentina, Africa) • Urban ecology/ecosystem response to nitrogen and organic carbon (Mexico, Hawaii, Borneo, Norway, South Africa) • Social dynamics and complexity/social networks (Germany, Norway, Costa Rica, Brazil) • Role of the oceans in global carbon flux (Germany, Spain, Portugal, Great Britain) • Bioengineering and food crops (Brazil) ASU School of Life Sciences

Partnership with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama

SOLS joins with the principal U.S. organization dedicated Gulf of California to advancing discovery and biodiversity and its contribution to human welfare, in the areas of social insect behavior, bioenergy, ecoservices, sustainability and biodiversity.

Galapagos

Meeting Global Challenges:

SOLS advances partnerships and discovery on all seven continents, Science Studio supported by funding agencies, such as the National Aeronautics and Space Science Studio audio programming was launched Administration (NASA), National in 2006 and connects listeners globally with ASU scientists, students and guest experts from a Institutes of Health (NIH), National variety of fields. Students, teachers and the public Science Foundation (NSF) and United can experience how some of the top innovative States Departments of Agriculture, thinkers in the world articulate their ideas, Energy and Defense. Significant support discoveries, challenges and paths to success.

also comes from foundations, including Learn how to conduct an oral history, develop a grants from the Pew Charitable Trusts, program for graduate student mentors, discover Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the latest about climate change, urbanization, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial pandemics, human evolution, philosophy and ethics or just drop into the ocean with one of Foundation and John D. and Catherine T. the top marine ecologists in the country as she MacArthur Foundation, and other local, navigates her career. Science Studio is recorded national and international partners, such in Grass Roots Studio and accessed via iTunes U, as the Norwegian Research Council, plugged.tv and sols.asu.edu/podcasts. British Petroleum and Chinese National Science Foundation.

72 SOLS 2009 | 5-year report Emerging Disease and Medical Frontiers

• Aging and genetics (Norway, Israel) • Malaria and retroviruses (world-wide) - $6.3 million in awards • Host-pathogen biology/global decline of amphibians (26 partners, world-wide)

Biofuels, Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering

• Catalytic bioscavengers for nerve agents (Israel) • Biohydrogen and biofuels (British Petroleum) • Tecnológico de Monterrey (Tec) partners in Mexico and studies of: - Novel bioreaction and separation technologies, biofuels research - Strategies for agriculture in marginal areas of cultivation - Production of recombinant biomolecules in plant systems

Ghana

Kenya

Biodiversity & Conservation Policy

• Endangered species/marine reserves/human systems study (China, Kazakhstan, Russia, Mongolia, Brazil, Mexico, international waters) • Evolutionary genetics (Madagascar, Africa, Asia) • Sonoran Desert Lichen Flora Project (80 scientists, 20 countries, 43 national parks, reserves and refuges) • Collections, species discovery, taxonomy (25 countries)

Medical Discovery and Vaccine Development

Center for Infectious Disease and Vaccinology /Biodesign Institute (world-wide) - Pediatric pneumonia vaccine for use in developing countries - Plague, tuberculosis, rotavirus vaccine - Plant-based vaccine discovery - Novel topical antibiotic treatments world-wide - HIV vaccine development continuing the journey sols.asu.edu