Dr. Bradley Webb
3:30 PM / Life Sciences Building rm. G23
Cell Biology of Metabolism: Structural and Functional Insights into a Glycolytic Enzyme: The enzymes and pathways that control intermediary metabolism - governing energy production, nutrient utilization, and biomass synthesis - play critical roles in cellular homeostasis. Dysregulated metabolic enzymes and pathways are now considered central to diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and blinding diseases. While many metabolic enzymes have been extensively characterized at enzymological, biochemical, and structural levels, their cell biology remains relatively understudied. In particular, the organization and dynamics of metabolic enzymes within cells is poorly understood but is critical for understanding metabolic flexibility in normal cells and aberrant metabolism in diseases. In this talk, I will present our recent insights into the structure and organization of the glycolytic “gatekeeper” enzyme, phosphofructokinase-1 (PFK1). Our findings provide a molecular framework for understanding the allosteric regulation and cellular organization of this critical enzyme, shedding light on how metabolic enzymes are spatially and functionally integrated within the cellular environment.
Dr. Miriam Leary
3:30 PM / Life Sciences Building rm. G23
Enhancing Retention and Student Success in Undergraduate Physiology Programs: Student retention in undergraduate physiology programs is a growing concern, particularly in Appalachia, where college attendance and graduation rates are historically low. This presentation synthesizes findings from multiple studies examining factors influencing first-time, full-time student retention, with a focus on at-risk populations, including first-generation college students and those with lower academic preparation. This research examines the impact of academic preparedness, cohort scheduling, classroom design, and targeted interventions—such as first-year seminars, flipped classrooms, and integrated support structures—on student retention and success. Findings suggest that while these strategies enhance social integration and perceptions of faculty engagement and academic experience, their impact on retention is more complex. This work highlights strategies for early identification of at-risk students and emphasize the need for evidence-based, student-centered approaches to improving retention in physiology-related programs.
Dr. Laurel Lynch
3:30 PM / Life Sciences Building rm. G23
Exploring how disease-induced scavenger declines impact ecosystem function: On the small Australian island-state of Tasmania, the progressive spread of a transmissible and highly lethal cancer is threatening Tasmanian devils (Sarcophilus harrisii) with extinction. The resulting natural experiment—where devil population densities vary from 5% of carrying capacity in the east of Tasmania to 90% of carrying capacity in the west—offers a rare opportunity to test whether the decline of an apex scavenger can scale up to impact ecosystem processes. Our team of community and ecosystem ecologists, evolutionary biologists, and forest scientists have spent the past several years exploring how devil declines impact scavenger foodwebs, carcass decomposition, soil biogeochemistry, and forest carbon sequestration. We found that carcasses in high devil-density areas were consumed far more rapidly and thoroughly than those in low-devil density areas, reducing nutrient flow belowground. In contrast, carcasses that were slowly consumed by a diverse scavenger network (e.g., mesopredators, avians, invertebrates), delivered up to 47 times more nitrogen and 11 times more phosphate to soils directly below the carcass, significantly altering microbial community composition and function. Because devils concentrate carcass-derived elements in their scat, we next fused experimental data and modeling to test whether dispersed inputs could subsidize forest productivity. We found that devil scat inputs are likely to sustain, or increase, above and belowground net primary productivity and microbial biomass carbon through the year 2100. In contrast, replacing devil scat with lower-quality scat inputs (e.g., from non-bone-consuming scavengers and herbivores) caused forest carbon pools to increase more slowly, or decline, under expected increases in temperature and changes in precipitation. Because ecosystem processes are responsive to many drivers, our results in Tasmania highlight the importance of considering how multiple global change factors (e.g., biodiversity loss, biotic-abiotic feedbacks, climate change) scale up to impact current and future ecosystem function.