Tag: Biology

Yeast synthetic lethal screen (Gregg Whitworth)

On campus: this project is scheduled to begin on 6/8/2026 and run for 10 weeks, finishing on 8/14/2026.

Project Description

We will be conducting a synthetic lethal screen in yeast and using high through-put sequencing to identify interesting SNPs in the mutant population

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Prerequisites

Bench and computational experience

Special Comments

Project Information (subject to change)

Estimated Start Date: 6/8/2026

Estimated End Date: 8/14/2026

Estimated Project Duration: 10 weeks

Maximum Number of Students Sought: 2

Research Location: On campus

Travel Required? No (If “yes”: )

Contact Information: Gregg Whitworth (email: whitworthg@wlu.edu)

Seasonal shifts in small mammal abundance and species richness at W&L (Jacob Kraus)

On campus: this project is scheduled to begin on 6/8/2026 and run for 10 weeks, finishing on 8/14/2026.

Project Description

This summer research opportunity invites one student to investigate how small mammal communities change across seasons in Washington and Lee University’s back campus. Small mammals play critical ecological roles, including as seed dispersers, prey species, ecosystem engineers, and reliable indicators of habitat quality. However, their behavior, detectability, and distribution shift markedly throughout the year. Understanding these seasonal dynamics is essential for interpreting community structure, assessing environmental change, and informing long-term conservation or management decisions on campus lands. The selected student will deploy motion-activated camera traps across a variety of microhabitats to document species presence, relative abundance, and habitat use during the summer months. This work will provide a warm-season dataset that complements existing fall and winter camera-trap surveys on campus. While collecting and organizing the summer dataset is a priority, the student will have the freedom to design an independent project tailored to their own interests. Potential avenues include comparing summer observations to patterns from other seasons on campus, examining how weather or vegetation structure influences detection rates, evaluating spatial differences across back-campus habitats, or exploring behavioral activity patterns captured on camera. This project is ideal for students interested in ecology, conservation biology, or field-based research and offers the chance to generate original insights into the seasonal rhythms of a local small-mammal community.

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Prerequisites

The student should have completed BIOL 245 or have experience using camera traps. The student should also either have their own vehicle or be willing to get certified to use the campus vehicles.

Special Comments

The student should be available during the last week of the spring term for the first round of camera deployments.

Project Information (subject to change)

Estimated Start Date: 6/8/2026

Estimated End Date: 8/14/2026

Estimated Project Duration: 10 weeks

Maximum Number of Students Sought: 1

Research Location: On campus

Travel Required? No (If “yes”: )

Contact Information: Jacob Kraus (email: jkraus@wlu.edu)

Unraveling the Spider’s Internal Clock (Natalia Toporikova)

On campus: this project is scheduled to begin on 6/8/2026 and run for 8 weeks, finishing on 7/31/2026.

Project Description

Are you curious about how biological timekeeping systems develop? Join our research team investigating circadian rhythms in spiders across their development. You’ll maintain our spider colony, collect behavioral data using advanced locomotor monitoring systems, analyze patterns using Python,R and statistical methods, and conduct histological analysis to link molecular changes with behavior. This is a rare opportunity to work across the full research pipeline—from hands-on animal care to computational analysis—and contribute to fundamental questions about how nervous systems develop. No prior experience in all areas is needed; we’re looking for curious minds with genuine interest in biology, data science and willingness to think creatively.

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Prerequisites

Interest in spiders

Special Comments

Project Information (subject to change)

Estimated Start Date: 6/8/2026

Estimated End Date: 7/31/2026

Estimated Project Duration: 8 weeks

Maximum Number of Students Sought: 2

Research Location: On campus

Travel Required? No (If “yes”: )

Contact Information: Natalia Toporikova (email: Toporikovan@wlu.edu)

CLOSED: Vegetation and soil organic matter responses to the removal of large grazers in Yellowstone Grasslands (Bill Hamilton)

Hybrid: this project is scheduled to begin on 6/08/2026 and run for 8 weeks, finishing on 7/31/2026.

Project Description

While much work has been done on the plant/herbivore interactions, much less in known about the direct and indirect interactions of grazers on the ability of soils to sequester carbon (C). C sequestration is an important ecological property of an intact ecosystem and also serves as an important process for the National Park Service because it can contribute to mediation of climate change. There is a tri-trophic interaction between plants, herbivores and soil microbes that regulates soil C. Microbes are responsible for the decomposition of organic matter with grasses and herbivores contributing to removals and inputs of C from the system. Using a combination of laboratory and field-based experiments we will analyze soil samples for microbial biomass and soil C, quantify net ecosystem productivity, and conduct laboratory soil incubations. This will be done in direct collaboration with the National Park Service Bison Ecology and Management team and interns from the Intertribal Buffalo Council. Our field and laboratory data will identify relationships and mechanisms about grassland carbon exchange that can be linked to broader scales within YNP and in other grassland ecosystems.

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Prerequisites

BIOL 200 level or ENV 201

Special Comments

no

Project Information (subject to change)

Estimated Start Date: 6/08/2026

Estimated End Date: 7/31/2026

Estimated Project Duration: 8 weeks

Maximum Number of Students Sought: 2

Research Location: Hybrid

Travel Required? Yes (If “yes”: Mid June to Yellowstone National Park)

Contact Information: Bill Hamilton (email: hamiltone@wlu.edu)

CLOSED: Comparative meta-analyses investigating seasonal changes in activity budgets and energy allocation among non-human primates (Jacob Kraus)

Remote: this project is scheduled to begin on 6/08/2026 and run for 6 weeks, finishing on 7/17/2026.

Project Description

A central question in primate behavioral ecology is how animals flexibly adjust their behavior to cope with environmental variability. Across many primate species, researchers have documented seasonal shifts in activity budgets, including changes in time spent feeding, traveling, resting, and engaging in social behavior as energetic demands fluctuate. Although these patterns are well established within individual species and study sites, we still lack a broad, quantitative understanding of how consistent these seasonal responses are across primates, and how strongly they vary with ecological context. My lab aims to address that gap by conducting comparative meta-analyses of published studies on seasonal variation in primate activity budgets. We aim to synthesize results across taxa, habitats, and ecological conditions to quantify general patterns of energetic and behavioral adjustment and identify factors that shape behavioral flexibility across primates. Summer research students will collect data from the published literature to build meta-analytic models to estimate seasonal shifts in activity budgets. Students are welcome to develop their own research project within the scope of this topic. Projects may explore how ecological variables, such as climate or food seasonality, moderate behavioral responses, and will use sensitivity analyses to assess potential publication bias and the robustness of results.

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Prerequisites

Students should have a strong background in statistical analysis and coding using R (or have plans to take courses that use statistics and R before the start of this project). Interests in ecology and learning new skills, and the ability to work independently are major plusses.

Special Comments

Students will be required to take my Spring Term course BIOL 295: Integrating Evidence: Meta-Analytic Approaches in the Biological and Environmental Sciences. This will provide an opportunity to gain the skills necessary for this research, develop a project, and begin collecting data.

Project Information (subject to change)

Estimated Start Date: 6/08/2026

Estimated End Date: 7/17/2026

Estimated Project Duration: 6 weeks

Maximum Number of Students Sought: 2

Research Location: Remote

Travel Required? No (If “yes”: )

Contact Information: Jacob Kraus (email: jkraus@wlu.edu)

CLOSED: Effects of Soil Warming on Terrestrial Salamander Populations (David Marsh)

Hybrid: this project is scheduled to begin on 6/01/2026 and run for 10 weeks, finishing on 8/7/2026.

Project Description

A long-term research project at Harvard Forest is experimentally warming forest soil to study the consequences for carbon cycling and forest ecosystems. We are studying terrestrial salamanders within this larger project to determine whether warming reduces salamander population abundance or decreases growth or body condition. Students will carry out field surveys of research plots, using mark-recapture to identify and track individual salamanders over time.

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Prerequisites

Students should have completed Field Herpetology (BIOL 242)

Special Comments

Students should take BIOL 421 in the winter term as preparation for summer research.

Project Information (subject to change)

Estimated Start Date: 6/01/2026

Estimated End Date: 8/7/2026

Estimated Project Duration: 10 weeks

Maximum Number of Students Sought: 1

Research Location: Hybrid

Travel Required? Yes (If “yes”: Main field site is Harvard Forest field station in Petersham, MA. )

Contact Information: David Marsh (email: marshd@wlu.edu)

CLOSED: Role of Uchl-1 during Optic Nerve Regeneration in Xenopus laevis (Fiona Watson)

On campus: this project is scheduled to begin on 6/08/2026 and run for 10 weeks, finishing on 8/14/2026.

Project Description

The Ubiquitin Carboxyl-Terminal Hydrolase L1 (uchl1) gene plays a role in protein degradation through the cell’s ubiquitin-proteasome system. Previous research in our lab demonstrated that Uchl1 protein expression is significantly upregulated in retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) during recovery from optic nerve injury. This project aims to localize Uchl1 expression in two distinct compartments: the RGC cell bodies in the retina and the RGC axons at the site of optic nerve injury. Using a uchl1 knockout frog model will enable us to investigate the functional role of uchl1 during optic nerve regeneration.

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Prerequisites

animal training

Special Comments

Independent study during winter

Project Information (subject to change)

Estimated Start Date: 6/08/2026

Estimated End Date: 8/14/2026

Estimated Project Duration: 10 weeks

Maximum Number of Students Sought: 1

Research Location: On campus

Travel Required? No (If “yes”: )

Contact Information: Fiona Watson (email: watsonf@wlu.edu)

CLOSED: The Effects of Estrogen and Obesity on Rat Activity Patterns (Sarah Blythe)

On campus: this project is scheduled to begin on 6/01/2026 and run for 10 weeks, finishing on 8/7/2026.

Project Description

The Blythe lab is seeking 2–3 motivated undergraduate students to participate in an 8–10 week summer research (on campus) experience investigating how changes in estrogen, such as those occurring during menopause),influence behavior using a rat obesity model. Students will receive hands-on training in animal care, behavioral testing, and small rodent surgical techniques. Training will also include creating ethograms and analyzing behavioral data. Depending on project progress and student interest, opportunities may also include tissue sectioning, immunocytochemistry, and histological imaging and analysis. This experience is ideal for students interested in neuroscience, behavior, endocrinology, or biomedical research.

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Prerequisites

Students selected for this position are required to enroll in Dr. Blythe’s Spring 2026 course РBehavioral Neuroendocrinology.

Special Comments

Yes, Behavioral Neuroendocrinology (Spring 2026).

Project Information (subject to change)

Estimated Start Date: 6/01/2026

Estimated End Date: 8/7/2026

Estimated Project Duration: 10 weeks

Maximum Number of Students Sought: 3

Research Location: On campus

Travel Required? No (If “yes”: )

Contact Information: Sarah Blythe (email: blythes@wlu.edu)

CLOSED: Scientific Writing in Neuroscience (Sarah Blythe)

Hybrid: this project is scheduled to begin on 6/08/2026 and run for 6 weeks, finishing on 7/17/2026.

Project Description

The Blythe lab is seeking 1 upper-level student to participate in a 4-6 week scientific writing internship.  This position can be either on- or off-campus.  The ideal research assistant will enjoy reading, writing, and revising scientific articles. Data analysis and figure design will also be required. Interested candidates are encouraged to contact Dr Blythe for more details. 

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Prerequisites

Students should be rising juniors or rising seniors.

Special Comments

Project Information (subject to change)

Estimated Start Date: 6/08/2026

Estimated End Date: 7/17/2026

Estimated Project Duration: 6 weeks

Maximum Number of Students Sought: 1

Research Location: Hybrid

Travel Required? No (If “yes”: )

Contact Information: Sarah Blythe (email: blythes@wlu.edu)

CLOSED: Spider genetics – silk and circadian (Nadia Ayoub)

On campus: this project is scheduled to begin on 6/08/2026 and run for 8 weeks, finishing on 7/31/2026.

Project Description

Research students have the opportunity to contribute to ongoing work on spider silk or circadian rhythms. For spider silk, the focus of 2026 will be to analyze and publish the results of 8 years of data on the protein composition and material properties of sticky prey capture silks. For circadian genetics, most work will involve working with material from animals that were subject to dissections over 24 hours of either a light-dark cycle or constant darkness. This includes isolating RNA, preparing the RNA for high-throughput sequencing, using the sequencing results to estimate expression levels, and identifying genes that cycle throughout the day. There are also options to work with live spiders on behavioral analysis, or to explore evolutionary analysis of circadian behaviors.

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Prerequisites

Students should have an interest in organisms, genetics, or evolution, and a willingness to learn new skills. Experience with programming or statistical tools would be a strong plus.

Special Comments

I strongly encourage new students to take an independent study in the Winter before summer research.

Project Information (subject to change)

Estimated Start Date: 6/08/2026

Estimated End Date: 7/31/2026

Estimated Project Duration: 8 weeks

Maximum Number of Students Sought: 2

Research Location: On campus

Travel Required? No (If “yes”: )

Contact Information: Nadia Ayoub (email: ayoubn@wlu.edu)