Investigator and Student News
Official State Coral Named
Congratulations to Dr. Koty Sharp, the leadership at Roger Williams University,
Rhode Island’s state government, and everyone involved in supporting Rhode Island to have the Northern Star Coral as the official state coral and the first state coral designated in the country! Dr. Sharp is an Associate Professor of Biology, Marine Biology, & Environmental Science and an RI-INBRE investigator since 2018 with an Early Career Development award.
Alzheimer’s Research
Recently the Van Nostrand laboratory used the Centralized Research Core Facility’s Nikon Ti2E confocal microscope to image thick
sections of rat brain tissue. Shown here is a fluorescent triple stain of rat brain tissue. Amyloid β (stained in blue), a common pathology of Alzheimer’s Disease is shown here deposited on blood vessels (displayed red). Amyloid β deposits activate migroglial cells (stained in green). The brain tissue was prepared to 600 µm thickness and cleared using the Clarity X system, which utilizes gel electrophoresis to extract lipids from tissue while preserving the relationship between structure and function. The image is at 20x magnification where the 600 µm deep Z stack was captured over 2 hours using the Nikon Confocal and manipulated utilizing NIS-Elements AR software.
~ Van Nostrand Laboratory
Genomics Sequencing Center Moves
On July 1st the sequencing component of the URI Genomics and Sequencing Center (GSC) transferred to RI-INBRE. The Sanger sequencing equipment and Illumina MiSeq equipment are now operational. Janet Atoyan (GSC manager) will continue supervising the equipment as part of RI-INBRE. Janet and the sequencing equipment are now physically located in the RI-INBRE Centralized Research Core Facility (CRCF) in Avedisian Hall at URI. A new cost center was established and is distinct from the CRCF and GSC. Janet will provide sequencing services Tuesday through Thursday for the foreseeable future and we are working out a system where users will be able to drop off sequencing samples in the Avedisian Hall mail delivery room on the second floor. The sequencing services will be integrated with the current RI-INBRE Bioinformatics Core to provide a unified pipeline for users from sequencing to data analysis based on the needs of the user. In the near future information about the rebranded Bioinformatics Core and provided services will be available. Any questions about the move or services following the move can be directed to Janet Atoyan (sequencing) jatoyan@uri.edu or Chris Hemme (bioinformatics) hemmecl@uri.edu.
Marine plants named in researcher’s honor
Professor Brian Wysor of Roger Williams University has been on our Steering Committee since 2018 is also a researcher. The specimen Augophyllum wysorii, is one of the two newly identified species of seaweed named in his honor. Image Credit: Joshua Grab