{"id":12151,"date":"2016-07-07T17:21:51","date_gmt":"2016-07-07T21:21:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/?p=12151"},"modified":"2016-07-07T17:21:51","modified_gmt":"2016-07-07T21:21:51","slug":"surfs-up-2016-rhode-island-undergrads-in-research-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/2016\/07\/07\/surfs-up-2016-rhode-island-undergrads-in-research-8\/","title":{"rendered":"SURF’s up 2016: Rhode Island undergrads in research"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Heisler_Katie\"<\/a>Research fellow:<\/strong> Katie Heisler
\nHometown:<\/strong> Mahwah, NJ
\nSchool:<\/strong> Roger Williams University<\/a>
\nMajor:<\/strong> Marine Biology; minor, Mathematics
\nMentor:<\/strong> Roxanna Smolowitz
\nProject:<\/strong> Is neoplasia in hard clams infectious?<\/p>\n

Katie Heisler decided at a young age that she wanted to work with marine animals.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew from early childhood that I wanted to be a marine veterinarian,\u201d she says. \u201cWe went to North Carolina every summer and I\u2019d always go to the sea turtle rehabilitation shelter, and see all the injured sea turtles.\u201d<\/p>\n

This summer, the senior has positioned herself exactly where she wants to be, working on her first full-time research project under the guidance of Assistant Professor Roxanna Smolowitz, helping investigate how hard clams in the Wellfleet, Mass., harbor are getting infected with a deadly disease.<\/p>\n

Pausing from her research in the RWU aquatic diagnostic lab, Heisler explains that the disease, neoplasia, causes obstructions in the vascular system of the clams: \u201cLarge, abnormal cells take the place of hemocytes, normal blood cells, and cause them to be sick. They surface and die.\u201d<\/p>\n

The prevalence of the disease has seen an increase and posed a significant impact on the aquaculture industry in the harbor, sparking concern about the potential spread of the disease, which only arises from May to June.<\/p>\n

Using a syringe, Heisler explains, she has injected the diseased cells both into healthy clams and directly into the water where healthy clams are kept to help determine how the disease is transmitted \u2014 from clam to clam or through the water. The experiment also is being done at two different temperatures to determine whether the warming waters of climate change might play a role.<\/p>\n

Heisler, who hopes to go onto veterinary school, spent time abroad in Bermuda during the fall semester, conducting a four-week research project that looked at the rocky intertidal zone. She also worked in a lab last summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is my first experience working on my own,\u201d says Heisler of her RI EPSCoR Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship<\/a> (SURF) project. \u201cI was a little nervous at first, but I\u2019ve had a blast. It\u2019s a lot of hard work. I\u2019ve had help, though, and it\u2019s good to be able to bounce ideas off of people. It\u2019s helped confirm that this is what I want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Story and photo by Amy Dunkle<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Research fellow: Katie Heisler Hometown: Mahwah, NJ School: Roger Williams University Major: Marine Biology; minor, Mathematics Mentor: Roxanna Smolowitz Project: Is neoplasia in hard clams infectious? Katie Heisler decided at a young age that she wanted to work with marine animals. \u201cI knew from early childhood that I wanted to be a marine veterinarian,\u201d she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[21,51],"tags":[162,432,570,597],"class_list":["post-12151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-surfsup","tag-clams","tag-neoplasia","tag-rhode-island-nsf-epscor","tag-roger-williams-university"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12151\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}