Many reports have established a correlation between obesity and diabetes plus cardiovascular complications with the amount of a hormone in the body called adiponectin. Interestingly, the amount of adiponectin circulating in the blood decreases in obese and diabetic individuals. The precise reasons why changes in adiponectin cause diabetes and its complications remain to be determined. […]

PhD student, Che Nicholls (Memorial University) will travel to the Cape Eleuthera Institute, The Bahamas, to study land crabs. As part of his tenure at CEI he will guide a group of 15-17 year old students, who spend an entire semester at CEI learning about The Bahamas. Che’s research will focus on the black land […]

When humans experience periods of disuse or immobilization in a brace or a cast or after significant injury, muscle strength and size decline dramatically and rapidly. Muscle size can decrease 0.5% per day and strength by 10% in the first week. These declines are often exaggerated in weight-bearing muscles of the lower-limbs such as the […]

Modern augmented reality (AR) head-mounted displays (HMDs) display stereo images to the two eyes through a beam splitter and optical lenses that project the images onto a fixed focal plane. When 3D content is rendered at a depth different from this focal plane, users must accommodate to the display distance while converging their eyes to […]

The Lowland Tapir (Tapirus terrestris), the largest Neotropical herbivore, is increasingly threatened by habitat loss and fragmentation. In northern Argentina, remaining populations are small, isolated, and genetically understudied. This project applies reduced-representation sequencing (NextRAD) to assess genomic diversity, population structure, and connectivity across three ecoregions: Yungas, Gran Chaco, and Atlantic Forest. Results will identify conservation […]

This project aims to investigate whether the presence of Trichomonas vaginalis, the etiological agent responsible for the most common non-viral sexually transmitted infection worldwide, trichomoniasis, is able to impact the production of small vesicles by cervical cells. In addition, this project also proposes to investigate whether these small vesicles could result in the transformation of […]

This project explores how chemical modifications to DNA and histone proteins influence the 3D structure of the genome during early embryonic development. Working at RIKEN in Japan, Iqra Wardak will learn molecular biology and computational genomics techniques to study how epigenetic marks regulate gene activity and cell identity. The project combines experimental training with analysis […]

Mutualisms, interactions in which two species benefit one another, are universal. It is estimated that every species engages in at least one mutualism. Mutualisms play key roles in natural ecosystems–providing essential ecosystem services, like pollination and nitrogen fixation–and even influence where species live. Despite their importance, very little is known about how mutualisms influence the […]

This project will expand on a previous project on heat stress on calf microbiome with the prevalence of climate change. Young calves are particularly vulnerable because their immune and temperature regulation systems are not fully developed, and their gut microbiome—the community of bacteria, archaea, and viruses that support digestion and health—is still forming. In Japan, […]

Stress signaling in the brain is critical for adaptation in the face of various challenges. Adaptation to stress requires the engagement of specific brain circuits that control production of stress hormones including cortisol, including the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. Overactivation of HPA axis however, results in pathological stress that can contribute to psychiatric disorders including anxiety […]

The project consists of an internship at the Centro de Investigación Científica de Yucatán (CICY) in Mexico under the supervision of Dr. José Luis Hernández-Stefanoni. The goal of this project is to acquire the necessary skills, resources and data that will contribute to a master thesis in biology, at Sherbrooke University, Canada. The subject of […]

The proposed project examines how the words adolescents use to describe their emotions change over the course of psychotherapy and whether having a broader vocabulary for both positive and negative emotions is linked to better mental health outcomes. To address these questions, the study will analyze text- and video-based conversations from approximately 1,500 adolescent–therapist pairs […]