Research Lab Personnel

Summer students in 2005. From left to right: MaryJo Doiron Honours NSERC.USRA(ecology of stickleback armour) also with Tom Reimchen; Erin MacDonald Honours also with Dr. Barry Taylor (chironomid mouthpart deformities in relation to food source); JB-N; Sarah Chisholm Honours NSERC.USRA (Littorina endosymbionts); Elizabeth Brothers Honours, NSERC.USRA (chiton fertilization).
Leslie Buckland-Nicks (Research Assistant and Consultant) is characterizing proteins of Fusitriton oregonensis parasperm with the idea of tracing their formation in the testis or following their fates in the female genital tract. Also a Laboratory Instructor at StFXU.
Dr. Arkadiy Reunov spent three months in summer 2008 working in my lab on oogenesis in chitons. We have written two papers which detailed new mechanisms of secretion release in the formation of the chiton egg hull.  (Invert. Reprod. and Develop. 2009. 53: 165-174. and Invertebr. Biol. [in Press]) and one is in preparation. This work was presenetd at the 2010 CSZ in Vancouver and will be in Prague at the 2010 ICIRD.

 

 

2008 Honours student Kelsie Gillies won two NSERC.USRAs as well as the NSERC Julie Payette Award. She studied parasperm proteins and the fate of parasperm in the bursa copulatrix of female Littorina. Kelsie is now at Jonathan Blay's Lab in Dalhousie U. doing a PhD in Cancer Research funded by a Killam Research Award and NSERC PGSD.

 

 
2007 Honours student Megan Gillis won an NSERC.USRA to work with me on the structure of the salmonid adipose fin. We were the first to confirm nervous tissue and a neural network in the fin. This was significant  because Reimchen and Temple (2004) had shown that the  adipose fin was not the functionless vestige it was claimed to be but rather acted as a precaudal flow sensor.  Scientists and fishers routinely clip the adipose fin of millions of salmonids each year, as a mark /recapture technique for populations  
At the Science Fair at Mayfest, demonstrating “Microscopic Life” to children of all ages, with help from Honours students Jacqueline Boutilier (in rear) and Gabrielle Tompkins.
Vanessa Partridge received her MSc for a study of the formation, fate and function of parasperm in Littorinidae (Gastropoda). NSERC.PGSA recipient. She is an Electron Microscope Technician at McGill University.
Honours student, Gabrielle Tompkins studied the parasperm of the foliate whelk Ceratostoma foliatum, using  light and electron microscopy. She also did a series of biochemical tests, for example to check for apoptosis. NSERC.USRA. After working for the Coady Institute in the Philippines for a year, Gabrielle just finished her PhD at U. of  Alberta with Dr. Sally Leys & Dr. Andy Spencer working on sponges (NSERC.PGSD). Now she is teaching in Dalhousie University.
Research Assistant, Norma Mitchell helped with everything from electrophoresis, to making plates and fixing up our reprint library. Finalized work on Jacquie's thesis on sperm storage in Lacuna. Thanks Norma!



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