Dr. Jeremy Chamberlain, standing, and Dr. Daniel McDermott check readings on the flow cytometer in an SAU biology lab.
Dr. Daniel McDermott and Dr. Jeremy Chamberlain of the SAU Department of Biology have received a $40,000 grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences through the Arkansas IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE) program. This grant is in collaboration with Dr. Lori Neuman-Lee at Arkansas State University (ASU) and Dr. Tiffany Weinkopff at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS). This project aims to establish snakes as a novel model for studying the innate immune system in animals.
The grant includes funding to support both ASU and SAU undergraduate students in the design, implementation, and analysis of experiments, as well as dissemination of results at scientific conferences. “This grant promotes collaborations between SAU Biology students of different disciplines, providing the opportunity for our Wildlife students and Pre-Health Students to work together and be exposed to techniques across both fields of study,” said McDermott.
“Gaining information on the variability of immune factors in water snakes is a novel approach and a departure from the traditional mouse model,” said Dr. Abel Bachri, dean of the College of Science and Engineering. “The proposed study promises to further our understanding of innate immune research and immunocompetence variability in heterogenous human populations.”
Bachri said the research team “brings a mix of expertise to the table,” and that he looks forward to their findings.
This study is made possible by a recently-acquired flow cytometer funded from an Arkansas INBRE grant awarded to Dr. McDermott in 2019 for the purpose of identifying and analyzing different cell types. Upon project completion, further collaboration between labs at SAU and ASU will utilize the developed snake model in future immunology projects.
