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The National Science Foundation has awarded a $144,058 grant to Robert Kurt, assistant professor of biology at Lafayette, and the biology department for purchase of major equipment that will enhance laboratory exercises and expand research opportunities for students and faculty, including cancer research.
Through the acquisition of a confocal microscopy system capable of three-color fluorescent imaging and three-dimensional cellular analysis, the grant will “facilitate the research, research training, and education of students for careers in science at Lafayette,” says Kurt.
Kurt was the lead investigator for the grant, which was awarded through NSF’s Major Research Instrumentation program. Elaine Reynolds, assistant professor of biology, and Shyamal Majumdar, Kreider Professor of Biology, served as co-principal investigators.
Research training opportunities that will be enhanced include student independent studies, honors theses, EXCEL Scholars collaborations between students and faculty, and research-oriented courses such as Electron Microscopy and Tissue Culture. Students taking Immunology, Infectious Disease and Immunity, Neurobiology, Advanced Neuroscience, and Developmental Biology also will use the instrument.
The equipment will allow for three different proteins to be analyzed with respect to each other and their location within a cell.
“This is ideal for studying protein-protein or cell-cell interactions,” says Kurt. “With the acquisition of this instrument, many exciting projects can be carried out. The C1 Confocal Microscopy System will enable Lafayette faculty to modify and enhance courses to include training in sophisticated research techniques and expand the areas of research for both students and faculty.”
One of the research projects that will benefit involves migration of T cells, the main cells of the immune system. Kurt has conducted research on issues related to T cells and cancer with several Lafayette students, including Evan Adler ’02 of Ocean, N.J., who graduated in May with honors in biology, and Marquis Scholars Peter Vitiello ’02 of Staten Island, N.Y., and Mara Shainheit ’03 of Hainesport, N.J. Vitiello graduated summa cum laude in May with honors as well. These students were among 10 Lafayette biology majors who presented their research with faculty mentors in April at the 78th Annual Meeting of the Pennsylvania Academy of Science.
“Proteins utilized by T cells for migration will be labeled so that protein-protein interactions can be investigated as the T cells respond to chemokines (a group of proteins that direct cell migration through the body),” says Kurt, adding that the project should uncover some of the basic steps utilized for T-cell migration.
“T cells are a group of immune cells that patrol the body looking for anything that does not belong,” he adds. “For tumor immunity, they are critical because they have the ability to kill tumor cells without destroying normal tissues. Furthermore, once T cell immunity has been established and the threat to your body has been removed, you are left with immunological memory. This means that if the tumor comes back, your body is already prepared to handle it.”
Kurt is identifying the initial steps in “recruiting” T cells to tumor sites. His work in this area has been published in Journal of Immunology, International Immunology, and International Journal of Cancer.
Another research area that the microscope can enhance involves molecular interaction between two pathways in T cells, which Kurt is examining this summer with Marquis Scholar and biology major Matt Rausch ’03 of Cranford, N.J.
“I have learned some very important techniques and concepts that will be valuable to me in my future plans,” says Rausch. “This project is much more in-depth than anything that I’ve ever done in my classes and labs. Lafayette provides its students with unique opportunities like this that students at other schools wouldn’t get a chance to do.”
Neural development and communication in the Drosophila melanogaster fly is another area of research and training in which the confocal microscopy system can be used. In particular, the instrument will aid studies of “bang-sensitive” mutant flies, the subject of past research by Reynolds and EXCEL Scholar Brooke Keim ’03, a biology major from Lancaster, Pa., who learned “a tremendous amount” through the experience and plans to continue the research through a senior honors thesis this school year.
Majumdar will use the equipment in his cancer research with Lafayette students, which focuses on the effects of cancer drugs and other substances on tumors. For example, Shirley Satuh ’03, a biology major from Navrongo, Ghana, worked with Majumdar to investigate whether the element selenium, found in some foods, slows the growth of cancer.
“Working with him helped hone my work ethic because he is a very organized and disciplined person. I want to be like him,” says Satuh. “He is extremely well-qualified and caring.”
Majumdar has coauthored an estimated 100 papers with one or more Lafayette students since joining the Lafayette faculty in 1969.
Last year, Kurt received a $214,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Defense to study the immune response to breast cancer. The grant funded research, supplies, and student assistants to help him determine whether some of the adverse effects that tumors have on the immune system can be reversed. Kurt is trying to determine how tumors can grow while producing chemokines, which theoretically could attract immune cells to the growth. His research in this area has been published in the journals Cancer Gene Therapy and International Journal of Cancer.
Kurt joined the Lafayette faculty last fall after two years as a cellular immunology research scientist at Earle A. Chiles Research Institute of Providence Portland Medical Center, Portland, Ore., and adjunct biology faculty member at University of Portland. Prior to that, he was a teaching assistant at University of Arizona School of Medicine and a Science Alliance Summer Research Fellow in the department of chemistry at the University of Tennessee.
He holds a doctorate in microbiology/immunology from University of Arizona, Tucson, and a bachelor of science degree from Bowling Green State University. Kurt has received three Sigma Xi travel awards and was honored for Best Presentation at the 1996 Annual Meeting of the Arizona Imaging and Microanalysis Society.
A National Leader in Undergraduate Research. Mara Shainheit ’03 made a presentation on research she did under the guidance of Robert Kurt, assistant professor of biology, at the annual meeting of the Pennsylvania Academy of Science.
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