| My Research--Past and Present |
| Most of my research is in the area of marine chemical ecology; that is the study of how chemicals produced by marine organisms affect other neighboring organisms. Think of it this way: the majority of creatures living in the sea are either sedentary, slow moving, or have very limited vision. They depend on chemicals for a variety of daily activities, such as communication, escaping or detering predators, or finding food, mates, and habitat, etc. The list is virtually endless. So what have I done so far in this field? Well my undergraduate research at UNCW was focused on how a group of marine invertebrates, called ascidians (or sea squirts) defend themselves from being eaten by fish. Ascidians grow almost everywhere in marine waters. Luckily, I was able to study the tropical species, which allowed me to travel to the Bahamas and Florida Keys as part of my job (arent you jealous?). I, along with my professor, Dr Joe Pawlik, showed that many ascidians produce acids and/or organic chemical compounds (called seconday metabolites) that make them distasteful to some fish. The results of this study were published in the Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology in 2002; you may email me for a copy of the manuscript--serious inquiries only, please. So why is this research important? Well many of these compounds that are active in detering fish from eating marine organisms have also been popular sources of new pharmaceuticals. In fact, a compound from a species of ascidians that I worked with is one of the most promising anti-cancer drugs so far discovered. Medicines aside, the results from studies like these lend an understanding to why some species are dominant in some habitats, while others are not. It has been the contention of some people that the presence of chemical defenses in some organisms shape entire community assemblages, especially in coral reefs. Now that I am at Georgia Tech, I am interested in another major area marine chemical ecology: chemosensation. Imagine when someone sprays their perfume in a closed room...the scent of the perfume will disperse throughout the entire room with time. If you chose to, you could easily find that person in a crowded room by following the increasing strength of the perfume right to the person using it. Now instead of humans and perfume, imagine that a clam is giving off a scent, a product of its daily metabolism. Animals that chose to find that clam may use those scents to track it down, much like tracking down the perfume in a crowded room. In the case of my research, I am interested in discovering if sea urchins have the ability to track such chemical scents (we call them ''cues') to find food. My professor, Dr Marc Weissburg, has demonstrated this ability to track chemical cues in organisms such as crabs, lobsters, and copepods. Check out the links on his page to see the applications of this research in the field or robotics. Marc, myself, and two other people in our lab were invited to publish a review article on these topics in a 2002 special edition of the Journal of Chemical Ecology. Click here to see pics and descriptions of my current research. |