Biology News Autumn 2009

Please download the current(Second) Biology Newsletter (PDF, file size: 231.93KB) here.

The First Biology Newletter (PDF, file size: 237.3KB) is also available.

Dr. Dave Skingsley is a founder of a new natural history group for this region - Cheshire Active Naturalsists due to be publicly launched in March 2010.

Cheshire Active Naturalists is a new society to cater for adults who wish to advance their skills in a variety of natural history-related taxon groups.

It is run by a group of passionate naturalists who wish to use their skills to benefit other naturalists which in turn benefits wildlife and wildlife recording in the county.

A new short course in Biological and Biomedical Science was delivered by Anne Turner on 9th December 2009.  The one day 'Identification of anaerobes' course covered the culture and identification of anaerobes in clinical material and gave an insight into their relevance in clinical microbiology.  Course participants stated that they enjoyed learning about the diverse range of anaerobes and practical hands-on approach.  Specific comments included " it has given me ideas of ways we can improve our current practice".  As with other short courses in this series it was accredited by the Institute of Biomedical Science.
 
Courses in the next few months include the Laboratory Diagnosis of Blood Borne Viruses on 3 February 2010, Parasitic Infections of the gastro-intestinal tract on 11th March 2010 and Understanding antibiotic resistance and susceptibility testing on 30th March 2010.

Dr. Dave Skingsley has had a second photo published on the front cover of Bulletin.

The photo can be seen on the December 2009 issue of the Amateur Entomologists' Society Bulletin journal.

The Bulletin of the Amateur Entomologists' Society is the Society's high-quality, house journal.

It is published in February, April, June, August, October and December each year. The journal contains articles written by members on all aspects of entomology.

In July 2009 Dr. Jonathan Ranford took short term study leave to prepare research papers.

The study leave was primarily aimed at preparing a full research paper for submission to the journal Global Change Biology. This was carried out and a paper entitled “Carry-over effects of tropospheric ozone on European Holly (Ilex aquifolium L.), its leaf miner (Phytomyza ilicis Curt) and its parasites over multiple seasons (Dr. J. Ranford & Dr. K. Reiling) has been submitted in draft format to the journal.

An abstract for the second paper “The impact of tropospheric ozone on stomatal density and distribution in Ilex aquifolium L.” has also been submitted to Global Change Biology.

High rankings can be seen below along with an impressive Impact Factor of 5.876

Global Change Biology
ISI Journal Citation Reports Ranking:
2008:
2/28 Biodiversity Conservation;
5/124 Ecology;
3/163 Environmental Sciences

For several years a small research group (of Dr Arthur Callaghan, Ian Hopkins, the late Steve Waters and Dr Rob Manning) at Staffordshire University has studied the biology of fungi of the genera Condiobolus and Basidiobolus. These are close allies of the important group (Entomophthorales) researched world-wide as potential control agents of agricultural pest insects and mites. Strains of the test fungi used in my work are from a small plantation of hybrid larch at Keele, in an area repeatedly sampled as a model habitat (Smith & Callaghan 1987; Hopkins unpublished; Callaghan unpublished.).

For the mainly saprotrophic Conidiobolus spp., there are very few reports on the interactions of our fungi with invertebrates of soil and litter (living or dead) and on the subsequent outcomes of such interactions. My research directly addresses questions on trophic (feeding) abilities of these fungi and on the behaviour of their spores (conidia). For example, in laboratory studies, I have quantitatively compared the ability of Conidiobolus spp. (and Basidiobolus ranarum) to colonise groups of leaf litter arthropod cadavers (mostly mites and collembola) and plant fragments (Manning et al., 2007).  Also, I have used novel methods to disclose the ability of a number of Conidiobolus spp. to kill arthropods of the mesofauna (Manning & Callaghan, 2008). The overall aim was to get at least a preliminary indication of the type of trophic interactions occurring between the selected Conidiobolus spp. and a range of freshly extracted arthropods from the surface and subsurface larch litter.

Ongoing work is aimed at understanding the effect of arthropod cadavers, or other substrates, on conidium germination. In leaf litter, cadavers may be a nutrient-rich substrate for species of Conidiobolus and Basidiobolus, with the potential to act as triggers for localised vegetative sprouting of conidia prior to any subsequent fungal colonisation. The effects of substances leaking from arthropod (mite and collembolan) cadavers, diffusing into a surrounding water agar medium and initiating spore germination is being explored in laboratory experiments.

Following on from preliminary studies (RM thesis), future work will examine the variation of the germination of conidia on the external surfaces of invertebrates to disclose possible specific animal targets.

Congratulations to Cassie!

For the second year running a student from Biological Sciences has been succcesful in submitting and having published a paper based on their final year project in the Oxford University Press journal Bioscience Horizons. Cassie Gregson graduated in 2008 and was nominated to submit to the journal by the department. Cassie's paper was reviewed and chosen for publication in this years volume of the Journal and can be found at: http://biohorizons.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/2/2/134.

The journal was launched in 2008 as a means for final year students to submit their final year projects for publication as a scientific paper. Successful students have a citable piece of research to start them on their postgraduate career.
Cassie was a part-time student who did her research whilst working full-time, at AstraZeneca in bioinformatics research, and graduated with a first class Honours degree in Biomedical Sciences. She also received the best undergraduate Biology dissertation prize. She still works for the same company where she hopes to develop her career further within the bioinformatics field. 
  
This is the second student of Sue Bird we have had published in this journal so we have a presence in both volumes 1 and 2. 

Foundation Degree in Biomedical Science – the Employer Perspective

The Associate Practitioner role is a new and very important role in pathology. Many of our Associate Practitioners have worked in the laboratory as Medical Laboratory Assistants prior to becoming an Associate Practitioner so they have laboratory experience but often limited formal qualifications. Working closely with Staffordshire University to develop the curriculum means that the foundation degree offers exactly what the students and the workplace needs. The strong focus on Work Based Learning leads to students gaining credit for structured evidence collected whilst in the laboratory.
The students studying for the University Certificate are kept in a small group with modules specifically aimed at improving their learning skills. This gives the students confidence in their ability and the confidence to give feedback on the course content. In the second and third years the students spend some time with students on the BSc (Hons) Biomedical Science course which helps both the full time students and those on the foundation degree as they can share knowledge and the foundation degree students can pass on their laboratory experience.
Regular communication between Staffordshire University and the University Hospital of North Staffordshire provides feedback on the student’s progress and any issues raised by laboratory or student have been promptly and professionally dealt with by the University. Laboratory based mentors spend time each week with the students to discuss current modules and any issues. There has been a very positive impact on the whole laboratory since the introduction of the foundation degree for the Associate Practitioner.

Katie Berger
Quality Manager, Training Officer and Health & Safety Co-ordinator
Pathology Directorate.
University Hospital of North Staffordshire.

Dr Angela Priestman has just completed her first year of research characterising different populations of the screwworm fly Cochliomyia hominivorax. This fly is a significant pest species of the new world tropics but has been introduced into the old world via the trade in animals. The fly lays its eggs in open wounds on cattle (for example) and the resulting larvae consume the tissues causing much harm. Dr Priestman’s work, which is funded by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) aims to compare wild populations of new world screwworm fly with those bred in fly factories and sterilised before release into the wild. Sterilised release male flies should mate normally with wild female flies and, of course, no offspring are produced. This has the effect of reducing fly numbers in a given locality.

The first year of Dr Priestman's studies have focused on establishing the technique, with the assistance of Pete Martin (Experimental Officer), in the Analytical Suite of the Faculty of Sciences. Angela and Pete have submitted their progress report and await confirmation of the second year of funding.