{"id":1931,"date":"2023-02-25T13:07:03","date_gmt":"2023-02-25T20:07:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/cbi-rcn-g2p2pop\/?p=1931"},"modified":"2023-02-25T13:07:03","modified_gmt":"2023-02-25T20:07:03","slug":"gilbecca-rae-smiths-lab-exchange","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/cbi-rcn-g2p2pop\/gilbecca-rae-smiths-lab-exchange\/","title":{"rendered":"Gilbecca Rae Smith’s Lab Exchange at UCSF"},"content":{"rendered":"

The road to investigating an ancestral mammal, Tenrec ecaudatus, <\/em><\/strong>as a model for mammalian heart regeneration<\/strong><\/p>\n

I am currently a 2nd<\/sup> year integrative physiology PhD student in Dr. Frank van Breukelen\u2019s laboratory at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The core focus of my dissertation is to investigate the physiology of Tenrec ecaudatus<\/em> through functional imaging.<\/p>\n

Tenrecs are bizarre basoendothermic Afrotherian mammals. They are endemic to Madagascar and its surrounding islands where ambient temperatures often fluctuate >30\u00b0C and <20\u00b0C. Interestingly, they possess numerous ancestral features, such as a tiny smooth brain (encephalization quotient <0.1), internal testes caudal to the kidneys, the presence of a cloaca, the capacity for indeterminate growth, as well as weird embryology that resembles monotremes, and more! Even more so, they are capable of extreme thermal and metabolic plasticity, such that an active tenrec at an ambient temperature of 12 \u00b0C may still possess a body temperature between 12-34\u00b0C and experience a 25-fold range in oxygen consumption. Arguably, they are truly remarkable plastic animals.<\/p>\n

Dr. Guo Huang\u2019s lab explores the potential for cardiac regeneration from an evolutionary perspective. Their recent publication suggests that adult heterothermic and heterometabolic mammals may experience significant levels of cardiac regeneration following insult. This RCN-sponsored lab exchange allowed us to bridge the gap and bring our animals to Dr. Guo Huang\u2019s lab at UCSF in order to begin exploring the links between heterometabolism and heart regeneration.<\/p>\n

Undoubtedly, this exchange has given me the opportunity to value the rigor of a collaborative project. We are currently in the process of implementing a cryoinjury cardiac model in the tenrecs here at UNLV and anticipate future collaboration with the Huang lab! I am very grateful for the opportunity to meet members of the Huang lab and the robust UCSF LARC team for making me feel welcomed during my visit.<\/p>\n

\u201cA thinker sees his own actions as experiments and questions– as attempts to find out something. Success and failure are for him answers above all.\u201d –Friedrich Nietzsche<\/p>\n

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Figure 1. Tenrec echocardiography (ECHO): the first known common tenrec ECHO scans!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Figure 2. The longest road trip I\u2019ve ever been on and the first with the tenrecs (and my advisor). Disclaimer: I only threw up twice with his driving!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

Figure 3. The San Fran views!<\/p>\n

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Figure 4. I got the chance to explore a bit of San Francisco and visit the California Academy of Sciences during one of their Night Life events and snap a pic of what a bee hive invasion would look like.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The road to investigating an ancestral mammal, Tenrec ecaudatus, as a model for mammalian heart regeneration I am currently a 2nd year integrative physiology PhD student in Dr. Frank van Breukelen\u2019s laboratory at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The core focus of my dissertation is to investigate the physiology of Tenrec ecaudatus through functional […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":476,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lab-exchange"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/cbi-rcn-g2p2pop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/cbi-rcn-g2p2pop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/cbi-rcn-g2p2pop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/cbi-rcn-g2p2pop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/476"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/cbi-rcn-g2p2pop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1931"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/cbi-rcn-g2p2pop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1931\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1937,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/cbi-rcn-g2p2pop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1931\/revisions\/1937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/cbi-rcn-g2p2pop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/cbi-rcn-g2p2pop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/cbi-rcn-g2p2pop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}