{"id":510,"date":"2018-12-27T20:52:09","date_gmt":"2018-12-27T20:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nau.edu\/undergraduate-research\/?page_id=510"},"modified":"2024-08-26T15:58:18","modified_gmt":"2024-08-26T22:58:18","slug":"shelby-hutton","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/office-undergraduate-research\/student-research-stories\/shelby-hutton\/","title":{"rendered":"Shelby Hutton: Taking the bite out of fleas"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Taking the bite out of fleas<\/h1>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-square-image wp-image-1043 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/office-undergraduate-research\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/319\/2019\/04\/Hutton_Shelby_0657-1-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/319\/2019\/04\/Hutton_Shelby_0657-1-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/319\/2019\/04\/Hutton_Shelby_0657-1-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/319\/2019\/04\/Hutton_Shelby_0657-1-600x600.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p data-ektron-preserve=\"true\">Shelby Hutton pours fleas from Madagascar out of a vial, each hanging on to the others in a huge ball. Yes, the NAU junior biology major says, insects can be \u201cgross,\u201d but she is fascinated by the dynamic and complex role they play as vectors carrying plague to human hosts: \u201cI think diseases are really cool, in a sadistic way, the way they infect people. It\u2019s an interesting system, and the fact that it does affect so many people inspires me to do research on these bugs.\u201d Painstakingly, Hutton studies 80 fleas. She discovers that each one carries the same genetic mutation, which enables them to resist pesticides and live on to potentially spread plague.<\/p>\n<p data-ektron-preserve=\"true\">Hutton\u2019s job is to create assays\u2014experiments\u2014to screen fleas so that the institute in Madagascar that partners with NAU\u2019s world-renowned Pathogen and Microbiome Institute (PMI) can develop better solutions to control the flea population.<\/p>\n<p data-ektron-preserve=\"true\">At PMI, Hutton researches fleas and microbes, some of the tiniest living things. By doing so, she seeks solutions to some of the world\u2019s biggest problems\u2014a rare opportunity for an undergraduate and one that helped her decide to be a veterinary microbiologist: \u201cMy research experience has defined what I want my career to be. Many places that hire undergraduate researchers, they\u2019re cleaning dishware. We get to be almost in charge of some of these projects. We\u2019re the ones who are in the lab doing the data generation. It gives you a sense of ownership of what you\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n<p data-ektron-preserve=\"true\"><!-- shortcode-right-column -->\n<div class=\"shortcode-right-column\" >\n    <div class=\"shortcode-right-column__container\"><!-- shortcode-block -->\n<div class=\"shortcode-block\">\n      <div class=\"block-header\">\n        <h3>Student spotlight<\/h3>\n    <\/div>\n          <div class=\"block-body\">\n      <div>\n<p data-ektron-preserve=\"true\">Shelby Hutton, Senior<\/p>\n<p data-ektron-preserve=\"true\"><span class=\"contentUsability contentUsability-nohover\" title=\"temporary space, click here to type\">\u00a0<\/span><b>Major:\u00a0<\/b>General Biology, with Certificate in Wildlife Ecology and Management, Researcher at Pathogen and Microbiome Institute<\/p>\n<p data-ektron-preserve=\"true\"><span class=\"contentUsability contentUsability-nohover\" title=\"temporary space, click here to type\">\u00a0<\/span><b>Mentor:<\/b>\u00a0Joe Busch<\/p>\n<p data-ektron-preserve=\"true\"><\/div>\n          <\/div>\n  <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Taking the bite out of fleas Shelby Hutton pours fleas from Madagascar out of a vial, each hanging on to the others in a huge ball. Yes, the NAU junior biology major says, insects can be \u201cgross,\u201d but she is fascinated by the dynamic and complex role they play as vectors carrying plague to human [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":455,"featured_media":0,"parent":15,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","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":"","_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","ring_central_script_selection":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-510","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/office-undergraduate-research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/office-undergraduate-research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/office-undergraduate-research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/office-undergraduate-research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/455"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/office-undergraduate-research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=510"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/office-undergraduate-research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1298,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/office-undergraduate-research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/510\/revisions\/1298"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/office-undergraduate-research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/15"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/office-undergraduate-research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}