Author: Winson Chee Major: Biology

During the spring 2019 semester, I worked on my research project under the guidance of my mentor, Dr. Siepielski.  Through this research, I am working to determine the effect of coinfection, where an organism is infected with two parasitic species, on immune function and growth.  The project is focused on infecting damselfly larvae with a bacterial species (E. coli) and a simulated ectoparasite (nylon monofilament).  Thus, the goal is to quantify the changes in immune response when an organism is singly-infected compared to coinfection.  This research will help to understand how organisms manage resources when coinfected and whether trade-offs occur when fighting two different types of infections. 

For most of the semester, I focused on planning and preparation through many meetings with faculty members.  Damselflies are flying insects similar to dragonflies.  They begin as eggs which hatch into larvae (nymphs).  These larvae then develop and grow, over the course of months or years, into adults.  Larvae begin to emerge in the spring and are obtainable until late fall.  Thus, planning is a crucial part of my research as there is only a limited time frame to conduct experiments and collect bugs.  To get a better understanding of procedures, statistics, and concepts, I met with many professors that provided invaluable guidance.  Dr. Siepielski and Dr. Datta helped me to understand the randomization in sampling and ANOVA analysis for the data.  Dr. Bailey and Dr. Forbes gave me great ideas to build upon and look into, especially since they brought different perspectives—cell biology and disease ecology—to the project.  Drs. Dan and Faith Lessner and Dr. Hogan were valuable resources for understanding the safety and bacterial parts of my research.  Since I have not handled bacteria before and Dr. Siepielski’s lab is not equipped to handle them, having their guidance is beneficial.  I am especially fortunate and grateful that Dr. Dan Lessner has allowed me to work on my project in his lab and that Dr. Faith Lessner has been willing to teach me how to safely handle bacteria. 

I was also shocked at the amount of revisions Dr. Siepielski and I made to the project.  After speaking with Dr. Siepielski and some graduate students in his lab, I realized that my original project was too ambitious.  The number of larvae that needed to be collected and the manpower required for immune assays and injections was too much for me to handle by myself.  A simplification of my project was needed.  Thus, we decided not to look at the potential effect of order of infection (which infection was performed first) and reduced the number of bacterial species in the antibacterial assay from two to one.  This simplification was especially important because it gives me more time to practice procedures, collect larvae, and perform the experiment.  Additionally, given the number of people involved, we decided to simplify in order to minimize the amount of work that has to be done in other labs, especially considering supervision is needed for much of my project. 

Finally, near the end of the semester, I began to practice infecting larvae with monofilaments and did field work to gain experience collecting larvae.  I was fortunate to get help from members of Dr. Siepielski’s lab (Mabel and Simon) who provided locally caught larvae and showed me how to feed and keep them.  Adam Hasik, a graduate student, was able to demonstrate the procedure for injection of monofilaments.  At the end of the semester, I helped him sort larvae at Lake Bob Kidd.  However, I am still learning to identify the species and need to get more experience learning where the larvae like to hide.  Then, when I collect larvae for practice, I can individuals of the same species and get an idea of what the experimental data will look like. 

Overall, while I made good progress, there is still much to be done for my project.  I am currently practicing injecting damselflies and learning the procedures for assays.  I plan on continuing to collect damselfly larvae over the summer and fall for these practice runs.  However, in the main experiment, I will raise larvae from a wild-caught breeding pair.  This would control for genetic and environmental factors.  Thus, I will have to catch a breeding pair early in the summer to let the eggs and larvae mature for about one-and-a–half months.  Then, larvae will be ready by late summer or early fall to perform the experiment on.  This past semester has taught me the importance of planning, networking, and revision in research.  While there is still much to do, with excellent guidance from faculty and graduate students, I am optimistic that the project will go smoothly.