Author: Allison Shildt       Major: Biology and Chemistry

Allison Shildt

My name is Allison Shildt. I majored in Biology and Chemistry through the Fulbright Honors program. My honors thesis was completed in the biology department under the advisement of Dr. Nagayasu Nakanishi. I began this research project in the Fall of 2019 during my junior year and continued through this past Spring 2021 semester through the end of my senior year. I graduated this semester and plan to attend the University of Oklahoma School of Medicine in August.

The title of my honors thesis is “Evidence from Cnidaria supports an ancient evolutionary origin of FoxP genes in animals”. This project focused on the Fox gene family, seeking to identify and characterize the FoxP gene in Nematostella vectensis, the sea anemone. Because this is an ancient animal (older than Bilateria, which includes vertebrates), discovering whether this gene exists in the sea anemone can help understand when the gene came about. The FoxP genes in vertebrates have been linked to the development of the nervous system, so further research into these genes can discover the evolutionary role. Additionally, a FoxP gene mutation in humans causes a disease called verbal dyspraxia.

When I was looking for a research mentor, I didn’t really know what I wanted. I spent time looking at the biology faculty and each professor’s research interests, emailing a few to explore opportunities in the following semester. Admittedly, Dr. Nakanishi’s work studied a field within biology that I had not really learned about until then. In our first conversation, he explained to me why he studies the sea anemone and how it relates to humans and other mammals today, providing a big-picture application of his work. When I joined the lab, Dr. Nakanishi showed me a gene from the genome of the sea anemone that he suspected could be part of the FoxP family in this species, and I was able to take up this research as my topic.

Through my semesters in the lab and working on my project, I have come across many obstacles or questions on how to complete my next step. I am eternally grateful for the help, answers, and kindness granted to me by my fellow undergraduates in the lab, as well as the graduate students, post-grads, and of course Dr. Nakanishi. I spent a lot of time this semester writing my thesis, and I employed Dr. Nakanishi for many questions in my writing and analysis. This experience has definitely helped me in working on writing, analyzing, and explaining topics, especially to the layman.

This April, I defended my thesis to my committee and passed. I am grateful for my lab and advisor who has helped me. Though I wasn’t able to be physically in the lab this semester, I am grateful that my research and my time at Arkansas ended on a high note. Though my next step is medical school, this research has enlightened me in my passion and interest in research, and I hope to find a project in a biomedical lab to get involved with while I continue my education.