Recording the mass of a common shrew

Author: Isabella Stark | Major: Biology | Semester: Spring 2023

In the summer before my junior year, I accepted a field technician position with Dr. Kristian Forbes of the Department of Biological Sciences which changed the trajectory of my academic career. Until this point, my experience as a biology major did not extend outside of the lecture hall; science was limited to the works of others displayed in PowerPoints and textbooks. However, after spending an incredible eight weeks with the Vole Fever team in Lammi, Finland, I knew that my involvement in this program could not end with the summer. In the spring of 2022, I was able to resume working with this team and take on a project of my own studying the population-level dynamics of virally infected shrews in Finnish forests.

Since beginning my project, I have learned that shrews represent a population of small mammals that share habitats with other mammals such as voles that carry human-infecting diseases like Puumala orthohantavirus (PUUV). While the viruses that the shrews carry are not human-infecting, knowledge of the level of viral prevalence and the population’s ecology is important for understanding how these insectivores might affect vole abundance and movement patterns. Driven by my mentor’s encouragement and my curiosity about zoonotic diseases that impact human health, my research focuses on evaluating this relationship by recording ecological data and viral prevalence on over 1,000 Sorex araneus shrews from Finnish boreal forests over a two-year period. With this work, we can better understand disease dynamics in host species and use our knowledge to help protect human populations from spillover events.

Perhaps one of the most exciting aspects of my research was its location. Along with its parent project, the Vole Fever Project, my work was based out of Lammin Biologinen Asema in Lammi, Finland. Working at this station with biologists from across the globe taught me the importance of clear communication, creativity in working in culturally diverse climates, and an open, inquisitive mind. I learned that there was always someone who knew more about a subject than I did, and they were always so excited to share that knowledge with me. My research has grown deeper because of the bits of information that people, both inside and outside of my lab, taught me.

My mentor, Dr. Kristian Forbes, has played a pivotal role in the positive experience that I have had in undergraduate research. I found Dr. Forbes through a chemistry project in Dr. Margaret Hershberger’s class, and, after a great conversation followed by a string of emails, I joined his lab in the fall of 2021. During my summer with his lab in Finland, not yet realizing it would become a project of my own, I began working with shrews by recording descriptive data and dissecting organs for viral testing. After returning home to begin the fall semester, Dr. Forbes advocated that I apply for grants to continue the work I started and was a crucial resource while navigating the application process. Moreso, my research would not be possible without the support of members from Dr. Forbes’ lab who have helped me dissect shrews, make sense of data, and cheered me on throughout this ongoing process.

Moving forward and with the support of this grant, I will return to Finland in the summer of 2023 to finish dissections of the remaining shrews and begin using laboratory tests like PCR and immunological assays to test for the presence of hantaviruses, coronaviruses, and paramyxoviruses. In the fall of 2023, I will use the collected data to create infection dynamics models and search for significant relationships between shrew ecology, viral prevalence, and vole population patterns.