The weekend of February 28 – March 2 brought scientists from all over Texas to McLennan Community College and Baylor University in Waco, for the 145th Texas Academy of Sciences meeting. Ten students represented the Biology Department, including Gage Mallo ’26, Johun Reyes ’26, Annika Tracy ’25, Murphy Jacobie ’27, Madeleine Thomas ’26, Kylie Allemeier ’26, Katelin Pilarski ’26, Sarah Berver ’26, Alanna Guerrero ’25 and Jordan Emerson ’27. 

Based on her collaboration with Assistant Professor of Biology Kim McArthur, Annika gave a talk, titled “Location-independent axon pathfinding in the hindbrain of larval zebrafish,” that earned the first place undergraduate talk award for the neuroscience section. 

Madeleine presented a poster with her research mentor, Assistant Professor of Biology Sunny Scobell, titled “A morphological analysis of the dopaminergic pathway in the brain of a male pregnant pipefish.” Dr. Scobell also mentored Jennifer Smalz, a student from her previous institution (UD: The University of Dallas), who gave a talk titled “Investigating male pregnancy in Gulf Pipefish using scanning electron microscopy to describe the anatomy of the brood pouch over the reproductive cycle.” Ms. Smalz’ talk earned the first place undergraduate award in the systematics and evolutionary biology section. Within that section, Dr. Scobell also gave two presentations, one co-authored with UD student Farah Atarah, titled “Brood pouch anatomy throughout the course of male pregnancy in Gulf Pipefish,” and another focusing on her endocrinology, titled an “Investigation of the role of prolactin during reproduction in a fish with male pregnancy.”

Murphie presented a microbiology focused poster, titled “An affinity analysis of Aliivibrio fischeri and zooxanthellae” with the mentorship of Director of First Year Biology Laboratories Stacie Brown.

Working with Chair and Garey Professor of Biology Romi Burks, Gage presented a poster, titled “You better Belize they’re different: Phylogenetic analysis and species identification of native apple snails in Belize,” that garnered a first place best poster award in the systematics and evolutionary biology section. His poster co-author Johun secured first place in the Undergraduate Research Award Competition, complete with a $2,000 prize to continue the work, with his proposal, “Beneath Belizean waters: Discovering diversity of native apple snails in northern and southern Belize.” 

Also from the Burks lab, Kylie, Sarah, and Katelin shared their recent troubleshooting efforts in the lab in a poster titled “Extraordinary extraction efforts: Experiments to enhance DNA extraction for tissues of apple snails of conservation interests” that also used collections from Belize that occurred as part of the 2024 study abroad experience.

Dr. Burks also gave an oral presentation in the science education section about the recent undergraduate research experience that she developed in BIO50-222, Methods in Ecology and Evolution. Her talk, titled “Methodological microplastics: Development of an undergraduate CURE to quantify abundance of microplastic fibers in a local stream,” came out of conversations with microplastics expert Andre Felton from the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Buoyed by the momentum built on sabbatical, Garey Chair of Biology Romi Burks continued her work on the intersection between chocolate and liberal arts education by sharing her knowledge as the featured STEM kick-off speaker at Schreiner University on September 4 with a talk titled “Chocolate Covered Science: Connect what you love to eat with what you love to study.” Following that event, Burks attended the Dallas Chocolate Festival on September 7, where she contributed to a panel discussion on the crisis in the chocolate industry, along with entrepreneur Kate Weiser of Kate Weiser Chocolates and Jimmy Steward of Guittard Chocolate. Afterwards, Burks gave a solo presentation titled “Educated by Chocolate: How to build your chocolate knowledge one bite at a time.” Burks has also been invited to give this talk again at the Northwest Chocolate Festival, along with a second presentation titled “Separating Fact from Fiction in the Science of Chocolate.” These lectures will take place the first weekend of October.

Supported by a sabbatical leave, Garey Chair of Biology Romi Burks recently published the first paper out of the lab on environmental DNA in the journal Management of Biological Invasions, in collaboration with several undergraduate researchers and colleagues. The paper, titled “Snail slime in real time: Challenges in predicting the relationship between environmental DNA and apple snail biomass,” describes how extrapolations can fail between snail abundance and the amount of genetic material produced by apple snails under cold conditions. The results have implications for estimating the size of non-native invasive populations. Student co-authors include Cassidy Reynolds ’24, Esmeralda Rosas ’24, Cynthia Bashara ’23, and Lillian Dolapchiev ’23, along with alumni collaborator Dr. Matthew Barnes ’06 from Texas Tech University and Dr. Chris Jerde from UC Santa Barbara, who provided assistance in data analysis. The open access paper can be read here, as #6 in the table of contents of the journal issue.

In 2023, Professor of Biology Romi Burks contributed to a United States Department of Agriculture - Agriculture Research Services (USDA-ARS) effort to communicate the latest science on the invasive apple snail that occurs across the southeastern region of the United States. The content of that Apple Snail Workshop, entitled “Apple Snails: Discussion of past problems and future solutions for an emerging pest in the United States agriculture/aquaculture,” now appears published in World Aquaculture, the magazine for the World Aquaculture Society. Recent Burks’ Lab researcher, now professional scientific illustrator, Lauren Muskara ’21 provided the photograph of an apple snail laying eggs on a pylon that the authors chose for the cover of the article. The full article can be read on page 46 here.

Professor of Biology Romi Burks continues “chocolating” her way through her sabbatical. On October 6th, she gave an invited talk at the Northwest Chocolate Festival in Seattle, the largest professional gathering of fine chocolate professionals. Taken place on the Fine Chocolate Industry Association’s stage, the talk “you say cacao, I say cocoa” chronicles her work on and vision for the Fine Chocolate Glossary project. Burks left for 3 weeks in London, where she will judge within the UK’s premier organization, The Academy of Chocolate. All of this travel and networking will contribute to her book project “Journey into Chocolate,” coauthored by Indi Chocolate owner and entrepreneur Erin Andrews.