The Manduca InSTaRs project
Manduca InSTaRs is a collaborative group of undergraduate and faculty researchers in Mathematics and Biology at Kenyon College. We are combining molecular, morphological, and physiological approaches with modeling and statistics to investigate factors that underpin metabolic scaling in the tobacco hawkmoth, Manduca sexta. Research teams consists of 2 or 3 students and a faculty member from Biology and Mathematics working on collaborative projects. The project trains undergraduate students in an interdisciplinary research environment and advances scientific understanding of metabolic scaling. Funding is from the National Science Foundation Interdisciplinary Training for Undergraduates in Biological and Mathematical Sciences (UBM) program and Kenyon College.
News
Autumn: Presentation Time!
The 2009 students have been spanning the globe to present their results to peers, faculty, parents, and the larger scientific community. Jennifer Garbett '11 and Rob Long '10 kicked off the semester by presenting their research to the math department as part of the weekly Math Monday event. Jennifer also took her presentation to the MAA Mathfest in Portland, Oregon. Rob also joined Dhruv Vig '11 and Dr. Kerkhoff at the first annual Undergraduate Research Conference in Biomathematics at the National Institute for Mathematical Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS) in Knoxville, Tennessee. Both students presented posters (Rob's in collaboration with Aaron Yeoh '12) and attended talks by other undergrads on a wide variety of topics in mathematical biology. Finally, all seven students presented posters at the Kenyon Summer Science Scholars poster session, held at the Kenyon Athletic Center on Oct. 16.
Summer 2009 InSTaRs student research teams use the interface between math and biology to explore the interface between organism and environment.
Over the summer, our seven Kenyon student researchers and five faculty worked together on three inter-related projects spanning from the protein expression to the evolution of feeding behavior. The collaborations began at the end of the fall 2008 semester, culminating in the submission of proposals to the Kenyon Summer Science Scholars program in February. Project preparations extended through the spring, and extended through the 10 week summer research session.
Manduca InSTaRs students present at 2009 Meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB), in Boston.
Over the winter recess, Kenyon students Ryan Bash (Biology, '10), Anna Frutiger (Molecular Biology, '09), Sasha Minium (Biology, '09), and Katie Woods (Math and Music, '09) were among the eight Kenyon students who presented research posters at the annual meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB), in Boston (January 3-7, 2009).
National Science Foundation Grant
Members of the biology and math departments have received a three-year NSF grant to investigate metabolic scaling.