Examiner article: First stress hormone identified in sea lampreys plus awards for biologists
Examiner.com: No vacation for science at Michigan State--research roundup for July 19-25
By Vince Lamb, Detroit Science News Examiner
While many undergraduate students spend their summers off-campus working, trying to find a job, or merely relaxing, the professors and graduate students at any research institution remain hard at work advancing the frontiers of knowledge. This past week at Michigan State University, like the week before it, both at Michigan State and Wayne State, demonstrated that this summer continues to be no exception.
Last week, a Michigan State researcher earned a $1.5 million grant to study Parkinson's Disease. The institution also showed off the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory as part of a bus tour of Michigan's University Research Corridor. In addition, a team of scientists associated with the university's Department of Fisheries and Wildlife identified the first stress hormone from lampreys. Also, two recent alums won a young scientist award. Finally, a retired professor was elected to the Academy of Science of the Royal Society of Canada.
First identification of stress hormone in lampreys
A team led by Weiming Li, professor of fisheries and wildlife and a member of the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station, identified the first stress hormone from the sea lamprey. They then used the primitive jawless fish as a model to understand the evolution of the endocrine system in vertebrates.
Corticosteroid hormones control stress response in animals with backbones, including humans. While scientists have learned quite a bit about these hormones in most modern animals, little was known about the hormones' earliest forms in primitive creatures such as the lamprey.
"By identifying 11-deoxycortisol as a stress hormone in lamprey, it allows us to better understand how the endocrine system in vertebrates evolved into the complex systems we see in humans today," Weiming Li, said in a press release. "Most jawless animals similar to the lamprey didn't survive into the modern era, so they're not available for us to use as we strive to learn more about how human systems developed. The sea lamprey, a survivor, gives us a snapshot of what happened as vertebrates evolved into the animals we know today."
More, including winners of two honors, at the source in the headline.