ULV bio team to research in Mass.

by Jamie Mahoney
Staff Writer

Assistant Professor of Biology Christine Broussard will be in Cape Cod, Mass., this summer working as a course coordinator at the Marine Biological Laboratories.

Broussard has invited Kristin Peralta, a junior biology major, to assist her in running the embryology course throughout the summer.

“Just to be in that environment is exciting,” Peralta said. “I can’t wait to interact with the scientists that go.”

Initially Peralta and sophomore biology major Jessica DeGiacomo had both planned to travel with Broussard.

“I was the last person to sign up, I was the first one dropped once the position was not longer available,” DeGiacomo said. “I thought that this trip would have been an awesome learning experience.”

The marine biology lab’s summer course in embryology lasts only six weeks but they will be there two additional weeks to set it up and take it down.

The program involves lectures, discussions and lab sessions and meets six days a week from 9 am to noon.

Broussard is teaching a survey course in advanced embryology.

It models the systems of development, and the organisms they will be using includes the sea sponge, sea cucumber, frogs, zebra fish, mice and chickens.

Broussard will administer the lab section of the course where students will fertilize eggs and watch their development. She will use microscopy as her teaching method to watch the development.

The Marine Biology Laboratories summer program plays host to cutting edge work in each field represented, Broussard said.

The MBL, which runs the course, has been around for more than 100 years. The embryology course has been around for over 105 years.

Broussard took the course last summer and was invited back to be the course coordinator this year.

“It is very much an honor to be invited back,” she said.

The course is intended for graduate students, post doctorates and junior faculty members.

“It will boost the reputation of the University. It shows the high quality of people at the University,” Broussard said.

Until then Broussard is busy familiarizing herself with the materials she will be using and is coteaching a course with Dan Merritt, professor of zoology.