Stewart Honors Students Participate in Ongoing Research with Professors

This summer, students in Biola’s Stewart Honors Program participated in the School of Science, Technology and Health’s Research and Internship Summer Experience (RISE). They worked with Biola faculty members, who serve as Stewart Fellows, on existing research projects such as exploring acute sleep deprivation and the effects of alcohol on the brain.

Co-director of Stewart Honors and professor of Biological Sciences, Dr. Behzad Varamini, led a research group of four students to study how acute sleep deprivation disrupts glucose levels, lipid accumulation and energy metabolism.

“This project is important because sleep is such a crucial part of the life of every organism,” said Varamini. “Understanding the biological mechanisms of sleep deprivation, particularly the metabolic disturbances that come with a lack of sleep, can help scientists design therapies or treatments for people who have difficulty sleeping or whose work schedules disrupt their sleep patterns.”

In collaboration with another research group from St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, Varamini’s group used a mouse model to track the relationship between sleep deprivation and metabolic levels. Their research found that in addition to increased lipid and glucose uptake in the liver and the brain, a lack of sleep promoted mitochondrial fusion, the process that happens when mitochondria come together to overcome cellular stress.

“The highlight of the summer was seeing students go from barely knowing how to use a pipette, to, by the end of the summer, helping think through how to design experiments that would answer remaining questions we had in the lab,” said Varamini.

Dr. Hyuna Lee, associate professor of biological sciences, and her research group studied the teratogenic effects of ethanol in monoaminergic neurogenesis in developing zebrafish brains. When zebrafish are developing, alcohol can interfere with how their brains form, particularly in the areas responsible for mood and emotions. This disruption can lead to abnormalities in brain development, similar to how alcohol can harm the development of human babies. The goal of the study was to use the implications of their findings to consider potential social behavioral abnormalities associated with the dysregulated growth of monoaminergic neurons in adults.

By exposing transgenic zebrafish embryos to 1% ethanol, the team was able to simulate the effects of embryonic alcohol exposure on developing neurons and its social behavioral consequences on adults. They discovered that monoaminergic neuron density significantly decreased, signifying a reduced responsiveness to environmental changes and stimuli.

Dr. Kit Ng, the chair of biological sciences, had four students join him in his research on nanoplastics uptake and its acute effects on mouse arterial endothelial cells.

“This is important research because of the increasing amount of micro- and nanoplastics we are exposed to daily,” said Ng.

His team discovered that cells readily take up nanoplastics and hide them away into intracellular vesicles.

The Stewart Fellows praise their research groups for their great teamwork and investment in their respective projects. The unique and invaluable experience of RISE gave Stewart Honors students the opportunity to engage in real research as well as forge ongoing partnerships with their fellow students and professors.

Written by Katelyn Ho, strategic communications assistant. For more information, email media.relations@biola.edu.