News from the Stein Lab
Student projects in our Biophysics course
Neurons are always fun. Beautiful image of two STG neurons stained by students in our Biophysics course. Social distancing and masks are not keeping us from research and education! |
Image of Research Finalist
Our PhD candidate Margaret DeMaegd is a finalist for the
ISU 'Image of Research' contest with her photo "Carcinization".
Congrats! The people's choice poll will be coming soon! |
Our new review paper on the effects of climate change on crustacean nervous systems is out
Our newest paper with Steffen Harzsch in Greifswald discusses crustacean brains in times of climate change! |
Newest paper is out in the Journal of Undergraduate Neuroscience Education
In this paper, we outline approaches for STEM undergraduates to identify neuronally expressed genes. We provide a helpful protocol for physiologists who want to implement molecular and genetic methods in their own labs. We also identify a GABA-A receptor in crayfish: Stein, Wolfgang, et al. "Physiologists turned Geneticists: Identifying
transcripts and genes for neuronal function in the Marbled Crayfish,
Procambarus virginalis." |
Finding the solution: Animal physiology lab makes most of hybrid format
In a lab designed to illustrate how living organisms operate, it only makes sense there’d be an entire week dedicated to respiration systems. In previous Biological Sciences (BSC) 283: Animal Physiology courses, students would measure lung capacity and simulate different chronic conditions such as asthma. But with the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the
fastest ways the novel virus travels is through the air. So, naturally, that
type of assignment in a lab classroom was out of the question. Illinois State students in Dr. Stein's class proved once again they
could pivot to make the best of the situation. Realizing quickly the original experiment wouldn’t work, the
class used crayfish instead, placing them in both low and high saline
solutions and study respiratory activity in an animal model. |
New temperature paper is out in PLoS Comput Biol
How do axons deal with acute temperature changes? Our newest paper has the answer: DeMaegd ML, Stein W (2020) Temperature-robust activity patterns arise from coordinated axonal Sodium channel properties. PLOS Computational Biology 16(7): e1008057. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008057 |
What makes ticks tick: Dr. Städele studies their every move!
Ticks love to bite her, and she’d like to find out why, or why they do anything, like attach to one host but ignore another. Few researchers have studied how a tick’s brain
works, but that’s what caught the attention of Dr. Carola Städele. As a
post-doctoral researcher in the Stein laboratory, she studies a
tick’s every move by recording them as they crawl around their Plexiglass home. |
Phi Sigma Grants for our graduate students
Congratulations to our award winners at the 2020 School of
Biological Sciences Award Ceremony hosted via Zoom! Josselyn Gonzalez received the
Mockford-Thompson Summer Research Fellowship, Maggie DeMaegd received
the Outstanding PhD Student Award, and Liisi Vink-Lainas received the BSC 101
Teaching Assistant Award. All three also received Weigel Research Grants! Lots of excitement coming from the Crablab!! |
IMSAloquium - High School Student Presentations
Our high school student Saisu Talasu presented her research on Dopamine receptors today at the annual colloquium of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, IMSAloquium. Like all seminars these days, the presentations were given on Zoom - a shout-out to the organizers to make the colloquium happen. Great talk, too! |
Research stay in Germany
PI Stein and Ph.D. student Margaret DeMaegd spent two month at Greifswald University in Germany to study variability in neuronal structures using the all-clonal species of marbled crayfish, P. virginalis. Host Steffen Harzsch from Greifswald University, Ph.D. student Margaret DeMaegd and PI. Wolfgang Stein on a field trip to the Baltic Sea. Margaret and Wolfgang at the electrophysiology rig, injecting crayfish neurons with fluorescent dyes. Anti-Serotonin antibody staining of crayfish neurons. Animation was created after processing confocal images in Greifswald. |
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