Anthony Himes receives summer research fellowship from the American Physiological Society

Anthony Himes ‘14, a marine sciences major, recently received a highly prestigious summer research fellowship from the American Physiological Society (APS). Only 24 APS undergraduate research fellowships are awarded every year nationwide.

Himes will work during the summer of 2013 on a project investigating the stress physiology of the invasive green crab, Carcinus maenas. This species is highly detrimental to Maine’s clam fisheries and causes large scale economical damage worldwide.

All efforts in understanding the invasiveness of this crab species are based on studies that investigated the early life stage green morphs of this species. Later stage red morphs are typically ignored. Himes will test how the two color morphs differ in their response to temperature and salinity stress. He will apply methods of classical whole animal physiology, paired with measurements of enzyme activities and gene expression. This project will enhance the understanding of the crab’s biology and might open up strategies to prevent further invasions.

The APS award also enables Himes to present his findings in April of 2014 at the national conference of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) in San Diego, California.

Himes will perform the project in the research lab of Markus Frederich, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Marine Sciences. Previous 91Ö±²¥ÊÓƵundergraduate students working in Frederich’s lab who were funded by APS summer awards were: Michaela O’Rourke 2007, Stephanie Podolski 2011, and Casey Toombs 2012.
 

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