Organismal Biology is not only the study of anatomy and physiology but also their ecology and evolution. This is the last pillar of our Biology program where we have the chance to further our knowledge to courses such as Comprehensive Human Anatomy and Physiology I and then applying similar concepts along with previous Ecology and Evolution concepts to higher level courses such as Immunology and Senior Capstone in Biology.
In Comprehensive Human Anatomy and Physiology I, we learned the typical topics you would expect like bones and muscles, and even more complex things like nerves. However, when it came to lab, we were given free rein on developing a project as long as it related to Human A&P. For my project, I wanted to investigate the different or similar effects of meditation and medication on ADHD patients. The methods and analysis of this project were both very complex but overall each participant would take a reaction test while their brain waves where being measured under different conditions: no treatment (no medication nor meditation), only meditation, only medication, and both medication and meditation. Based on the results, we were inconclusive if meditation could be used as a replacement for medication for ADHD patients likely due to our small sample size. This course and project allowed me to dive deep into brain signally pathways which can sometimes have a similar set up to cellular signaling pathways. Below is my poster that I presented at Longwood University’s Fall Showcase for Research and Creative Inquiry in 2019.
The Effects of Meditation and Medication on ADHD Patients
In Immunology, I previously talked about on page (1.2) the cellular and molecular aspects of the course. While those were the main topics we focused on, we were also given the chance to present a disease that affected humans and propose a theoretical immunotherapy mechanism to treat the disease. I chose to discuss Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, a disease in which a bacteria (R. rickettsii) infected tick transfers the bacterium to humans and animals. I used the information discussed in previous lectures about vaccines to theoretically develop my own which would help fight off the infection as a therapeutic medicine. While this project dived into the immune system, I also needed to understand the distribution and seasonality of ticks as well as the mechanism in which the bacterium uses to invade specific tissue within the body. Below in my PowerPoint presentation which I presented to my class in the Spring of 2019.
The Senior Capstone in Biology course is mainly a higher-level continuation of Sophomore Seminar to really push us to discuss and present relevant topics across multiple disciplines of Biology. For our first project, we were challenged to give a 7-minute presentation on a recent New York Times article. While I love Cell and Molecular Biology, I am sometimes pulled towards other topics like Organismal Biology where I decided to present about Bumblebee Vomit. The main takeaway from this article and presentation was that while it seems that bees prefer higher sugar concentrations (thicker nectar), it actually takes them a lot longer to drink and offload compared to a thinner nectar (less sugar concentrated). The researchers from this main study emphasized their concern for the current situation in which we need larger bee populations which could be facilitated by increasing the production of plants with thinner nectar to improve their pollination efficiency. This presentation allowed me to not only use concepts from Ecology and Evolution but also look at the bumblebee as an organism on its own and learn more about their nectar foraging habits. Below in my PowerPoint presentation that I presented to my class in the Spring of 2020.
As you can see, Biology is a broad program here at Longwood University and while we have these three individual pillars, many courses tend to overlap which further emphasizes the importance of taking a wide range of courses.