Penn State biologist honored by Society for the Study of Evolution – Pennsylvania State University

UNIVERSITY Park, Sarah Bordenstein, associate research professor of biology and entomology at Penn State, has been awarded the 2023 T. H. Huxley Award from the Education and Outreach Committee of the Society for the Study of Evolution. The award recognizes and promotes the development of high-quality evolution education resources and provides funds for the awardee to present at the National Association of Biology Teachers (NABT) annual conference.

Bordenstein is an expert in microbial ecology, genomics, and science education and a member of the Penn State One Health Microbiome Center. In her research, she uses quantitative and computational genomic analyses to study the lifecycle and genome dynamics of the bacterium Wolbachia pipientis which lives within the cells of about half the worlds arthropods, including insects, spiders, mites, and crustaceans and a virus that can infect the bacteria. Wolbachias ability to manipulate arthropod reproduction and inhibit RNA viral replication makes it a promising vector control tool in the fight against mosquito-borne diseases and an intriguing topic for student research.

Bordenstein was recognized for her work as director of "Discover the Microbes Within! The Wolbachia Project." During this activity, students and citizen scientists take part in evolutionary problem solving around the identity of insects and the microbes that live inside them. Participants engage in real-world research, exploring their own questions using DNA sequence data from samples they collect.

I am thrilled to be recognized by the Society for the Study of Evolution because it highlights our commitment to make the study of genetics, evolution and symbiosis accessible to all audiences, said Bordenstein. All of our curriculum is available online through a creative-commons license, and we provide free training and resources for teachers to easily incorporate the project into their classrooms.

The Wolbachia Project is an immersive lab experience that integrates concepts from biodiversity, biotechnology and bioinformatics. Participants identify arthropod species in their local community; isolate DNA to discover if the arthropods are infected with Wolbachia bacterial symbionts; examine DNA sequences to determine the relatedness of these Wolbachia strains to other sequences in the national genetic database; publish their results in the Wolbachia Project Database; and communicate their findings to the scientific community.