{"id":101,"date":"2019-07-20T21:09:21","date_gmt":"2019-07-20T21:09:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.une.edu\/research\/?p=101"},"modified":"2021-06-08T06:14:11","modified_gmt":"2021-06-08T11:14:11","slug":"cusson-research-article","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.une.edu\/research\/cusson-research-article\/","title":{"rendered":"Former UNE undergraduate researcher tackles graduate research in marine natural products"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Amber Cusson \u201918 (B.S., Biochemistry),\n(M.S., Biological Sciences \u201920) matriculated at UNE as an undergraduate in 2014.  She planned to enroll as a Medical Biology\nmajor, but was awarded a National Science Foundation Scholarship for STEM\nstudents (S-STEM) made possible by UNE\u2019s NSF Grant Award #1259896.   As this\nscholarship program was designed to build the STEM pipeline in physical\nsciences and mathematics, Cusson declared her major as biochemistry, and fell\nin love!  Although Cusson had taken\nbiotechnology coursework in high school, the chemistry and biology foundation\nof her biochemistry major provided the background needed to pursue a biotechnology\nresearch career.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was Amy Deveau, Ph.D.,\nassociate professor and assistant chair of the Chemistry Department, who first encouraged\nCusson to consider biochemistry as a major and who later became Cusson\u2019s mentor\nand research advisor.  When Cusson was a\njunior, Deveau offered her a teaching assistant (TA) position in University\nOrganic Chemistry, a sophomore-level undergraduate class sequence geared\ntowards teaching essential organic chemistry concepts and critical thinking\nskills with a mindset of inquiry and research methodology.  Deveau says \u201cAs a TA for this new\nresearch-based curricula in organic chemistry, Amber was just as curious as the\nstudents.  She was bright, hard-working,\nself-starting, and capable.  These are all\nthe hallmarks of a student who would thrive as a researcher, so I approached her\nabout joining my lab team.\u201d   Deveau offered\nCusson a research experience for her junior and senior years, that was made\npossible in large part due to Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE)\nfunding provided by the CAS Dean\u2019s Office and the Office of Research and\nScholarship.  Cusson\u2019s SURE award was one\nof 26 awards made to undergraduate students in the Summer of 2017.  Additionally, UNE\u2019s $20M EPSCOR grant (Award#1355457) that established the Sustainable\nEcological Aquaculture Network (SEANET), led by Barry Costa-Pierce on which\nDeveau is an investigator, also has provided resources to support Cusson\u2019s\nresearch.   Because sources of macroalgae\nare needed for Cusson\u2019s research, collaborations with marine biologists in the\nSEANET network, like Dr. Carrie Byron (associate professor, School of Marine\nPrograms), Adam St. Gelais (assistant director for science, UNE North &\nassistant research scientist, School of Marine Programs), and Zachary\nMiller-Hope (assistant director of education, UNE North, and assistant\nlecturer, department of biology and school of marine programs) have been\nessential.  Additionally, because UNE has\nlayers of scientific expertise in core science fields, students like Cusson\nbenefit in their training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once Cusson joined the Deveau lab\nteam, she began working on a collaborative project between the Deveau lab and\nthe lab of Kristin Burkholder, Ph.D., associate professor of Biology, focused\non potential antimicrobial properties of kelp, a type of seaweed abundant on\nthe Maine coast. To examine biological properties of seaweed compounds, the\nDeveau lab \u2013 with help from Carrie Byron and Zach Miller-Hope, harvested the\nkelp from local waters, dried it and generated crude chemical extracts\ncontaining kelp compounds.  The kelp\nextracts were then tested for potential antibacterial activity in the\nBurkholder lab.  Given Amber\u2019s background\nand interest in learning both the chemistry and the microbiology, she became\nthe first student to cross-train in all aspects of the project, including harvesting\nand processing kelp, generating chemical extracts, and performing antimicrobial\nassays, and analyzing data.  Deveau and\nBurkholder were thrilled by the outcomes and broader impacts of this model and they\nhave continued it with other students since Cusson graduated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Cusson with lab-mates Andi Sinde (Biochemistry \u201819) and Derek DeMartinis (Biochemistry \u201820) investigating macro algae growth in May 2018. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Past work in the Deveau and\nBurkholder labs had shown that kelp and another species of seaweed from the\nMaine coast, called Ulva lactuca<\/em>,  produced compounds that inhibit the growth of numerous\nstrains of the skin pathogen Staphylococcus\naureus<\/em>, including the drug-resistant strain methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus<\/em> (MRSA). When\nCusson joined the project as an undergrad, the Deveau lab was trying to\ndetermine how long seaweed and extracts could be stored while maintaining\nantimicrobial activity.  This information\nwas lacking in the literature but is critical for researchers who are\nattempting to study biological effects of seaweed compounds.  To figure this out, Cusson applied timepoint\nstability analysis, in which she tested the impact of storage temperature and\ntime on anti-MRSA activity of seaweed and seaweed extracts.   Cusson presented the results of this research\nat the American Chemical Society National Meeting in New Orleans, LA in March\n2018.  Cusson says, \u201cIt was overwhelming,\nbeing surrounded by lots of really smart people.  One person actively searched us out for our\nMRSA research \u2013 it was really cool to see the interest that was out there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Cusson presented her research in March 2018 at the American Chemical Society conference.  <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When Cusson graduated with her\ndegree in Biochemistry in 2018, she applied to graduate programs and eventually\nchose to remain at UNE in the Biological Science master\u2019s program. Her thesis\nproject is an expansion of her undergraduate research experience, and is aimed\nat characterizing and identifying the antimicrobial compound(s) present in kelp\nand Ulva. \n<\/em>Identification of novel marine-derived antimicrobial compounds could\nbe important for future development of antimicrobial drugs needed to treat\ndrug-resistant bacterial infections. Cusson is also working on the synthesis of\nnovel hybrid compounds that could have interesting growth inhibition influence\nagainst bacteria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Deveau and Burkholder\u2019s\nperspective, having research students like Cusson is invaluable.  \u201cAmber has always been an exceptionally\ndriven and committed student.  Even as an\nundergraduate, she immediately took ownership of her part of the project and quickly\nmastered the chemistry and microbiological techniques needed to perform the\nwork,\u201d says Burkholder.  \u201cI am excited to\nsee her progress as a MS student as she expands her use of chemistry tools to\ncharacterize the seaweed compounds responsible for inhibiting bacterial\ngrowth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, having Amber as a\nsenior member of both PI\u2019s labs as an undergraduate and now as a graduate\nstudent has enhanced the PIs peer mentoring and training network and expanded\nopportunities for all.   Cusson says\nstaying on the project has been beneficial \u201cbecause I\u2019ve learned a lot of new\ntechniques and have learned about the research process in general. So, I think\nmoving forward if\/when I get a Ph.D., I think I\u2019d like to stay within the\nmedicinal chemistry \/ drug discovery field.  I have always said since day one that UNE is\nthe best decision I ever made, and I think that staying here (for graduate\nschool) and working on this project has been beneficial in many ways.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amber is just now finalizing her\nthesis proposal for her master\u2019s degree and is looking forward to diving in to\nher research.  After finishing her M.S.\nat UNE, Cusson intends to apply to Ph.D. programs in microbiology.   Deveau and Burkholder are optimistic that the\nfuture is very bright for Cusson and their ongoing research collaboration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Amber Cusson \u201918 (B.S., Biochemistry), (M.S., Biological Sciences \u201920) matriculated at UNE as an undergraduate in …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-student-research"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.une.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.une.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.une.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.une.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.une.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sites.une.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4462,"href":"https:\/\/sites.une.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101\/revisions\/4462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.une.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.une.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.une.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.une.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}