Horseshoe crabs hold the world record for surviving the longest without any significant changes to their body structure. Virtually unchanged for over 450 million years, they’ve earned the nickname “living fossils.” Another reason why this species remains so captivating lies in its molecular makeup – horseshoe crab blood is an almost iridescent blue and has been used as a key ingredient in developing vaccines and medicines for over 50 years.  

To keep animal research alive while also preserving the crabs’ population, Castellano and Neitzey collaborated with Sacred Heart University’s Project Limulus, a long-running ecological and conservation study of horseshoe crabs on the Long Island Sound, to help tag horseshoe crabs. Project Limulus Horseshoe Crab Tagging allows researchers to keep track of the populations in New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts and compare numbers annually. It also allows scientists who collect samples from the crabs to keep track of their well-being.

This year’s event was held on June 13th and included residents of Sherwood Island State Park in Westport, and volunteers from the UConn Genome Ambassadors Program, with as many as 40 individuals who signed up with Castellano. 

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Earlier this year, UConn inducted three graduate students into the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF GRFP). The NSF GRFP is a highly sought-after opportunity, providing financial support for graduate scientific study.

Besides their can-do attitudes and wicked smarts, the three students shared something in common: they were all participants in UConn’s Research and Mentoring for Postbaccalaureates in Biological Sciences (RaMP) program. 

RaMP is a nationwide initiative funded by the NSF in 2022. UConn’s RaMP program centers on the theme of “Genomic Novelty” — investigating how and why genomes change over time. Its faculty mentors include professors from the Departments of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology; Physiology & Neurobiology; and Molecular & Cell Biology. 

The program’s unique structure allows participants to pursue two major research milestones over the course of a full year: an independent project, advised by graduate student and faculty mentors, and an all-cohort group project which culminates in a summer publication.  

In 2024, the UConn RaMP cohort published the world’s first complete genome sequence of the desert hairy scorpion. This year, they did the same for the Everglades mink, one of the rarest mammals in the United States.

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On Friday, June 13, UConn Health hosted the third biannual Immunology, Metabolism, and Nutritional Sciences Symposium, with researchers presenting and discussing their cutting-edge work in these interconnected fields. 

Anthony Vella, the Boehringer Ingelheim Chair in Immunology at UConn Health, and Ji-Young Lee, head of the UConn Department of Nutritional Sciences, have co-organized the symposium every two years since 2019. The event fuses their two disciplines – the study of the immune system and the science of nutrition – and considers the unique scientific potential that is unlocked at this intersection. 

“You really have to have an integrated understanding of multiple systems,” Vella says. “The immune system engages the metabolic pathways, and everyone knows that metabolism and the immune system are impacted by nutrition. We’re trying to set the stage for integrating these ideas into a better understanding of how to really effectively prompt the immune system to fight disease.” 

Each iteration of the symposium has a distinct focus, says Vella, reflecting trends in scholarship and collaborative efforts between the two schools. In 2019, for instance, the focus was on the gut microbiome; this year, immunology took center stage, riding a wave of recent breakthroughs in the field.

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The first graduates from the University of Connecticut’s Professional Science Master’s (PSM) in genetic counseling were hooded last Tuesday. The program was ten years in the making and is the first such accredited program at a public university in New England.

“Watching our first cohort graduate today was nothing short of incredible,” says program director and UConn Health pediatric genetics counselor Maria Gyure. “These graduates didn’t just complete a program – they helped build it. I couldn’t be prouder to send them out into the world as the next generation of genetic counselors. We have no doubt they will serve as exemplary ambassadors for our program and make meaningful contributions to the communities they serve.”

The two-year program is uniquely positioned to give students broad experience in both research and clinical genetics. The Genetic Counseling PSM is housed under the auspices of the Institute for Systems Genomics (ISG). The ISG includes researchers and clinicians at UConn Health, Connecticut Children’s, and The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine. Those relationships, along with others, allow students to participate in a series of 10-week fieldwork rotations throughout their training. Students are placed in clinical rotations in diverse areas, including prenatal, pediatric, cancer, cardiovascular, and metabolic genetic counseling, as well as a laboratory rotation. An enrichment rotation gives students the opportunity to tailor a fieldwork experience aligned with their individual interests, in specialty clinics, industry, and advocacy.

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