Drawbridge receives third grant in six years

By Julia Ernst

Few people comprehend how organs form in the beginning of life.

Biology Department Chairperson Dr. Julie Drawbridge, who has been studying the
process of embryonic cell migration during kidney duct formation since 1997, has
discovered much information about the elementary stages of life.

“We have uncovered some of the mechanisms that drive cell migration during formation of the kidney duct in amphibians,” said Drawbridge. “This work has helped to show that similar mechanisms are at work during kidney formation in humans and all other vertebrates.”

The National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Research at Undergraduate Institutions (RUI) program provided Drawbridge with her third grant since 2000 for her research. The latest grant, awarded in 2006, is for $227,000 and will be awarded over the next three years. The National Institutes of Health and the New Jersey Commission on Cancer Research have previously funded Drawbridge’s research.

“The level of funding for the Biology Department is extraordinary for an institution of Rider’s size,” Drawbridge said.

According to the NSF Awards database, there are approximately 10 grants for developmental biology in the country. Drawbridge has two of them.

“You have to apply for NSF research grants,” she said. “The proposal is a detailed description of what your research has already accomplished, the new questions you will be asking and a description of the experiments you will perform to answer these new questions.”

Experts will review the proposals and decide if the project will receive funding.

Drawbridge said her research has two areas of focus.

“My students and I will conduct a comparative study on the embryos of frogs and salamanders to determine how different amphibians are constructing the kidney duct,” she said.

The second area is more exploratory.

“We will also investigate how the cells begin to communicate with their destination tissue to actually make the conduit for urine to get out of the body,” said Drawbridge. “Very little is known about this process.”

Since 1996, the eight-member Biology Department has received more than $4.4
million in grant research — $1.14 million being used in current research.

Drawbridge has not had to conduct all of this research on her own.

“It is important to me that this is a real scientific project, and students enter at different parts
of the project,” she said.

Her current group comprises five students and one recent graduate. The team includes James Leone, a junior English and biology double major; Heather Landis, a junior English major; Kristine Casal, a junior biology major; April Kmetz, a senior biopsychology major; and Lauren Sferrazza, a sophomore biology major. Vanessa Gerrard, who graduated in 2005,
serves as the lab technician.

Leone said his participation in the research project provides results.

“I learn so much from being in the lab so frequently and I find [it] to be therapeutic when the
semester gets stressful,” said Leone.

Drawbridge sees the participation of students as beneficial.

“They are all trying to understand the same phenomenon,” said Drawbridge. “This is a really neat thing for them to be part of.”