Biology professor wins National Science Foundation grant for student research

May 17, 2010

Anyone who’s suffered the ordeal of jet lag can appreciate the research of Kristen Curran, an assistant professor of biological sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.

She has received a $208,650 grant from the National Science Foundation for a three-year project investigating the circadian rhythm, or 24-hour cycle, of body organs.

“There are a lot of basic processes in an organism that are somehow linked to time of day,” Curran said. “Circadian rhythm is amazing.”

When crossing time zones, for example, the brain adjusts quickly. It’s the other organs – such as the heart, eyes and kidneys -- that aren’t synchronized with the time change because they have their own circadian rhythm.

“That’s why you get jet lag,” Curran said.

Her research will look at the embryonic development of African clawed frogs to understand when the eye, ear, nose, heart and kidney display a fully functional circadian rhythm.

One long-term objective of the project is to understand how specific organs of the body synchronize with the brain and the external environment during embryonic development. Another goal is to ask whether circadian rhythm is necessary for proper organ development.

Disruption of the body’s natural 24-hour rhythm has been linked to disruption of basic metabolism, cardiovascular disease and cancer, Curran said. Shift workers, people who suffer from interrupted sleep and airline workers who regularly cross multiple time zones have a greater risk of heart and kidney disease.

A better understanding of how organs synchronize with one another could lead to ways to help people adapt and reduce the stress on their bodies, Curran said.

Her grant comes from the National Science Foundation Developmental Systems Research in Undergraduate Institutions area. Her project is titled “RUI: Ontogeny of circadian rhythm in organs and pleiotropic effects of circadian genes.”

She’ll hire eight to 12 students for full-time summer laboratory research, giving them scientific experience in developmental and molecular biology. That will help prepare them for careers in biotechnology, research laboratories, data analysis, policy review and other areas.

“We can give our students a professional experience,” Curran said. “We can try to prepare them for going straight into the workforce with tools to offer employers.”