College of Science and Engineering

Alum designs FDA-authorized app to treat fibromyalgia symptoms

Matt Itelson — Thu, 13 Jul 2023 15:20:00 +0000

Alum designs FDA-authorized app to treat fibromyalgia symptoms

Author: Matt Itelson

July 13, 2023

Photo Credit: Courtesy Swing Therapeutics

Nelson Mitchell developed his design mind as a graduate student at SF State

Learning to design furniture at San Francisco State University can lead to more careers than one may expect. For Nelson Mitchell, his master’s degree was the pathway to creating an innovative mobile app to treat fibromyalgia.

Mitchell, a user-experience designer, is head of design and co-founder of Swing Therapeutics. Earlier this year the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) authorized its app, Stanza, to be marketed to treat symptoms of fibromyalgia, a chronic pain condition that affects 10 million Americans. It is the first fibromyalgia digital therapeutic approved by the FDA. Available only by prescription, Stanza employs a form of cognitive behavioral therapy called acceptance and commitment therapy. It has proven effective in extensive randomized controlled trials and real-world studies, with 73% of patients demonstrating improvement in symptoms.

Stanza provides patients with a customized schedule of treatment, incorporating practices such as mindfulness and self-reflection throughout their daily routine. “It’s the therapist in your pocket,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell (M.A., ’10) entered San Francisco State as smartphones started to become a near necessity for daily life. Faculty and students already knew that enduring product design concepts would be key to success in the mobile software space.

“I was designing chairs and lamps and stuff like that, but SF State’s program was really great at teaching me the design process and how to think like a designer — how to come up with a hypothesis, test, iterate and refine the idea,” Mitchell said. “I took that and applied it to software and interface design.”

School of Design faculty such as Ricardo Gomes, Shirl Buss, Hsiao-Yun Chu and Nancy Noble gave Mitchell the tools and the freedom to explore his interests in depth.

“I felt like I had a new kernel, a new framework,” he said. “SF State gave me the chance to build it — and really build it in a way that I understood it. It’s like the difference between owning a bike and having someone else fix it versus being able to take it apart and put it back together.”

At his company, Mitchell is spreading the word about the Gator work ethic: “Nobody is going to work as hard for you as graduates from SF State,” he told his team. “These are people that we need to create opportunities for.”

One of Swing Therapeutics’ first in-house software engineers, Mantasha Khan, joined the company after completing her Computer Science degree from SF State. Khan (B.S., ’21) has a passion for creating technology solutions for health. She notes that Lecturer Jose Ortiz-Costa’s “Introduction to Database Systems” course provided her with an invaluable foundation of skills.

“I’ve been meaning to reach out to [Ortiz-Costa], just throw it out there, [to say that] you have helped me so much,’” said Khan, who attended SF State as an international student from India. “Everything you have taught has been helping me every single day in my work, so I’m very grateful.”

Learn more about the SF State School of Design and Computer Science Department.

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Speakers share stories of personal transformation at Commencement

Matt Itelson — Sat, 27 May 2023 03:59:17 +0000

Speakers share stories of personal transformation at Commencement

Author: Steve Hockensmith

May 26, 2023

Photo Credit: Paul Asper

SF State ‘can be your rock,’ said Jayshree Ullal, president and CEO of cloud networking company Arista Networks, at the May 26 event

San Francisco State University celebrated the Class of 2023 at its annual Commencement ceremony Friday, May 26, at Oracle Park. More than 4,000 graduates and more than 31,000 people attended the event, which featured technology business leader Jayshree Ullal as keynote speaker. Ullal talked about the challenges she faced coming to the U.S. from her native India to attend San Francisco State in 1977.

“While I was pursuing electrical engineering, I was only one or two of 100 female students in a class of 100,” said Ullal (B.S., ’81), who studied electrical engineering at SF State and went on to become president and CEO of cloud networking company Arista Networks. “This made cutting class difficult, as we were conspicuous by our absence!”

Despite being a trailblazer in a then mostly male field — and a “very shy, quiet introvert” to boot — Ullal said her Engineering professors and fellow students were supportive.

“This great San Francisco State institution shaped me and guided my future,” she said. “And it can be your rock just like it’s my foundational rock.”

Two honorary California State University degrees were also conferred at Commencement: legendary Rolling Stone writer and editor, author, DJ and TV host Ben Fong-Torres (B.A., ’66) was honored with a Doctor of Fine Arts, while activist, filmmaker, author and psychotherapist Satsuki Ina received a Doctor of Humane Letters.

“Actually I didn’t attend my Commencement. Hey, it was the Sixties. We forgot, man,” Fong-Torres joked to the crowd. “But I have never forgotten this university’s impact on me. … I got that [Rolling Stone] gig, I think, because of the freedom that we had to experiment with journalism here at SF State, and the lessons learned from that freedom.”

During Ina’s speech, she encouraged the Class of 2023 to make the world a better place through empathy and action.

“I urge you to bring with you something that has always been inside of you, even before college, and that is your compassion,” she said. “We need all that you bring, and more than ever in this world of conflict, violence, injustice and suffering, we need your compassion. We need you to care and love family and friends, of course, but also the stranger, the other, the foreigner. Reach out beyond your comfort zone, welcome the outsider. It is compassion that can mend the fractures, heal the wounds and bring us together.”

Other speakers included SF State President Lynn Mahoney, Associated Students President Karina Zamora and Associated Students Chief of Staff Iese Esera. Two student hood recipients, among 12 graduates honored for their academic and personal achievements, also shared their stories.

“I began my journey in higher education as a homeless first-generation college student with a baby on my hip and another in my belly. I did not have support, money, guidance or a place to call my own. But what I did have was a dream,” said undergraduate speaker Nicole Bañuelos. “I had a dream that I would earn my degree in Biology and go on to study medicine and save human lives. This dream carried me through my most trying times. I learned how to study through morning sickness and nausea, how to hold a textbook in one hand and a baby in another, how to hold my head up high when I felt like the world was looking down on me. But most of all I learned how to never give up in the face of adversity and that after every dark night there is a brighter day.”

Graduate student speaker Hasti Jafari, who was born in Iran, reflected on the Iranian women’s movement and the important lessons the Class of 2023 can learn from the brave activists there.

“As someone honored to have called both countries home, I encourage you to see their fight as your fight, as the basic rights of women, people of color and the LGBTQ+ and disabled communities are under threat in this country as well,” Jafari said. “And in this deeply interconnected world, none of us are free until all of us are free.”

Learn more information about SF State’s 2023 Commencement.

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‘The Last of Us’ for amphibians: University researchers trace emergence of fungus threatening African amphibians

Kanaga Rajan — Wed, 15 Mar 2023 16:00:00 +0000

‘The Last of Us’ for amphibians: University researchers trace emergence of fungus threatening African amphibians

Author: Kanaga Rajan

March 15, 2023

SF State professor, students describe how a deadly fungus began spreading among amphibians in Africa over the last 165 years

For the past few years, how a virus triggered a global pandemic has dominated conversations. Now, thanks to the TV show “The Last of Us” (about an apocalypse triggered by brain-eating ’shrooms), fungi have infected popular culture. The focus has been on pathogens that cause human disease, but what about those affecting nonhuman species? San Francisco State University scientists are among the many concerned about a fungus that has been detrimental for amphibians worldwide and is contributing to a loss of biodiversity.

In a new Frontiers in Conservation Science paper, San Francisco State researchers detail the relatively recent emergence and spread of a deadly fungus (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis or Bd) among amphibians in Africa. Eight of the co-authors are former SF State students who were in a seminar class led by senior investigator Vance Vredenburg, a University Biology professor.

“When [amphibian] skin starts to change thickness, it basically creates a condition where they can’t maintain their internal processes and they die,” said co-author Eliseo Parra (B.S., ’14; M.S., ’17) about how the fungus attacks. “If infecting a mammal, it might affect your fingernails or something you wouldn’t even notice, but amphibians (frogs, salamanders) use their skin to breathe. It’s a very critical part of their body.”

The fungus is lethal for many amphibian populations but not others, Vredenburg says. His lab wanted to understand where the fungus is, how it got there and why it’s deadly for some amphibians, particularly in Africa where it has been under-studied.

In 2016, Vredenburg’s class, eager to get involved in conservation research, read papers about Bd and evaluated previously published data. In parallel, Vredenburg’s lab, in collaboration with the California Academy of Sciences, assessed the infection status of amphibian specimens from Africa. These two approaches gave the project nearly 17,000 records for analysis and a 165-year view of how this fungus interacts with amphibians across the continent.

The team reports low Bd prevalence and limited spread of the disease in Africa until 2000, when the prevalence increased from 3.2% to 18.7% and Bd became more widespread geographically. Vredenburg notes that not only is the fungus infecting amphibians but it is causing negative (often deadly) consequences versus being dormant.

The researchers also found two lineages of the fungus in Africa. One was a global lineage — considered the most dangerous version of the fungus — while the second was previously believed to be more benign, though the SF State team found evidence that it may also be destructive. Using their data, the team created a model that predicts that eastern, central and western Africa are the most vulnerable to Bd.

“We’re trying to extend our findings and make predictions about what could happen in the future. It’s the best way to make our study worth the work,” Vredenburg said. “There are nearly 1,200 amphibian species in Africa. We wanted to say where are the riskiest places for outbreaks. Those will probably be the places where you have the most hosts in one place.”

“It’s very important to note that Bd didn’t spread worldwide without humans helping in one way or another,” added co-author Hasan Sulaeman (B.S., ’16; M.S., ’19). “It’s not the first pathogen that affects hundreds of species worldwide and it’s not going to be the last.”

The team points out that this project does not fit the traditional molds for science research papers or literature reviews. The fact that a scientific paper resulted from research done in a class is rare too, Vredenburg explains, attributing the feat to students’ talent and motivation.

Both Parra and Sulaeman participated in the project as students in the seminar class and as researchers in Vredenburg’s lab. They are among the students who continued to be involved for some part of the five years after the initial semester-long project. Through this experience, they gained valuable insight into the scientific publication process — something that is not trivial or quick — early in their careers.

Sulaeman is currently working on CDC-funded national SARS-CoV-2 studies, while Parra studies animal behavior in rainforests as a Ph.D. student at UCLA. Both alums recall the research environment that Vredenburg fostered that brought together undergraduate and graduate students with a variety of cultural and scientific backgrounds and levels of expertise. They both note the power in diversity and how it improves science.

“When you have a lot of really smart people in a room sitting at a table regularly, it is possible to do a lot. Maybe we didn’t understand that at the time or maybe this was a big lesson for us [students],” Parra said. “But Vance definitely knew that you could actually walk away from a class with an important piece of published research.”

Visit the Biology Department’s website to learn more about classes, research and more.

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Student researchers investigate possible connection between fungal pathogen and frog mating

Kanaga Rajan — Mon, 16 Dec 2024 17:00:48 +0000

Student researchers investigate possible connection between fungal pathogen and frog mating

Author: Kanaga Rajan

December 16, 2024

Photo Credit: Julia Messersmith

Student research at SFSU leads to a new article on frog calls and deadly infections in the journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology

What noise does a frog make? Many of us would say “ribbit, ribbit.” Funnily enough, the Pacific tree frog (aka Pacific chorus frog) is the only species that really ribbits. (Listen to the variety of “peep,” “waaaaaaa,” “pa-tank,” and more sounds from other species on AmphibiaWeb.) Given how widespread Pacific tree frogs are in California, there’s a chance you’ve seen or heard their ribbits yourself.

During mating season, female frogs in this species choose males based on variations in their call — something scientists find intriguing from an evolutionary standpoint. “If all females have the same preference for type of call, then why haven’t all males evolved to have the exact call and be uniform?” said Julia Messersmith (M.S., ’21). “One theory is the Hamilton-Zuk hypothesis.”

The hypothesis connects male frog calls to their possible resistance to parasitism, a serious global problem facing amphibians. Messersmith studied this hypothesis for her master’s thesis at San Francisco State University and published her findings in Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. She and two other SFSU students co-authored the paper with their faculty advisers, SFSU Biology Professor and Department Chair Vance Vredenburg and Associate Professor Alejandro Vélez (now at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville).

The 40-year-old Hamilton-Zuk hypothesis posits that male frogs’ mating call traits (or plumage traits in birds) are related to their health, specifically their resistance to parasitism. Like other amphibians, Pacific tree frogs are in danger of contracting Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), a fungal pathogen killing amphibians worldwide. If the Hamilton-Zuk hypothesis is right, it’s possible that female frogs are preferentially choosing the calls of “healthier” males. Although Bd infection is normally lethal, Pacific tree frogs sometimes fare better than other species — but this makes them effective carriers for disease who can spread the pathogen to other amphibians via water or direct contact.

The team’s research showed that the level of infection did affect the male frog calls. Males with higher levels of infection had calls with faster pulse rates and therefore shorter duration; animals with lower levels of infection had slower pulse rates. However, female frogs did not necessarily show a preference for male frogs with lower levels of infection.

“I think the Hamilton-Zuk hypothesis holds up in some systems but not in others. I think it’s important to test it in every system you can because it’s not an end-all-be-all theory you can use for everything even though it’s still taught in disease ecology classes,” said co-author Kurt Lutz (B.S., ’17; M.S., ’20), now a Ph.D. student at Purdue University. The knowledge from this recent paper informed how he taught this hypothesis in a Purdue class.

“This is one of several hypotheses for female choice,” Messersmith explained. “It is something still discussed a lot. There are still a lot of questions to be answered, so any little piece of evidence we get is useful.”

For this project, Messersmith collaborated with Lutz and Esther Clemence Azar, both SFSU undergrads at the start of the project. Messersmith and Azar, both in Vélez’s lab, did field work while Lutz helped with the molecular work to detect and measure Bd infection. While Azar is still working on the project as a master’s student, Lutz moved on to study amphibians as a Ph.D. student.

Back in 2017, Azar was a City College of San Francisco student interested in veterinary school and college-level research. She applied to SFSU’s Bridges to Baccalaureate program after her brother and sister both had positive experiences doing research there. This was when she first met Vredenburg and began learning about Bd and amphibians. She eventually met Vélez and was excited to work in his lab.

“I decided that I didn’t want to be a veterinarian anymore. I really liked this science and asking a question and developing [a research project]. I found out that the [Student Enrichment Opportunities] Office scholarships continued throughout undergrad and grad school,” Azar explained, adding that these programs helped her along her SFSU journey and help give her flexibility to manage both personal and science life.

For Lutz, Messersmith’s project was one of several collaborations he worked on while at SFSU. But he says he wouldn’t have even been in the position to help if it wasn’t for Vredenburg giving him the chance to learn and become proficient in particular lab techniques. Lutz joined Vredenburg’s lab as an undergrad who was struggling and moving away from his goal of pursing a Ph.D. He joined the lab — and did his master’s degree — hoping to help course correct and develop the extensive research experience he needed to achieve his goals.

Researchers used swabs to collect skin samples to test for disease. Photo credit: Kurt Lutz

Photo credits: Julia Messersmith, Esther Clemence Azar and Kurt Lutz (pictured left to right).

“[Vredenburg] had a lot of trust in me and a lot of the undergrads in his lab. He let us do things that maybe wouldn’t be done in other labs, but I think totally could be done by a lot of undergrads,” Lutz said. As he’s progressed in his own career, he says that level of trust in undergrads is not always the case elsewhere. As an SFSU graduate student, his research experience even led him to collaborate with H.T. Harvey & Associates — a consulting firm providing ecological support to public agencies, private entities and nonprofits — and get a job with Applied Technology and Science, another consulting firm in the area.

“SF State is such a beautiful place for a growing scientist. They really allow you to reach your maximum potential,” Azar said. “They are there for you and want you to succeed.”

Learn more about the SFSU Department of Biology.

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New Department of Defense, Energy grants prepare SFSU students for industry jobs

Kanaga Rajan — Mon, 02 Dec 2024 17:00:00 +0000

New Department of Defense, Energy grants prepare SFSU students for industry jobs

Author: Kanaga Rajan

December 2, 2024

Photo Credit: Paul Asper

The grants expand research opportunities in engineering, robotics and quantum computing

Technology is constantly evolving, which means industries — and the people who work for them — must change to keep up. San Francisco State University faculty want to make sure their students have the skills and flexibility they need to compete in these growing, ever-shifting fields such as civil, mechanical and computer engineering and quantum computing.

Three new grants — two from the Department of Defense (DOD) and one from the Department of Energy (DOE) — will expand the research capabilities of San Francisco State students and better prepare them to achieve their academic and career goals. The faculty leading these projects are in SF State’s School of Engineering (SOE) and Department of Computer Science.

Structural hazard mitigation research

A $541,541 DOD grant was awarded to SOE Professor Zhaoshuo Jiang, who leads the Intelligent Structural Hazard Mitigation lab. The funds support purchasing two state-of-the-art shake tables (Quanser Corporation’s six-degrees of freedom hexapod motion platforms) and a high-throughput data acquisition system (DAQ). This new equipment will significantly advance the capacity of performing experimental testing with accurate sensing and control, thereby enhancing the institution’s ability to support diverse research areas that are of interest to DOD. The new tables can hold a load of up to 100 kg per platform and shake objects in all three axes, a significant step up from the currently available tables, which only move along a single direction and can accommodate a maximum of 7.5 kg. This means researchers can assess larger prototypes under more realistic conditions. The DAQ system from Crystal Instruments is a high-performance, modular platform designed for real-time dynamic signal analysis, offering flexibility in channel configurations and real-time processing capabilities. The DAQ system will be integrated with the shake tables to assemble a complete instrumentation that supports a wide range of state-of-the-art research and offer unprecedented research capacity in SOE at SF State.

“This new equipment will allow students to gain hands-on experience with common research purpose of characterizing, modeling, and testing various systems,” Jiang said. “By working directly with state-of-the-art technology, our students will develop skills that make them highly competitive and well-prepared for careers in these fields.”

The new instrumentation will be housed in the applied project space in the University’s new Science & Engineering Innovation Center (SEC). Jiang’s collaborators include SOE Professors Cheng Chen and Xiaorong Zhang, Associate Professor David Quintero and Jenna Wong, and Assistant Professor Zhuwei Qin.

Human-machine performance lab

DOD awarded another $409,433 grant to School of Engineering Associate Professor David Quintero to acquire state-of-the-art instrumentation for a human-machine performance lab. The new equipment will include a treadmill, markerless motion capture and human-machine interaction equipment like a robotic leg, hip exoskeleton and rehabilitation robot. Combining these instruments will help establish a research system that integrates humans and machines to enhance human physical and cognitive performance.

Quintero leads SF State’s CARE (Controls for Assistive and Rehabilitation Robotics) lab, which focuses on designing wearable robotic systems that can be viable solutions for movement assistance for people with limited mobility, such as amputees or people with impaired limbs from neuromotor control deficiency. Current projects include an exoskeleton glove to help individuals with limited mobility. For this new interdisciplinary lab space, Quintero is collaborating with School of Engineering Professors Xiaorong Zhang and Zhaoshuo Jiang and Assistant Professors Sanchita Ghose and Alyssa Kubota, and Department of Kinesiology faculty Professor Kate Hamel and Associate Professor Leia Bagesteiro.

“This equipment is an important accomplishment for having SF State students access to get hands-on research practice using such equipment that will allow our students to be competitive in the job market and/or pursue Ph.D. programs,” Quintero explained. “The robotic leg alone has only be at R1 institutions and the company has stated we are the first West Coast region to acquire the robotic leg.”

Quantum computing comes to SFSU

SF State, along with Lawerence Berkeley Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory, is part of new multi-institutional project funded by the DOE. Associate Professor of Computer Science Wes Bethel and Assistant Professor Daniel Huang were awarded $250,000 as part of the larger five-year grant aiming to bridge the gap between theoretical quantum advantages and practical scientific applications.

Researchers will develop quantum algorithms and quantum machine learning methods applicable across diverse scientific domains. Quantum algorithms might help overcome limitations of classical data encoding such as its high computational expense of time and memory. Unfortunately, these quantum approaches have not yet improved speed. The scientists will therefore focus on efficient quantum data encoding and error mitigation. Their project will study the relationship between scientific data analysis algorithms, data types, quantum data encoding and current quantum hardware. In addition to introducing new research prospects at SF State, this project provides students new opportunities to collaborate with prestigious national labs.

“The grant also results in new opportunities for SFSU students in the form of education and research,” Bethel said. “The SFSU Computer Science Department offers a new course in quantum computing, and the grant provides support for a limited number of students to work as part of the multi-institutional team.”

Learn more about opportunities in SFSU’s School of Engineering and Department of Computer Science.

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SFSU psychologists develop tool to assess narcissism in job candidates

Kanaga Rajan — Fri, 25 Oct 2024 16:00:00 +0000

SFSU psychologists develop tool to assess narcissism in job candidates

Author: Kanaga Rajan

October 25, 2024

Using this tool, organizations can prioritize finding the right candidates to maintain healthy work culture

It feels like narcissism is everywhere these days: politics, movies and TV, sports, social media. You might even see signs of it at work, where it can be particularly detrimental. Is it possible to keep a workplace free of destructive, manipulative egotists?

More and more organizations have come to San Francisco State University’s experts in organizational psychology asking for help doing just that. In response, University researchers developed a tool for job interviews to assess narcissistic grandiosity among potential job candidates. San Francisco State Psychology Professors Kevin Eschleman and Chris Wright and four student researchers led the project, published in the Journal of Personality Assessment.

“We focused on narcissism because it’s one of the most commonly talked about characteristics of people. Really, it represents a lot of things that can go bad in terms of a team,” Eschleman said. “But it’s a characteristic that is very attractive in the short-term. [Narcissists] often have tendencies to be very goal-oriented and are often very successful. There’s a lure to somebody who is high in narcissism.”

The tool developed by the SF State researchers — the Narcissism Interview Scale for Employment (NISE) — is a set of behavioral and situational questions that can be incorporated into a job interview. One question asks respondents to describe their approach to leading a team. Another asks how candidates would procced if they disagree with a plan that the rest of their team likes — and the project requires unanimous consent to move forward. Interviewers are trained to rate candidate responses, providing a more scientific and consistent way to evaluate a candidate’s propensity for narcissistic grandiosity.

The project started four years ago when Eschleman noticed an uptick in organizations asking about effective teams, candidate selection and how to avoid “bad apples.” It’s easy for organizations to be enticed by how a candidate’s skills appear on paper, but failing to properly consider personality might derail team-oriented environments, Eschleman notes. Employees with narcissistic grandiosity tend to have inflated views of self and make self-focused and short term-focused decisions instead of considering long-term organizational needs. They may also abuse and try to protect their sense of power and control, he adds.

“This isn’t a categorical diagnosis,” Eschleman clarified, noting that everyone probably falls somewhere on the continuum of narcissism. “What we’re looking at are people’s consistencies over time. It’s how they view themselves or how others view them consistently over time. Do they engage in these actions consistently?”

The authors acknowledge that this assessment is not a perfect science. There are many other factors in building a successful team and healthy work environment. But they hope their tool will increase the odds for success.

While the researchers have been studying these topics for years, they wanted to make sure their tool was easy to use and could be adapted by different work environments. It is why they focused on job interviews, something accepted and considered appropriate by both organizations and applicants in the hiring process.

Sharon Pidakala (M.S., ’22), one of the study authors, is now a People & Development Manager at Lawyers On Demand in Singapore. Her work involves talent acquisition, culture, development, organizational policies and employee engagement.

“I’ve been grateful to put my research into daily use. It’s really important to make sure that these questions are not outrightly direct because you don’t want it to look like you’re asking someone, ‘Are you a narcissist?’” explained Pidakala, whose SFSU thesis focused on developing the NISE tool. “These questions are raised in a way to make it look favorable for the candidate.”

Pidakala came to SF State specifically to get this type of training. With an undergraduate background in psychology, she sought specialized training in organizational psychology to further refine and expand her expertise in the field.

"Attending SF State and studying organizational psychology has been incredibly valuable, equipping me with versatile skills that can be applied globally," she said.

Learn more about SFSU’s Industrial/Organizational Psychology program.

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SFSU researchers’ unique 3D maps might help solve the mysteries of octopus arms

Kanaga Rajan — Tue, 22 Oct 2024 16:00:00 +0000

SFSU researchers’ unique 3D maps might help solve the mysteries of octopus arms

Author: Kanaga Rajan

October 22, 2024

Photo Credit: Robyn Crook

Two new papers could help improve understanding of octopus arm function, development, evolution and more

Octopuses are fascinating. Their eight arms gracefully whip through water and can accomplish extraordinary tasks like using tools and opening jars. While humans have one spinal cord attached to their brain, in octopuses, it’s almost like each arm has its own spinal cord (minus the actual spine) and nervous system. These arms can even initiate a response without consulting the brain.

How octopus arms can do all this at a cellular level has largely remained a neuroscience mystery — one that’s proved difficult to study because of technological limitations and the expense of research. But now San Francisco State University researchers are starting to provide answers.

Trying to overcome those previous limitations, the San Francisco State researchers created three-dimensional molecular and anatomical maps of the inner neuronal circuitry of octopus arms. Their recent findings were published in two scientific papers in the journal Current Biology.

“Having [these two papers] converging at the same time means the amount we can learn from any single experiment is just astronomically higher,” SF State Biology Associate Department Chair and Assistant Professor Robyn Crook said of her lab’s research. “I would say these papers are really facilitating discovery in new ways.”

This research was supported by an Allen Distinguished Investigator Award, a Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group advised grant of the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. Crook’s Allen Distinguished Investigator (ADI) grant was the first recipient in the California State University (CSU) system since the grant’s inception in 2010.

A traditional two-dimensional look at the octopus arm is comparable to taking a thin slice out of the middle of a fruit loaf. It’s difficult to know if distribution of fruits and nuts in that slice is representative of distribution and interactions throughout the loaf. Instead, postdoctoral fellow Gabrielle Winters-Bostwick and graduate student Diana Neacsu took multiple sections along the octopus arm to create 3D reconstructions of cell distribution and gross anatomy, respectively.

For her study, Winters-Bostwick used molecular tags to highlight different types of neurons. Seeing these neurons in a 3D reconstruction revealed that the cells at the tip of an octopus arm are different from those at the base closer to the central brain.

“This allows us to start hypothesizing and posing new questions thinking about how the cells communicate with one another,” she explained. “It’s basically building our arsenal and our toolkit to better understand the behavior and physiologies of octopuses.”

Using a different imaging approach (3D electron microscopy), Neacsu did a parallel project to create a 3D reconstruction mapping the structural organization of the components of the nervous system in the octopus arm. Her map revealed that there is symmetry in the organization of the ganglia and repeating patterns in nerve branching, blood vessels and more. Some of these patterns correspond to the octopus arm suckers, which are organized in a hexagonal lattice like rows of honeycomb. This repeating pattern is something they couldn’t see with just two suckers, Crook explained, highlighting the necessity of the 3D reconstruction of a large tissue.

“To see how closely the [nervous system structures] associated with the suckers was really surprising,” Neacsu said. “But it makes sense because the suckers play such a huge role in the octopus’s ecological niche, helping them hunt, sense and more.”

Crook is proud to say her team was able to do much of these projects in-house at SF State. Of particular importance was the recently acquired microscope (Leica STELLARIS) in the University’s on-campus Cellular and Molecular Imaging Center (CMIC), which has trained over 1,000 students. “There are a lot of [universities] that don’t have a microscope like this. For us to have one here to do this work is kind of mind blowing,” Crook said. “[Winters-Bostwick’s] paper would not exist without that microscope.”

One of the major limiting factors in research — particularly cutting-edge projects like Crook’s — is the high price tag of equipment and computational tools. “The ADI grant has been transformative to have funds to do things in my lab that I would not have been able to do and to engage students on a really big scale,” Crook notes. “It’s been transformative for me as a PI but also for the students in my lab.”

The ADI project and Crook’s mentorship were instrumental for Neacsu, now a Ph.D. student at Katholieke Universiteit (KU) Leuven in Belgium. During her two years in Crook’s lab, Neacsu gained advanced technical skills and networked and collaborated with more senior researchers, and now she has more scientific research papers in the pipeline.

“Before I met her, I never really understood the concept of mentorship,” Neacsu said of Crook. “I kind of just thought [mentors] were teachers that are available during office hours.”

Neacsu’s and Winters-Bostwick’s papers enabled a myriad of research opportunities both within Crook’s lab and beyond. Other labs have already showed interest in using these tools for cephalopod neuroscience research.

The SF State team is looking at live tissues and seeing how they respond to chemical and mechanical stimulation, trying to understand neurons firing in real time. With the new 3D maps, they can make realistic predictions about what’s happening inside an octopus arm to create these responses. There are also a lot of evolutionary questions Crook’s lab is eager to answer.

“Why do you have an animal with this much complexity that doesn’t seem to follow the same rules as our other example — humans — of a very complex nervous system?” Crook asked. “There’s a lot of hypotheses. It might be functional. There might be something fundamentally different in the tasks octopus arms have to do. But it could also be an evolutionary accident.”

Learn more about research in SF State’s Department of Biology.

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SFSU’s Estuary & Ocean Science Center welcomes public to open house Oct. 13

Kanaga Rajan — Wed, 02 Oct 2024 21:11:14 +0000

SFSU’s Estuary & Ocean Science Center welcomes public to open house Oct. 13

Author: Kanaga Rajan

October 4, 2024

Enjoy scenic views, sea critters, oysters and science at the center’s annual Marine Lab Open House

Across the Golden Gate Bridge in Tiburon is the only marine lab on the San Francisco Bay: San Francisco State University’s Estuary & Ocean Science (EOS) Center. This October, the center opens its doors to the public for its annual Marine Lab Open House to give the community an opportunity to learn about the San Francisco Bay, partake in family-friendly fun and enjoy gorgeous views — all for free.

“The Open House gives the EOS Center an opportunity to open our doors to the community and share our passion for marine and estuarine science and conservation,” said Katharyn Boyer, EOS Center interim executive director. “It is fun and fulfilling to share what we do with a swath of the public eager to learn.”

This year’s event is Sunday, Oct. 13, 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. at the EOS Center at the Romberg Tiburon Campus (3150 Paradise Drive Tiburon, CA 94920). Everyone (students, adults, children, scientists and non-scientists) is encouraged to come. Past events have attracted hundreds of attendees — the 2019 event drew over 1,000 attendees — and last year’s event was the first in-person event after a three-year hiatus.

“My favorite thing is seeing the curiosity and interest in children and adults who attend from all around the Bay Area — it gives me great hope,” Boyer said. “I love to be surprised by the questions that make me realize we have not told our science and conservation stories well enough or in quite the right way.”

But the EOS Center’s scientists are certainly trying, developing a variety of exhibits and immersive experiences about the ocean, marine life and solutions to environmental issues. Nearly 100 active marine lab scientists from the EOS Center and onsite partners like the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center and San Francisco Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve will greet visitors and answer questions.

Other partners will highlight the intersection between art and science. This year, the Tremology Lab — an arts and science collaborative — will showcase whale and dolphin sounds outdoors via a portable 16-channel immersive audio system. Tremology Lab projects have been exhibited at the National Geographic Society Museum, South by Southwest (SXSW) and more. SF State School of Design Lecturer Josie Iselin will also be on hand to teach visitors how to make their own algae cyanotypes. A “seaweed enthusiast,” Iselin has been a longtime EOS Center collaborator and has produced art and books about seaweeds and kelp.

“People learn in different ways and art can be an effective way to inspire curiosity. For example, when people see the beautiful and varied forms of seaweeds while using them to make sun prints, their interests might be sparked to learn more,” Boyer said. “We love to watch those sparks fly. This is what our Open House is all about.”

Register for the free Marine Lab Open House and learn more about the EOS Center

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University imaging center trains 1,000th student, fosters future scientists

Kanaga Rajan — Mon, 16 Sep 2024 16:00:00 +0000

University imaging center trains 1,000th student, fosters future scientists

Author: Kanaga Rajan

September 16, 2024

Photo Credit: Ben Lee

Students gain marketable skills and mentorship at the cutting-edge facility, paving the way for success in research and industry

Back in grade school, many of us read biology textbooks filled with illustrations of cells, organelles and chromosomes. But in the real world, scientists have methods to light up cells (sometimes colorfully) to view these elements with their own eyes. At San Francisco State University, these researchers are students using the on-campus Cell and Molecular Imaging Center (CMIC).

“When you are the person who gets to prepare the samples and put it in the microscope and are able to take those pretty images … wow, it’s amazing. I didn’t know I could do that,” said Judy Abuel (B.S., ’22; M.S., ’24).

The CMIC recently achieved a major milestone: It surpassed 1,000 student trainees since 2003. Many of those were master’s students, and even more were undergraduates getting a taste of hands-on high-tech science in Hensill Hall. Approximately 36% of all CMIC students are from underrepresented communities.

The CMIC provides San Francisco State researchers access to cutting-edge equipment, data analysis tools and extensive training. It’s that last point — the extensive training — that is key to the students’ success.

Marketable skills

“Ultimately, we’re trying to get students jobs, so a lot of the CMIC’s mission is to try to make sure that they’re trained on up-to-date scientific equipment and that they get research experience, which will make them more competitive at getting jobs,” CMIC Director Annette Chan said. Faculty like Biology Professor Diana Chu periodically write grants to ensure the CMIC has the best equipment, including awards from the National Science Foundation Major Research Instrumentation program.

“I think when [students] leave, they can feel more confident that they understand what they are doing. They know how to use the technology that’s relevant to where they are going. It’s very impressive,” Chu said. The resulting high-quality data helps students publish in scientific journals and present at local, national and international conferences, making them competitive for graduate school and industry.

“I did an oral talk last year at a conference. That was my first time showing my pretty [CMIC] images to people, and I could tell that a lot of people were so surprised because I was just a first-year master’s student,” said Abuel, who just started working on her Ph.D. at UC Davis, largely because of her CMIC experience. Like most students, Abuel came to the CMIC with no prior advanced microscopy training.

“I am pretty confident that if I go to a different institution and use their microscope, I would not need a lot of help trying to figure out how to use it,” she added, crediting the variety of CMIC equipment and training.

Image of chromosomes segregating during cell division by Judy Abuel (B.S., ’22; M.S., ’24), now a UC Davis Ph.D. student.

Image of dividing cells in a C. elegan worm by grad student Allen Michael Ramsey.

Image of dividing neural stem cells by alum Gerson Ascencio (B.S., ’21; M.S. ’23), now a Stanford Ph.D. student.

Immunostaining of fruit fly (drosophila) larval brain by grad student Stephanie Uzordinma Awuzie.

Training experts

Molecular Biology senior Angelo Orozco first used the CMIC as a sophomore to learn flow cytometry (a way to quantify cells based on physical/chemical properties), a skill widely used in biomedical research and industry. He says it was stressful but the experience gave him a deep understanding of the technique so he could mentor his colleagues.

“I was the [lab’s] resident flow cytometer expert so I had to teach all of these master’s students who might need it for their projects,” Orozco said.

These days, he’s shifted to the CMIC’s microscopes. He’s surprised by the variety and caliber of experiences he’s had this early in his career.

“It just opens so many doors. Even if you don’t use it in the future, it’s still something to show that you are getting out there and you’re learning new things. It also helps you gain new perspectives on anything you might do in the future,” he explained.

Orozco and Abuel admit that working in the CMIC can be intimidating. Coming in with minimal or no prior experience, they were trained to independently use equipment that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. Damaging a device can be costly, ruin experiments and halt work in multiple labs for weeks or longer. However, Chan credits students for the fact that the CMIC equipment rarely encounters issues.

‘The best mentor’

The students and Chu stress Chan’s role in the CMIC’s story. Her expertise, mentorship and patience are critical to the CMIC’s success, they say.

“She’s probably one of the best mentors I’ve ever had,” Orozco said. “I would be in the CMIC very late at night, and [if I have a] question or anything went wrong, all I had to do is email her and she would respond very quickly. She’s always there for you.”

Chan, the sole person running the day-to-day CMIC operations, trains multiple students per week. Each training can last multiple hours and span several days. This level of output is rare and impressive.

“I think [Annette] provides the most thorough training you can imagine,” Chu said. “I think that’s very different from other facilities and facility managers. I think the training [students] get at CMIC is one of the best anywhere.”

As for Chan, she beams with pride thinking of the students working at the CMIC. She’s inspired by the students and in awe of their work, dedication and conscientiousness.

“I always tell people I get the cream of the crop at San Francisco State because these students are highly motivated,” Chan noted. “At SF State, teaching is a big component, which is why I love it here.”

Learn more about the College of Science & Engineering’s centers and research facilities.

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Rising star: University researcher achieves firsts in sea star research

Kanaga Rajan — Tue, 09 Jul 2024 16:00:00 +0000

Rising star: University researcher achieves firsts in sea star research

Author: Kanaga Rajan

July 9, 2024

Photo Credit: Berenice Baca

With faculty support, a student expands class project into a graduate research project

It’s not often that one gets to throw starfish a birthday party. Some species — like the six-rayed sea star Leptasterias — are notoriously difficult to keep alive in the lab, making even first birthdays a rarity. So when San Francisco State University researcher Berenice Baca achieved the seemingly impossible feat of raising Leptasterias specimens for an entire year, her lab made sure to celebrate.

Baca is among the first in her field to successfully rear Leptasterias embryos to reach the one-year milestone in the lab. And to think, this project started in an undergraduate class with San Francisco State Biology Professor Sarah Cohen.

“Because of that study I started as an undergrad, I was able to grow [Leptasterias] up to a year, which is really exciting,” said Baca, who joined Cohen’s lab as an undergraduate researcher and is now an SF State master’s student. She’s been with this project for less than two years but she’s already shared her work at national and international conferences, won research awards, attended research workshops and worked with KQED to highlight these sea stars.

Baca’s work could help Leptasterias and other species feeling the impact of grave challenges. Sea stars face the constant threats of climate change and sea star wasting disease, a mysterious condition wiping out entire species. “We tend to notice or shift our attention towards certain species when it’s endangered or almost gone,” Baca explained. “We should try to address [these issues] now rather than wait until the species is almost completely gone.”

Happy birthday, dear Leptasterias…

Baca studies the developmental patterns of two species of Leptasterias sea stars (Leptasterias pusilla and Leptasterias aequalis). These species reproduce via brood-fostering, which is akin to a hen sitting on her eggs. While somewhat common among other animals, it’s a rare approach among marine species. In the wild, maternal sea stars protect 50 – 1,500 embryos on their underside until their young stars are ready to be independent. Baca successfully raised these embryos to a juvenile stage in the lab without maternal care (i.e., without brooding). As part of this project, she developed protocols for this process and gleaned unique insight about Leptasterias development.

“As I was starting this project, I realized there’s no information on this, which drove me a little crazy,” Baca said, noting that the knowledge gap fueled her curiosity and determination.

Her first step was to give the sea stars a laboratory home as cold as their native habitat. Baca first raised the stars at 9 to 10 degrees Celsius in a classroom cold room before moving them to a dedicated deli fridge set at 12 to 13 degrees Celsius. Next, she needed to ensure that the stars didn’t starve. This was quite the saga, Baca explains, because the stars kept losing interest in readily available fish food. It turned out Baca’s microscopic juvenile starfish — approximately 0.2 cm in size — required live sea snails, copepods and barnacles they could hunt.

“I ended up getting these microscopic snails that required really fine tweezers to get them out of barnacles. I was doing this at 5 in the morning or very late at night because I have to correlate [my work] with the tides,” she explained.

Juvenile Leptasterias less than 2 cm in size.

Sea star next to a finger for scale.

Sea star hunting a sea snail.

Comparable studies on Leptasterias failed to grow the early juveniles in the lab and only one known study was able to hatch these stars. Extending Leptasterias’ lifespan in the lab gave Baca the opportunity to document their development as early as eight hours to 31 days, allowing her to capture beautiful images of fertilized eggs and snapshots of intermediate stages. By day 44, her juvenile stars began taking on a familiar six-armed star shape, and by 10 months the stars were 1.3 cm or bigger and started exhibiting hallmark coloration and patterns. Sharing her work at conferences, she was heartened to hear other scientists share excitement for her work and give her words of encouragement.

Baca and the Cohen lab even worked with KQED to feature Leptasterias in a new episode of its science video series “Deep Look.” Scroll to end of story to see the video.

Growing up alongside her stars

Coming to SF State, Baca knew she wanted to do research, but she’s still a bit awestruck by how her research experience has evolved. When she enrolled in Cohen’s “BIOL 586GW: Marine Ecology Laboratory — GWAR,” Baca wanted research experience, but she didn’t anticipate it would lead her to pursue a master’s degree.

“It’s really nice that Sarah [Cohen] is really good at figuring out your interest and connecting you with the right people,” Baca said, explaining that Cohen encouraged her to apply for grants and scholarships, participate in conferences and attend science workshops. Baca’s honors included the Achievement Reward for College Scientists (ARCS), Step to College and University scholarships. “That really helps. Sometimes you feel lost and having that [support] really helps in initiating your own project or research. It actually makes you feel like a scientist.”

With daily lab work, field research and conferences, being a scientist has become a big part of her life. Baca, a first-generation student, previously maintained multiple jobs and worked full-time in the fields picking blueberries and grapes to support her University education. Growing up in a small town that lacked proper science education, she had an unsatisfied desire to learn more. It’s that natural and unwavering curiosity that’s driven her throughout her research, especially when it gets hard.

“I’m really thankful for the entire Cohen lab,” Baca said, adding that Cohen’s and her lab mates’ support and encouragement have been instrumental. “I believe without them I wouldn’t have anything.”

Learn more about SF State’s Biology Department.

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