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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SFSU builds new pipeline for renewable energy microbiologists

Kanaga Rajan — Mon, 03 Feb 2025 17:00:00 +0000

SFSU builds new pipeline for renewable energy microbiologists

Author: Kanaga Rajan

February 3, 2025

The University will collaborate with other universities and two national labs to train students for the renewable energy workforce

Viruses have a bad reputation and for good reason. Despite their connection to disease, some viruses can be used for good. San Francisco State University Assistant Professor Archana Anand wants to address the knowledge gap about phages — viruses that infect bacteria — and their potential renewable energy applications, such as helping develop biofuels and mitigating methane emissions.

To achieve this goal, the Department of Energy (DOE) awarded Anand a $2.2 million grant for a new Phage Pathways program. By collaborating with national labs and other universities, the three-year program is poised to strengthen the pipeline for renewable energy microbiologists.

“The aim of this grant is to cultivate a new generation of microbiologists. But they will not be focused entirely on traditional microbiology but will focus on the intersection of microbial ecology and renewable energy,” said Anand. “I don’t think the academic needs have met the job needs in the renewable energy-microbiology ecology space.”

At the core of this program is SFSU’s partnership with Lawerence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) — two major DOE-funded institutions — and San Diego State University (SDSU), UC Davis and Skyline Community College. Together, they will update curricula in microbiology courses at the different universities, create new student research opportunities at each institution and provide students with cross-institutional mentorship for research, leadership and career development. Students will receive financial support for their participation.

“This program could be impactful for students’ careers going forward,” said Anand of this DOE grant and the importance of collaborating with the national labs. She notes that there’s been an increase in these labs collaborating with institutions like SFSU. “Hopefully, the students will be really into this program and will come back to find a job in a similar setting.”

A major part of Phages Pathways is to introduce more students into renewable energy and microbiology workforces. Each year, the Phage Pathways will recruit 20 undergraduate and graduate students from SFSU, SDSU, UC Davis and Skyline College. This annual cohort will include 10 SF State students (five third- and fourth-year undergraduates and five graduate students). Skyline students will participate in SFSU offerings. SFSU’s program will also complement Skyline’s SEA-PHAGES, a similar program restricted to first- and second-year undergrads. Anand explains that many of these students drop out of this workforce pipeline because they lack relevant training opportunities during their latter undergraduate years.

“If they drop that continued exposure to this topic, then students do not have an interest in this and they do not develop the necessary skillsets,” Anand explained. “What we’re saying is that the [Skyline] students can feed into SFSU’s program.”

During the school year, students will attend the updated microbiology courses at their home university and participate in research at SFSU, SDSU or UC Davis. They will also attend a three-day symposium at UC Davis with student presentations, workshops and keynote lectures.

In the summer, all participants will attend two multi-day research workshops created by SFSU and LBNL researchers. One weeklong bootcamp will teach students fundamental phage research techniques for phage discovery, such as phage isolation and characterization. The second workshop will teach students how to analyze and annotate phage genomics data. Each year, two students will be selected to attend an additional 10-week intensive research internship at SNL that focuses on wet lab and computational skills crucial for bioenergy applications. Throughout the year, the program will also offer various professional development activities that will be open to the Phage Pathways cohorts and students outside of the program.

“To drive these breakthrough discoveries and move science forward, we should enable undergraduate and graduate students at all universities — not just at R1 institutions — but for everyone to engage in high impact research,” Anand said. “You never know who the next Einstein is going to be.”

Learn more about SF State’s Department of Biology and apply for Phage Pathways online.

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SFSU celebrates new Science and Engineering Innovation Center with dedication ceremony

Kanaga Rajan — Fri, 24 Jan 2025 22:00:00 +0000

SFSU celebrates new Science and Engineering Innovation Center with dedication ceremony

Author: Strategic Marketing and Communications

January 24, 2025

Photo Credit: Juan Montes

The new science building creates a dynamic, inclusive learning environment by ‘putting science on display’

SAN FRANCISCO – January 24, 2025 – San Francisco State University (SFSU) held a dedication ceremony today for its new Science and Engineering Innovation Center (SEIC), an all-electric science building filled with innovative student-centric teaching spaces. Located prominently on 19th Avenue, the building was constructed with the future in mind, specifically designed to prepare students for various STEM workforces while emphasizing student academic support and sustainability.

“In some ways more important from the local perspective, 80% of our science and engineering alumni live in the Bay Area, 83% stay in California and 8% of the employees in the largest Bay Area biopharma companies are [from] San Francisco State. This new center will grow the already significant number of alumni working in the Bay Area STEM industries by preparing our graduates to better compete in these fields. An investment in San Francisco State is an investment in the health and future of California,” said San Francisco State University President Lynn Mahoney during the ceremony.

At the ceremony, San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Rafael Mandelman, District 19 Assemblymember Catherine Stefani and CEO of Gilead Daniel O’Day shared SF State’s role in the biotech and engineering pipelines and how SEIC will prepare SFSU’s diverse students for the industry workforce.

The ceremony marked the completion of the new 125,000-square-foot SEIC building and renovation of the existing adjacent Science Building. SEIC is home to the College of Science & Engineering’s (CoSE) Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry and School of Engineering (SOE), as well as the CoSE dean’s office and the College of Professional & Global Education (CPaGE) campus operations on the fifth floor.

The college anticipates SEIC will serve all 7,000 CoSE students and thousands of general education students each year. The building is also open to the University community for seminars, workshops, student activities and more. CoSE Dean Carmen Domingo hopes that the building will be an inclusive space where students can see themselves as future engineers, chemists and scientists. By “putting science on display,” SEIC can help demystify what it means to be a scientist — and who can be in these fields.

“The SEIC is more than a science building; it’s an inclusive space for students to explore, innovate and learn with cutting-edge technology and talented faculty,” said Domingo. “This major achievement, made possible by our generous partners and donors, will help thousands of diverse graduates make a profound impact on our regional workforce.”

A few of SEIC’s highlights include:

A configurable large learning space for over 100 students on the first floor that can be rearranged to facilitate group work, with an interactive AV system that allows students and instructors to dynamically share work and learn from each other.
Three studio-style integrated lecture/lab chemistry classrooms
Chemistry research labs with industry-standard equipment, introducing new experimental capabilities for protein crystallography, enzyme kinetics and drug development
A robotics and mechatronics lab with a multi-robotic-arm-automatized assembly line
Power systems (a collaboration with PG&E) and energy systems labs (supporting a Department of Energy-funded Center of Excellence in energy efficiency) to study power distribution and HVAC/energy research, respectively
A structural and seismic engineering lab with strong wall and floor and a robotic motion platform to test structural dynamics, hazard mitigation and more
A makerspace and two garages with large and small machining equipment for student projects, like concrete canoes, Formula 1 SAE racecars, steel bridges and other senior projects

New equipment and programs in the building were funded by the Catalyze the Future campaign, which raised over $25 million from private sources. Individual donors — alumni and non-alumni alike — made generous gifts to support SFSU’s continued leadership in fueling the region’s biotech and tech workforce pipelines. Industry partners such as the Genentech Foundation, Gilead Foundation, Agilent and Keysight were among the generous corporate donors helping outfit SEIC with the cutting-edge research equipment and support for student success initiatives and programming. Additionally, a $5 million challenge grant from the Wayne and Gladys Valley Foundation was crucial to the campaign’s success.

Based on student feedback, SEIC includes comfortable study spaces with ample natural light throughout the building. The design also incorporated spacious workspaces for group work, such as tutoring and senior projects. Many of the rooms and labs have large windows so visitors can see research happening in real time.

“It’s really cool. We have a building we can be proud of and say, ‘Come, check out this work,’” said Senior Computer Engineer Emely Villa, who has been looking forward to working in SEIC since coming to SFSU in 2021. “There are a lot of display areas, too, where our old projects are going to be able to be displayed. … It’s very nice to be proud of showcasing the work at the new [SEIC].”

SEIC is on track for LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) Gold certification. In November, at the CSU Facilities Management conference, SEIC won two awards for the architecture and engineering and the energy efficiency categories. The building is SFSU’s first all-electric building with a micro-grid; it has roof-top solar panels and a battery back-up power system. The landscaping incorporated adaptive and native plants, no-mow grass and bioswale to improve its resistance to climate change. 

Learn more about SFSU’s College of Science & Engineering.

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SFSU receives cutting-edge Agilent technology for new Science and Engineering Innovation Center

Kent Bravo — Mon, 13 Jan 2025 19:28:06 +0000

SFSU receives cutting-edge Agilent technology for new Science and Engineering Innovation Center

Author: Strategic Marketing and Communications

January 21, 2025

The gift provides world-class instrumentation to foster the next generation of STEM innovators

SAN FRANCISCO – January 21, 2025 – San Francisco State University (SFSU) has announced that Agilent Technologies, a global leader in analytical and clinical laboratory technologies, has donated $1.7 million worth of analytical instrumentation for its new Science and Engineering Innovation Center (SEIC).

“Agilent’s generosity is not only an investment in our students and their success but also the greater workforce. By providing state-of-the-art equipment, students now have access to the next generation of tools for scientific discovery in the fields of chemistry, materials science, biochemistry and the life sciences,” said SFSU Dean of the College of Science & Engineering Carmen Domingo. “Agilent’s new equipment allows students to greatly expand and sharpen their skills ensuring that they are well-prepared to enter the workforce or pursue higher degrees with confidence. We are grateful for Agilent’s support in this endeavor.”

The donation will equip SEIC chemistry and biochemistry labs with Agilent technologies, enabling students to learn with world-class instrumentation and excel in our global society. In recognition of the donation, SEIC suite 201 has been named the ‘Agilent Technologies Teaching Laboratory.’ The suite is equipped with the highest number of Agilent instruments in the SEIC and is primarily used for upper-division chemistry and biochemistry courses.

The new equipment is already making a tremendous impact on students like Marcello Garbo, a senior majoring in Chemistry. Garbo says before the donation, there was a limited amount of equipment that had to be shared among students and faculty. The equipment was also spread across different rooms. With more equipment that is placed in a centralized area, it speeds up the process for various tasks.

“Every five to 10 minutes, I’d have four samples that I’d have to run at the same time. And then I’d also have to go all the way down the hall in order to run them,” Garbo said while describing his experience before the new Agilent equipment.

Garbo also says the technology has been able to capture higher quality data, which has led to better scientific conclusions and more presentable information.

"Agilent is committed to fostering innovation and excellence in STEM education, and our donation to SFSU is an example of that,” said Padraig McDonnell, Agilent president and CEO. “By equipping the chemistry and biochemistry labs, we aim to empower students from all backgrounds to excel in their studies and future careers.”

The new equipment will also strengthen the way faculty teach and conduct research.

“This technology will significantly enhance faculty’s ability to deliver hands-on, real-world learning experiences that’ll prepare our students for fulfilling careers in STEM,” said Bruce Manning, SFSU Chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. “It will also open new doors for faculty research, enabling us to pursue more advanced projects and collaborations.”
The College of Science & Engineering has steadily grown, and this new 125,000-square-foot science building will help sustain this expansion and support the University’s role as a leader in fueling the workforce of the Bay Area. It will be prominently visible on 19th Avenue and is anticipated to benefit more than 7,000 CoSE students annually.

Learn more about the Science and Engineering Innovation Center.

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About San Francisco State University

San Francisco State University is a public university serving students from the San Francisco Bay Area, across California and around the world, with nationally acclaimed programs that span a broad range of disciplines. More than 22,000 students enroll at the University each year, and its approximately 294,000 graduates have contributed to the economic, cultural and civic fabric of San Francisco and beyond. Through them — and more than 1,800 world-class faculty members — SF State proudly embraces its legacy of academic excellence, community engagement and commitment to social justice. For more information, visit sfsu.edu.

About Agilent Technologies
Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) is a global leader in analytical and clinical laboratory technologies, delivering insights and innovation that help our customers bring great science to life. Agilent’s full range of solutions includes instruments, software, services, and expertise that provide trusted answers to our customers' most challenging questions. The company generated revenue of $6.51 billion in fiscal year 2024 and employs approximately 18,000 people worldwide. Information about Agilent is available at www.agilent.com.

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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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