In order to begin his summer research on the Hill, Tim Weaver '05 needed some bees.
Armed with a gallon of liquid nitrogen connected to a small vacuum device, he set off for a local bee farm. With the farmer's permission, Weaver vacuumed the bees into the liquid nitrogen, where they were instantly frozen. "I didn't get stung and it was a lot of fun playing with liquid nitrogen, so it was a good time," he said.
Weaver, a neuroscience major, is spending his summer on the Hill studying the correlation between octopamine levels and behavior in insects. Working with Tom Heacock '06 and under the supervision of Associate Professor of Biology Herm Lehman, Weaver is currently examining tyramine beta-hydroxylase (TBH), a protein that acts as a catalyst in the production of octopamine. Once the students are able to manipulate the level of TBH, Weaver said, they will in turn be able to manipulate the level of octopamine produced.
The implications of this study are numerous and far-reaching, Lehman said. "What we're really looking to figure out here is how genes might regulate behavior," he said, explaining that the reason the students are using insects for the study is because of the numerous similarities between octopamine, found in insects, and dopamine and other neurotransmitters found in humans. If the students are able to discover how the production of these proteins is regulated, they may be able to determine how genes regulate behavior.
Using what is known as a 'western blot technique,' the students first dissect the insects they have collected, removing the nervous systems from the bees, butterflies and caterpillars. They then immerse the nervous systems in a gel and run an electrical current through the gel, which serves to separate out the proteins by size. Finally, the students dye the gel with chemicals to make the proteins visible. Most recently, the students have been working on trying to find a chemical that is octopamine-specific in an effort to isolate the protein.
Weaver, who is from Grand Rapids, Michigan, said he is likely to make this project his senior thesis should his research go well this summer. Though he said he has always considered himself a science person, he did not became interested in neuroscience at Hamilton until he took Abnormal Psychology with Assistant Professor of Psychology Tara McKee and Introduction to the Brain and Behavior with Stone Professor of Psychology Douglas Weldon. Weaver said he felt frustrated with the lack of a scientific approach to the treatment of psychological disorders. "I thought, there's got to be a biological reason for certain behaviors, but we weren't looking at that," he said. He then took Cellular Neurobiology with Lehman and, after that, knew that he'd found the right major.
Weaver and Heacock's research is funded by an award from the National Science Foundation. Weaver also receives additional funding from the Ralph E. Hanson Science Student Support Fund.
-- by Jake Hartnett '05
