Arsenic exposure from well water and food is a major public health concern, while prenatal exposure to low levels of the substance heightens the risk of developing psychiatric disorders such as depression and anxiety in adulthood. The MDI Biological Laboratory’s James A. Coffman, Ph.D. and colleagues have been researching the effects that arsenic exposure has on the immune system of zebrafish, which is one of the Laboratory’s models for human health. Now they plan to build on that data to examine how early-development arsenic exposure may interfere with specific signaling pathways in ways that ..read more

Ten years ago, Cait Bailey, a systems developer in MDI Bio Lab’s Community Health Lab, was looking for a layman-friendly data collection system to track observations of eelgrass in Frenchman Bay. Warming waters are driving eelgrass decline in the Gulf of Maine, and alongside the community lab’s leader, Jane Disney, Ph.D., Bailey was working with MDI residents and schoolchildren to document decline and experiment with restoration efforts. “We were looking at the various online options for collecting data about species absence, “ Bailey recalls. “But the existing platforms we could find only add ..read more

The funding supports the expansion of MDI Bioscience, an MDI Bio Lab initiative that uses its expertise with animal models to engineer new drug discovery technologies and therapies. The award comes as the Laboratory significantly expands its research capacity and graduate training programs. MDI Bioscience is tapping into the knowledge and skills of MDI Bio Lab’s international faculty, who are pioneers in research with an array of exceptional models for human health, such as African turquoise killifish, zebrafish and lab-grown organ tissues called “organoids” and “organs on a chip.” “These cutt ..read more

When Cinda Scott was a junior at Vermont’s Middlebury College in 1998, she was struggling a bit. Majoring in biology and environmental studies, Scott felt pressure from home to achieve. “For students of color, you have a lot of pressure; number one, to succeed, but then also to be a doctor, be a lawyer, be an engineer, go to business school, do something that’s going to make you money,” she recalled in a recent interview. “And when you’re not a money-motivated person, and you want to do something that’s none of those things, it can be a little bit scary, not only just for you, but for your ent ..read more

Michael Takeo Magruder is a visual artist and researcher whose career spans decades, continents and styles. His artworks and installations combine digitized, data-rich imagery with the details of exhibition spaces (whether real-world or virtual) to create thought-provoking aesthetic experiences. “As a visual artist, I want to make every work that I produce aesthetically beautiful and engaging,” Takeo said, in an interview during his first weeklong visit to the Laboratory this month. “But it’s not just about making the beautiful thing; it’s about making the relevant thing, the provoking thing ..read more

In groundbreaking research published as a preprint in BioRxiv, MDI Biological Laboratory’s Prayag Murawala, Ph.D., and coauthors signal the discovery of a novel type of stem cell that drives a unique kind of tissue regeneration. The finding, Murawala says, has “striking” implications for the fast-growing field of regenerative medicine, which aims to restore human health by regenerating or reengineering damaged cells, tissues and organs. “Most regenerative activities we know depend on biological processes that mirror the way an embryo initially develops, but we show that in this case something ..read more

Mitochondria are cellular structures vital for the body’s energy production that feature two membranes—an outer smooth membrane and an intricately folded inner membrane with well-organized pouches known as cristae. Extensive folding of the cristae plays a pivotal role in mitochondrial function, and aberrations in this architecture are linked to various human diseases, including neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, and metabolic disorders such as diabetes. Drosophila ..read more

Capping a year that saw federal and private research awards totaling $8.5 million to the MDI Biological Laboratory, researcher Dustin Updike, Ph.D., learned in December that his group will receive a $2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. The “Maximizing Investigators Research Award” (MIRA) will support the next phase of Updike’s groundbreaking work on proteins that can program and reprogram cells to sustain development, fertility and the regenerative capacities needed for healing, but which can also play a role in potent diseases such as melanoma and breast cancer. “The MIRA ..read more

Twelve students from Southern Maine Community College and 12 from the University of Maine Honors College braved challenging January weather to spend a week on campus for short courses in the Maine INBRE training program, led by MDI Bio Lab. The science training courses provide an immersive, focused opportunity to engage with current biomedical research. In addition to gaining new technical skills in the Maine Center for Biomedical Innovation’s training laboratory, participants explore career options with course faculty and Laboratory staff during planned discussions and informal conversations ..read more

With more than 30 million people suffering from Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) the hunt is on for alternatives to dialysis and the transplantation of donated kidneys. A growing body of research is focused on creating lab-grown kidney tissues that could be implanted in a CKD patient. Medical and research scientists envision a limitless supply of replacement tissues which, derived from stem cells provided by patients themselves, would be better tolerated by their own immune systems. Researchers are now able to grow small, human kidney tissues called “organoids” and engraft them in a larger mouse k ..read more