University of Utah Isotope Facility Draws International Interest

University of Utah Isotope Facility Draws International Interest

By Allison Chan

We have all learned that an isotope is a form of an element with a different number of neutrons and the same number of protons. While isotopes may have seemed a dry topic in high school chemistry, they are in fact an incredibly valuable tool for research in disciplines spanning from anthropology to atmospheric science. 

Unbeknownst to many, a world-class isotope ratio analysis facility is housed here at the University of Utah.

The Stable Isotope Ratio Facility for Environmental Research (SIRFER) was started in 1986 and has since been providing sample analysis for departments around campus and around the world. 

SIRFER is a re-charge facility, meaning that there is a fee charged for each sample that is run.  The revenue from samples is used to maintain the day-to-day operations of the facility. SIRFER has the capability of analyzing stable isotope ratios of carbon (C), hydrogen (H), oxygen (O), nitrogen (N), and sulfur (S) from organic solids, water samples, or trace gases. 

But the real question is, why are isotopes useful? 

Stable isotopes can be used to track the movement of materials through a system, whether from an individual plant or an entire ecosystem. For example, ecologists used isotopic analysis following the British Petroleum oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. By examining how the isotopic composition of microorganisms was changing, they were able to determine to what extent they were picking up the isotopic signature of the oil.

Brad Erkkila, manager of SIRFER, is in charge of running the samples that are sent into the lab and maintaining the instruments. Samples are run against quality control standards in order to ensure good data. In this way, although he does not always know the source of the samples he is analyzing, he can still evaluate whether the instrument is functioning properly and if he is getting correct results.  

Erkkila finds the most exciting part of his job is developing new methods by which to run samples.

The facility that he runs, tries to meet the analysis needs of the faculty members on campus, so sometimes that means having to change the way in which a particular instrument is calibrated or how a sample is treated.

As new technologies become available, SIRFER is continually striving to provide the most up-to-date analysis methods. However, in addition to providing quality isotope analysis, SIRFER is also interested in education and outreach. 

Employees at SIRFER have worked with junior high and high school students through the Salt Lake Center for Science Education. One recent project has been helping high school students on a science fair project to analyze the diet of hawks by examining the stable isotope composition of their feathers. The project was recently selected to continue on to the international science competition. 

Perhaps the biggest educational endeavor that SIRFER undertakes each year is running an intensive two-week long summer course called “IsoCamp.” Graduate students and post-docs from universities across the U.S. and internationally apply for a spot in this highly selective course. About 80-100 students apply, but only 25-30 students gain admission into the course. 

Students in the course have varied academic backgrounds and come from many different departments. 

Danielle Marias, a first-year graduate student in the Forestry department at Oregon State University, is one of the students who will be participating in this summer’s Isocamp.  She explained, “I wanted to come to IsoCamp because it is a unique opportunity to learn about such a versatile tool in ecology and collaborate with and meet others who are also using isotopes in their research. Also, Isocamp's lab portion is appealing to me because OSU’s isotope course does not offer that.”

 

Olivia Miller, a graduate student in the geology department at the University of Utah, corroborates Marias’ excitement to meet new people who share an interest in stable isotopes.

Another geology student at the U, Glynis Jehle, said, “I'd like to know more about what my results mean in terms of ecology and paleoecology, which is basically what this class involves--how to interpret the different isotopic signatures environmental materials give.”

Students in the course will receive lectures from a wide range of experts who use isotopes in their research. The diversity of speakers provides students with a comprehensive perspective of the ways in which isotopic research has been employed. In addition to the lecture portion of the course, students also get the opportunity to spend time working with the instruments in the SIRFER lab. 

They will get hands on experience with the entire process of sample analysis including sample collection, preparation, and interpretation of results.  Importantly, the close-knit community fostered by the IsoCamp course encourages future collaborations among students.  

SIRFER’s commitment to quality isotope analysis, education, and outreach has introduced a diverse group of people to the world of isotope research and has provided the infrastructure needed for today’s researchers to analyze samples with the most up-to-date technologies.

While the SIRFER lab may seem an unassuming space, they are quietly churning out world-class isotopic analysis everyday.  

Inside the SIRFER lab.

Brad Erkkil, SIRFER lab manager.

Parasites represent new opportunity for University of Utah Biologist 

By Javan Rivera

Peromyscus maniculatus, more commonly known as the Deer Mouse

Parasites are beautiful. They are amazing and interesting.

Those are not the words that the average person associates with the worms and parasitic creatures that reside within the intestines of various mammals. However, graduate student Craig Gritzen of the University Of Utah Department Of Biology is not the average person.

For Gritzen, the various parasites that reside within the intestines of the local deer mouse and their possible connections to the Sin Nombre Virus (SNV) represent the sum of his entire graduate career and research.

“It is cool and important because these parasites are [possibly] important, immunologically, to these mice,” said Gritzen. “It’s a very complex field of immunology.”

While Gritzen feels confident that there is a link between the parasites and the immune system of the mice, he stressed the fact that no link has yet been identified or proven.

Gritzen is currently pursuing a Master of Science in biology at the U, but his interest in mice and the parasites that infect them began during his undergraduate career at Penn State University.

As an undergraduate, Gritzen chose to focus his studies on infectious diseases. He said that for the most part he was interested in the diseases that could infect humans, but that through those studies he became interested in diseases that could jump from animals to humans.

“Those core classes sparked my interest in studying diseases in wildlife,” Gritzen said of his time at Penn State.

He first began studying parasites that infected the white-footed mouse in Pennsylvania during his junior year. During that year, he began working with Professor Peter Hudson doing fieldwork, including setting the traps for the mice and collecting samples for the research.

It was through this work that he secured a spot in Hudson’s lab studying the complex lifecycle of the parasites that infected the white-footed mice. His work mostly consisted of studying crickets that acted as a secondary host for the parasites that infected the mice.

“My tasks there consisted mostly of field work,” Gritzen said. “We’d collect the crickets and dissect them to verify that they had the parasites in them.”

His work with the labs at Penn State went on for two years before he finally graduated with a Bachelor of Science and applied for graduate school at the University of Utah.

According to Gritzen, he was drawn to the parasite studies that were going on at the U. It provided him an opportunity to continue to apply his knowledge from his undergraduate career into his graduate work.

“The research experience [at Penn State] prepared me to conduct the research I’m doing today,” Gritzen said.

Gritzen currently works in the Dearing Lab at the U. The goal of his research is to see if a connection exists between the various intestinal parasites that infect the deer mice of Utah and the deadly virus the mice carry.

Sin Nombre Virus, Spanish for the “No Name” virus, first came into public awareness when a deadly outbreak of the virus killed a number of people in the four corners region in the early 90s. The virus, which is a type of Hantavirus, is spread to humans through the inhalation of airborne fecal particles, when people attempt to clean up deer mice droppings that they find.

“Understanding what parasites are infecting these mice and identifying the effects of these parasites on the mice, will allow researchers to understand whether the parasites will increase or decrease the likelihood of the mice becoming infected by the virus, which in turn can determine the likelihood of humans getting infected due to close proximity to the mice,” Gritzen said.

Gritzen believes that discovering a connection between the parasites and SNV could allow future researchers to predict SNV outbreaks in mice populations in the future, thereby, increase preventative care taken by humans who live in close proximity to the mice.

In his time researching at the Dearing Lab, Gritzen has found eight species of intestinal parasites that infect the deer mice he is studying, and has been able to conduct various tests ranging from dissection of infected mice to fecal floats that allow him to search for parasite eggs in deer mice droppings.

For Gritzen, however, the work not only represents an opportunity to further scientific knowledge of the subject for human protection, but also an opportunity for him to continue to pursue his love of science.

“Becoming a researcher here at the U has been a really enjoyable experience because I really love science,” Gritzen said. “Going in and asking a question and then trying to discover an answer through science feels really good. It helps me to apply my experience. It’s amazing.”

Gritzen will be defending his thesis for his masters in May, and with his schooling coming to an end, he is looking forward to a future where he can continue to apply his scientific knowledge to beneficial causes. For him, those opportunities lie in the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.

“As a scientist I’d like to continue studying wildlife,” Gritzen said. “I’d be interested in looking at and researching parasites of other mammal species.”

He also hopes that his work can act as a catalyst for future study in the field of parasites.

“I really hope that the work I’m doing can inspire other scientists to look into these parasites,” Gritzen said, “It’s sad that we discovered some of these [deer mice] parasites over 100 years ago and we still don’t know what they do [to the mice].”

Protospirura numidica is just one of the many parasites that can infect the digestive tract of Deer Mice.

Craig Gritzen doing fieldwork in the Great Basin Desert, in Juab County Utah, 2009. Working with the "Sin Nombre Virus" requires the use of specialized headgear to prevent human infection.