Social Work: Dr. 学生Sarah Keesom在社交互动和健康方面有了惊人的发现
Dr. Sarah Keesom, Associate Professor of Biology
Between conducting the actual research and presenting at scientific conferences, 让我们的学生参与这个研究项目为体验式学习提供了不可替代的机会, 同时也有助于对社会互动对个人整体健康的影响有新的科学认识.
Whether or not you’ve ever contracted COVID-19, it’s likely the pandemic has had an impact on your health. The months of lockdown, the stress and fear, 我们日常生活的中断对我们的影响，即使是世界上最顶尖的科学家也才刚刚开始探索.
One important part of that research: social isolation’s impact on fertility. That’s what a team of Utica University researchers are working to understand. 以雌性小鼠为实验对象，研究隔离饲养和群居饲养小鼠的生理差异, the research team, led by Associate Professor of Biology Sarah Keesom, 已经有了一些令人惊讶的发现，这些发现可能有助于对社会互动如何影响激素产生新的理解, reproductive function, and overall health.
Q: How did this research project start?
Sarah Keesom: I started this research project in Spring 2021 with my Animal Physiology students, and since then, 我们有另外两个学期的学生在这个项目上工作(2021年秋季和2022年秋季)。. Along with those students who have taken, or are currently taking BIO 324, 我们也有其他学生独立研究这个项目(不是课程的一部分). All in all, we have had over 40 students working on this research!
这项研究是与许多学生和我的两位同事合作进行的, Professor of Biology Terri Provost and Distinguished Professor of Biology Adam Pack. 这项研究最令人印象深刻的是，大多数参与该项目的学生都是作为BIO 324动物生理学实验课程的一部分进行的. In other words, 学生在他们的专业(生物学专业或动物行为学专业)中进行真正的研究。.
问:你的研究都是关于社会孤立及其对身心健康的影响. Why explore this topic, and what makes it especially relevant now?
SK: 我的研究背景是减少社会接触如何影响大脑和行为, 我和我的动物生理学学生一起开始了这个特殊的研究项目，因为我在考虑在COVID-19大流行期间采取的社会距离措施. Recall that early on in the pandemic, 保持社交距离和居家工作令是减少COVID传播的公共卫生战略的核心. These are effective measures for controlling the spread of COVID; however, social distancing also leads to increased experiences of isolation and loneliness, which can have negative effects on a person’s well-being. Despite this understanding, less is known regarding how social isolation affects female animals, especially female health. We are using mice to address this gap in knowledge with our research, because mice are social animals, 因为我们可以通过实验改变老鼠的社会环境，把老鼠单独放在笼子里，或者和其他老鼠一起放在一个社会群体里.
Q: What specific aspects of female health are you looking at?
SK: We have many projects being conducted within this framework. 我们的主要研究目标之一是调查社会孤立如何影响女性生殖健康, including reproductive cycling, reproductive hormones, the structure of the ovaries, and production of offspring. 另一组项目是调查社会孤立如何影响女性的能量平衡和新陈代谢, including food consumption, sucrose preference, metabolic rate, blood sugar, and digestive health. Finally, 我也有学生在做研究社交孤立如何影响焦虑和记忆的项目.
问:令人印象深刻的是，本科生正在从事这个级别的研究!
SK: That’s right. This is high-quality research that students have presented at conferences, including an international science conference, Experimental Biology, in April 2022 in Philadelphia and a regional conference, Developmental Biology New York, in November 2022. 在进行实际研究和在科学会议上发言之间，包括我们的 Biology and Animal Behavior 这个社会隔离研究项目的学生为我们的学生提供了不可替代的体验式学习机会, 同时也有助于对社会互动对个人整体健康的影响有新的科学认识. It’s very exciting!
Curious Findings
Dr. Sarah Keesom和她的学生开始了他们的实验，希望发现社会隔离, like other emotional stressors, would have a negative impact on female fertility in mice. Their initial findings suggest the opposite. Student researchers Nathan Rice ’24 and Lexi Lumley ’24 正忙着探索为什么会这样，以及它可能告诉我们关于女性生殖健康的一般信息吗.
问:你是如何发现社会隔离对雌性小鼠的生育能力有这种增强作用的?
Nathan Rice: 我们检查了两组老鼠的卵巢——一组被隔离，另一组没有——观察卵巢的横截面，并确定了卵泡密度. We didn’t see a change in the number of ovarian follicles, but a change in the cross-sectional diameter. This is likely because socially isolated mice had follicles of a larger diameter, which would indicate that they are more fertile. 我们通常看到的应激反应是下丘脑性腺激素的下调，这会降低生育能力, but that didn’t happen here.
Lexi Lumley: Additionally, in our preliminary research, 我们发现单独饲养的老鼠比成群饲养的老鼠产仔更多, 这表明社会孤立可能会触发一种机制，从而上调促黄体生成素和促卵泡激素的分泌, the hormones responsible for ovulation and egg quality.
Q: What makes this type of research important?
NR: This is an area of reproductive function that we don’t know a lot about, so to be exploring this, especially in a female model organism, is really unique. Plus the fact that the observed findings are not what we expected. 我们的研究结果可能表明，目前的范式可能没有完全说明这种情绪压力源是如何调节激素功能的.
Q: What has this project meant to you, personally?
NR: Through this research I’ve learned a lot about how science works—how long it takes, how often things don’t go how you wanted, how the unexpected can happen. 做这项工作让我明白，当证据不支持现有观点时，科学总是会发生变化的. Science is malleable. 与其说它是一种知识体系，不如说它是我们用来更好地了解世界的工具. That’s the fun and invigorating part of the scientific process, and it’s been amazing to be a part of that.
LL: 这项研究通过让我探索神经科学研究之外的各种压力源和生理学的其他方面，帮助我了解了未来的职业目标. It has given me valuable experience writing research proposals, designing experimental groups, and interpreting results. At the beginning of November, 我在纽约发育生物学大会上展示了我们关于社会隔离如何影响小鼠产仔数的研究的海报, hosted at Ithaca College. This work has also taught me to be flexible with my research, as not everything works perfectly, and adaptability is an important skill to have as a scientist.
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