The Collegian

Issue date: 9/6/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Courtesy of Dan York Seniors Jen Gunderson and Blair DeBuysscher pet a cheetah in South Africa.

Sometimes scientists travel far and wide for research.

Over the summer, two senior biology majors and two professors sojourned in South Africa as part of a research project to compile cheetah DNA.

The month-long adventure spurred a diverse flurry of cultural and professional experiences for seniors Blair DeBuysscher and Jen Gunderson. Professor of Biology Dan York and Biology Laboratory Coordinator Beth Reiter accompanied the students.

Their goal: to sequence all African cheetah DNA noninvasively.

With such data, specialists could insure a stable cheetah gene pool and prevent overeager entrepreneurs from capturing and selling wild cheetahs.

Usually this type of research would be performed by graduate students. However, the students were familiar with the work as it simply furthered an ongoing project of the Conservation Club.

DeBuysscher and Gunderson even contributed to a government project in a groundbreaking way.

It was previously thought that sequencing particular cheetah hair samples would be impossible. However, after several failed attempts, DeBuysscher and Gunderson made a breakthrough in technique that will help all future researchers.

DeBuysscher said this moment was the highlight of her experience.

"Anytime you're working with a new species, [sequencing hair samples is] very difficult, particularly depending on how they were collected," York said. "They spent a lot of time on that."

DeBuysscher and Gunderson worked mostly in a government laboratory at the National Zoological Gardens of South Africa. Equipped with rubber white boots, lab coats and hair samples, they worked side by side with interns from several different countries.

"And we bought outrageous pens because everybody would steal [our other pens]," DeBuysscher said.

When not sequencing DNA, the biologists enjoyed local restaurants.

"We really liked to eat when we were there," DeBuysscher said.

They sampled all they could: ostrich, caterpillar, antelope, crocodile, warthog, pork.

Surprisingly, ostrich tastes more like steak than poultry, Gunderson said. But that's not all the students put in their mouth.

Continued...

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