Tue, 20 Dec 2005 05:00:00 -0500
window-stories

Hatching a Fruitful Research Career

At a recent research conference on parasitoid wasps, Presidential Fellow Kate Laskowski not only turned heads as the only undergraduate student attending, the poster that she presented on her research won first prize, beating out all other presenters—including graduate students and post-docs.

Laskowski’s field work on the wasps, a fascinating insect that could someday help us better understand human aging, sparked a passion for research that changed her life. “When I started at UMBC, I was pre-vet with an interest in wildlife pathology,” Laskwoski, a biological sciences major with a chemistry minor said. “But Professor Jeff Leips was my academic advisor and at the end of my freshman year he offered me the chance to some fieldwork.” She’s been studying the wasps ever since.

Leips, assistant professor of biological sciences, says that the wasps’ creepy means of reproduction was the inspiration for the Alien series of science fiction thriller films. The wasps literally rob the cradle of other insect species, injecting their eggs into living fruit fly larvae. The tiny time bomb lies dormant for four to five days until the larva pupates, or spins a cocoon around itself. Only then does the baby wasp hatch, killing its host and simultaneously providing itself with a food supply and a comfy, secure home in which to grow.

More importantly to Laskowski is the wasps’ interaction with fruit flies or Drosophila, the standard studied life system for geneticists. A particular fruit fly gene, known as Ddc, seems to be an enzymatic tradeoff between how long the fly lives and how well they can avoid a parasitoid attack. Long-living flies are more likely to get hit, while those better resistant to wasp attacks seem to be shorter-lived. Laskowski and other researchers are interested in what else Ddc can teach about the human aging process.

In addition to her accomplishments in research, Laskowski is also a founding sister of Alpha Sigma Kappa, a sorority for women interested in technical studies that includes majors in computer science and other physical sciences. Laskowski’s career goal now is to become a professor, and she plans to work for a year after commencement and then begin graduate school.

Leips is not surprised at Laskowski’s progress. “Kate is a dedicated, talented student who is going to have a great research career someday,” he said.

More information about UMBC research is available on UMBC’s Research Site.

(12/13/05)