APPLICATIONS ARE NO LONGER BEING ACCEPTED FOR THIS POSITION

Interested in getting some experience in research? 

Want to paid full-time in Antigonish for the summer?  

There is an opening in the Wyeth Lab for a research assistant position for summer 2018.  The primary project associated with this position will be studying snail behaviour.  The research assistant will work with another student on the project, exploring how the snails move with respect to food odours.   Our larger goal is to better understand how  animals navigate depending on whether they are in slow or fast flow environments, with different kinds of prey present.  Practically, the research assistant will gain experience in general research skills, animal husbandry, data analysis in Excel and other software, video techniques (with GoPro cameras), image and video analysis.  Involvement with other Wyeth Lab projects will also occur.   Overall, lots of variety, and lots of problem solving!

Interested students should email a copy of an unofficial transcipt and resume to Dr. Wyeth, along with a short description of both career ideas and their reason for being interested in research.   Minimum requirements: currently enrolled StFX student (any year); 70% average of grades on transcript.

Review of applications will begin Jan 31, 2018.

Both Alexa Nicholson and Hannah Stevens have finished their directed studies projects.  Alexa was working with antifouling options for aquaculture, and Hannah on the influence of light on pond snail navigation.  Both did a fantastic job on their final reports, and now have to let the research go (for a while at least) and focus on the last semester of courses in their BSc degrees.

Congratulations to Areej Alansari who successfully defended her MSc proposal today.  A big step in her Master’s studying navigation behaviour in freshwater snails.  All the more impressive since both the written proposal and presentation were in her second language.

I am both honoured and excited to have been offered a James Research Chair to start in July 2018.  Two years of halved teaching load will be a big boost to the Wyeth Lab!  I am looking forward to the opportunity to expand existing research projects and hopefully building some collaborations as well.  Most of all I am excited at the chance to involve more students in the Wyeth Lab.

Congratulations to Hannah Stevens and Alexa Nicholson – 2017 Biology award winners for academic achievement.  Alexa was working so hard on her classes, she missed the award banquet!

Welcome to both Alexa, the newest directed study student in the lab, and Theora who has rejoined the lab as a volunteer after graduation.

This one was more than 5 years in the making before publication in the Journal of Comparative Neurology.  Jimmy Thomson got us started, labelling neurotransmitters in the central nervous system of Hermissenda, and then Marissa Webber followed up with tons more labelling and then an amazing effort in cataloging all the labelled neurons.  Highlights were establishing that some neurotransmitters are considerably more variable between animals than others, and that one specific neurotransmitter (GABA) was not where it was supposed to be (it was missing from the statocysts – the balance organs).  You can read the (free) reprint to get our full explanation of that crazy result.  Thanks also to Roger Croll and Johnny Buckland-Nicks for help along the way.
DOI: 10.1002/cne.24286