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April 12, 2023

reinerlk — Wed, 12 Apr 2023 20:08:20 +0000

April 12, 2023 reinerlk Wed, 04/12/2023 - 15:08 RSS:

Happy Spring from the Rollins-Smith Lab!

Like always, time gets away from me and here we are with spring upon us! And we have a bit of exciting news to share; some of our recent work has been recognized by ecoNEWS Vermont, an online portal that disseminates the latest information in ecological research around the state of Vermont. We are thrilled to find that they have shared our study measuring leopard frog immune function in response to drought. This study was part of a larger body of work looking at the relationship between future climate change and disease susceptibility in amphibians.

ecoNEWS VT article

This project was part of a collaborative effort among researchers from all over the United States, ranging from Nevada to Tennessee to Vermont (and several places in between!). This study involved a lot of hard work and many long hours in the field gathering data so we are very proud to share our findings. Congratulations, to our very own Emily Hall Le Sage, PhD, co-lead author (along with Michel Ohmer, PhD) of this study! And thanks, Anna Marchessault, for including our work in this edition of ecoNEWS Vermont. The article is short, so take a minute and check it out. The results are quite interesting.

In other news, the Rollins-Smith Lab is excited to host another Aspirnaut high school student this summer. This organization, developed by Julie and Billy Hudson, places high school students in labs for a summer of research. Students not only learn the basics of scientific research, they also spend a great deal of time attending other seminars and workshops to assist them as they prepare for college and a future in science. The program also recruits undergraduate students who want to pursue a career in the sciences, and they work in research labs during the summer as well. This is a fantastic program that does a lot of good work, so make sure you check out their website for information, especially if you know a young person who may be interested in pursuing science as a career.

Lastly, we are chipping away at our current projects and hope to get some manuscripts pulled together in the near future detailing our work with the Coqui frogs of Puerto Rico. We’ve gathered a lot of information and we're thinking about how to best present it. So keep an eye out for that to come.

Until next time, be well!

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November 14, 2022

reinerlk — Mon, 14 Nov 2022 17:40:27 +0000

November 14, 2022 reinerlk Mon, 11/14/2022 - 11:40 RSS:

Congratulations, Reagan Hagewood!

I wanted to stop by and update you all about a former student who recently presented at the 2022 ABRCMS (Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minoritized Scientists) in Anaheim, California.

Reagan worked in the Rollins Smith Lab in the summer of 2022 as part of the Aspirnaut Program. Her research examined the dynamics of Bd and Bsal co-infection in an in vitro system. Reagan has excellent lab skills, she is highly motivated, and she possesses a great deal of passion for science. She presented her work at ABCRMS last week (November 9-12), and her presentation WON IN HER DISCIPLINE! We are so proud of her and delighted to hear this! Actually, this comes as no surprise; Reagan has a lot of talent and a very bright future ahead of her. The judges even noted that Reagan’s “love for research radiated as she presented.”

Again, congratulations, Reagan, for this well-deserved honor!

Reagan Hagewood presenting at 2022 ABRCMS

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October 24, 2022

reinerlk — Mon, 24 Oct 2022 18:47:06 +0000

October 24, 2022 reinerlk Mon, 10/24/2022 - 13:47 RSS:

Happy Fall from the Rollins-Smith Lab!

We hope everyone is enjoying this lovely fall season! While it’s been incredibly dry in Nashville over the last several weeks, we are still seeing some pretty fall color. The temperatures have also been a bit all over the place, but on the whole, I think we’ve really had some nice fall weather despite a few extremes here and there. But such is life in Nashville, and if you don’t like the weather, wait 10 minutes.

First things first!

We are excited to welcome back Dr Emily Hall! She moved to a new post doctoral position at Temple University in the summer of 2021 but has now returned to the Rollins-Smith Lab as a Research Assistant Professor as of this month. Dr Hall will focus her work on our recently created and funded Biology Integration Institute (BII): “Resilience Institute Bridging Biological Training and Research (RIBBiTR)" project. The institute encompasses nine academic institutions and thirteen senior investigators using field and laboratory studies to investigate how amphibian species are developing long term resistance to the fungal disease chytridiomycosis that has caused decades-long declines in amphibian populations around the world.

What a hectic year!

We've had a lot going on in 2022 and things are now quieting down in the lab. Back in the spring, we hosted three undergraduate Vanderbilt students as part of our mentorship work required by the Biology Integration Institute (BII). Mentorship and outreach programs are a critical aspect of the institute’s mission, and we are always excited to help train young scientists. These ladies learned a lot of lab techniques and seemed to have a good experience in our lab.

Laura Reinert, Dr Rollins-Smith, and Dr Hall traveled to Pymatuning Field Station in Pennsylvania in early April as part of a BII/RIBBiTR workshop. It was an incredibly productive week where we all gathered to not only brainstorm and iron out technical protocols, but to actually teach and learn many of these techniques. The BII team is an incredibly dynamic and energetic collection of scientists who work extremely well with one another. Many of the PIs have collaborated for decades, so needless to say, we are all invested and passionate about mitigating the presence and spread of Bd/chytridiomycosis in amphibian populations.

Over the summer, the Rollins-Smith Lab hosted three more young scientists (see previous blog entry). We had a full house for a few months, but these young ladies generated a lot of great data for some of our BII projects.

In June, Dr Rollins-Smith and Laura Reinert traveled to Banff, Alberta, for the North American Comparative Immunology Workshop. While there, Dr Rollins-Smith presented data showing inhibition studies of Bd and Bsal against frog immunity, and Laura Reinert presented the latest data from our work looking at skin defenses of Puerto Rico’s Eleutherodactylus coqui (common Coqui frog) throughout different seasons.

L-R, Dr Rollins-Smith, Laura Reinert at NACI in Banff

Rounding out the end of the summer, Dr Rollins-Smith, Laura Reinert, and Mitchell Le Sage attended the first GARD (Global Amphibian & Reptile Diseases) meeting in Knoxville, TN. This meeting brought attendees from all over the globe, such as England, Australia, and Belgium, just to name a few. Dr Rollins-Smith gave one of the keynote addresses, and Mitchell Le Sage presented some work that he and collaborators have completed on Bd and Bsal infection in the eastern newt (Notophthalmus viridescens).

We are all now back home, hunkered down in the lab for the coming months, and ready to crank out more data! We are happy to report that a new project looking at the role of macrophages during Bd/Bsal infection has been funded so we are gearing up to work on this study. We are also actively recruiting rotation students for the 2022-2023 academic year, so please reach out to Dr Rollins-Smith (louise.rollins-smith@vanderbilt.edu) if you are interested!

Until next time, be well and take care!

The field crew from our BII workshop in Pymatuning, PA

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June 23, 2022

reinerlk — Thu, 23 Jun 2022 15:00:51 +0000

June 23, 2022 reinerlk Thu, 06/23/2022 - 10:00 RSS:

Hello Summer!

And hello heat! While heat and humidity is the norm for our area, we’ve reached record highs for mid-June with a +100° heat index over several days. To be honest, it's been pretty awful, even for those of us who have lived here all of our lives.

But guess what else is hot!? ALL OF THE SUMMER RESEARCH TAKING PLACE IN THE ROLLINS-SMITH LAB! We are excited to have three summer students working with us; two of them are from the Aspirnaut program here at Vanderbilt, and the third student is employed as a summer intern. We love mentoring young scientists, and these ladies are showing great potential with a bright future ahead of them.

Meet Our Students!

Shouana Yang: Shouana is a high school Aspirnaut student who comes to us from Hmong College Prep Academy in St Paul, MN. She is a member of the Junior Committee where she plans fundraisers in support of her class. She aspires to be a dermatologist, but in the meantime, she enjoys journaling, listening to music, baking, watching films, playing volleyball, and collecting vinyl LPs. Her summer project looks at the interaction between the Jurkat human cell line with either heat killed Bd, Hp, or Bsal cells in a co-culture experiment. Our lab has shown that cell-to-cell interactions between chytrid fungi and immune cells can inhibit proliferation and/or viability of lymphocytes, and Shouana is looking at this interaction with her experiments.

Reagan Hagewood: Reagan is not only an Aspirnaut student but she is also native to the area. She is from La Vergne, TN, which is just a hop, skip, and a jump from Nashville. She attends college in Texas at Prairie View A&M University. There she majors in biology with a minor in chemistry, and she is a member of the Honors Program. Reagan enjoys exploring parks and greenways, reading self-help books, traveling, journaling, and spending time with friends and family. She aspires to be a physician-scientist. During her time in our lab, Reagan is looking at co-cultures of Bd and Bsal to examine the dynamics of how they behave when grown together. Via qPCR, she is looking to see if one species is able to out compete the other. This can lend insight as to what may be happening during Bd/Bsal co-infection in an amphibian.

Sarah Lofland: Sarah is from Philadelphia and attends the University of Pittsburgh, where she is a rising junior. This is not her first rodeo in a research lab; she has previous experience in a biophysics lab in New Jersey. She plans to pursue a PhD upon graduation and is interested in clinical trials research as a career. Sarah is furthering much of the work done by Kaitlyn Linney and Jack Lee by extracting and testing cell wall preps derived from Bd, Bsal, and Hp fungi. Our previous work has shown that their cell walls contain inhibitory factors that can hinder proliferation of immune cells. Sarah is continues this work, and we look forward to her results.

We welcome everyone to the lab and look forward to a fruitful summer! There is funding news on the horizon; stay tuned, and we’ll update you on that in the coming weeks!

Shouana Yang

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October 8, 2021

reinerlk — Wed, 06 Oct 2021 16:34:15 +0000

October 8, 2021 reinerlk Wed, 10/06/2021 - 11:34 RSS:

Happy Fall!

October has arrived and Fall is slowly marching into middle Tennessee. We’ve enjoyed milder temperatures and we’re beginning to see leaves fall from the trees. We’ve even had some fairly cool days in recent weeks!

You know what else is cool? Podcasts! They’re a delightful companion to your pumpkin spice latte and apple cinnamon muffin. The Rollins-Smith Lab is excited to share an episode of a podcast series “Vanderbilt Health DNA: Discoveries in Action.” According to their website, “The DNA series is designed to spark conversations about medicine, health and society.”

The episode entitled “Climate is Us: Why Climate Change is Health Care’s Lane” features interviews with three professors from Vanderbilt University/Vanderbilt University Medical Center including our very own Dr. Rollins-Smith!

Reed Omary, MD, Professor, Radiology & Radiological Sciences
Carol Ziegler, DNP, NP-C, RD, Professor, Cross-College Scholar, Affiliated Faculty, Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health/Family Nurse Practitioner, Meharry Family Practice
Louise Rollins-Smith, PhD, Professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, Professor of Pediatrics

Click on the link below to hear this very special episode.

Climate is Us: Why Climate Change is Health Care’s Lane

And be sure to check out other episodes from this series. They're currently in their second season, so there are a lot of shows to choose from in their library.

The VUMC Reporter has written about this podcast episode, as well as an additional project taking place in the Rollins-Smith Lab. You can read that story here:

VUMC Reporter article

Take care and we'll be back soon with more updates!

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August 25, 2021

reinerlk — Wed, 25 Aug 2021 21:42:37 +0000

August 25, 2021 reinerlk Wed, 08/25/2021 - 16:42 RSS:

Greetings from the Rollins-Smith Lab!

It’s hot and humid around here (also known as August in TN) and time for a few updates!

We’re beginning the fall semester here at Vanderbilt University which is always an exciting time for our lab. We have the opportunity to not only welcome new students into the lab, but we also see the return of former students. We have 2 undergraduate women who will be joining our crew to assist with animal care and other lab chores: Emmy Schuler and Joyce Sanks. Welcome, Ladies! We are looking forward to working with you and thank you in advance for your help. Secondly, Kaitlyn Linney has worked in our lab for several years, and she has returned this fall to continue her research. In the past, she has examined different levels of virulence among various isolates of Bd. Furthermore, she has also looked at temperature dependent levels of virulence in Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal). This semester she will be obtaining cell wall preparations from Bd and possibly Bsal since we believe many virulence factors are located on the cell wall of these fungi. She will test those cell wall fractions for inhibition of either a T lymphocyte cell line or frog splenocytes. Glad you have you back, Kaitlyn!

As you all know, we have several projects in the works (see Projects page) and hope to make great progress on them this fall. We are wrapping up our DOD funded project “Effects of Climate on Host/Pathogen Interactions in Chytridiomycosis” that we’ve been working on for the last five years. This project has involved a great deal of work, so it’s rather bittersweet to see it come to an end. Some publications have already come out of this research, and we are working on additional manuscripts at this time. I will keep you posted on their progress.

We are working with Ana Longo, PhD, and Patricia Burrowes, PhD, on the project “Defining the role of skin microbiomes in defense against chytridiomycosis in frogs with seasonal infections.” Dr. Burrowes and her colleagues have sent us lots of Coqui frog skin secretions obtained from the field in Puerto Rico. We are currently purifying the skin antimicrobial peptides (amps) from those secretions and preparing to test their ability to inhibit Bd growth. We ran across a few technical issues working with these samples over the summer, but we think we’ve ironed out the wrinkles and are anxious to see if there are seasonal effects on the ability of amps to inhibit Bd.

Mitch Le Sage, MS, continues to work on the “Transmission Pathways and Immunological Factors Driving Invasion Potential of Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans” project and making great progress including co-authoring some recent publications/presentations of the work. He is currently setting up an infection experiment with a newt-derived isolate of Bd generously provided to us by Dr. Ana Longo.

I believe that’s the latest to report at this time. We have at least one more project submitted for funding, so we’re keeping our fingers crossed to hear good news in the coming months.

In the meantime…take care, get vaccinated, and wear a mask.

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July 1, 2021

reinerlk — Thu, 15 Jul 2021 16:50:36 +0000

July 1, 2021 reinerlk Thu, 07/15/2021 - 11:50 RSS:

BIG NEWS!

We're stopping by to make a big announcement. We are very excited to report that The Rollins Smith Lab is part of a new NSF-Funded Biology Integration Institute (BII): “Resilience Institute Bridging Biological Training and Research (RIBBiTR)." The institute encompasses nine academic institutions and thirteen senior investigators using field and laboratory studies to investigate how amphibian species are developing long term resistance to the fungal disease called chytridiomycosis that has caused decades-long declines in amphibian populations around the world. The good news is that some populations and some species of amphibians appear to be recovering, and our institute will continue to monitor and investigate the biological mechanisms that support these recoveries.

Needless to say, funding is what keeps us in business and allows us to continue the research we do…research to preserve these beautiful amphibian populations that are integral to a healthy ecosystem. Plus, who doesn’t love hearing them call on a warm summer night? Especially this little guy! He's a barking tree frog that will have you truly wondering "who let the dogs out."

Hello? Hello? Is this thing on...?

In spite of our dreadful attempts at humor, we are grateful to the NSF for supporting this research and we look forward to bringing you updates.

Happy Summer!

Photo credit: Emily Hall, PhD

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May 13, 2021

reinerlk — Thu, 13 May 2021 20:51:17 +0000

May 13, 2021 reinerlk Thu, 05/13/2021 - 15:51 RSS:

Happy Spring from the Rollins-Smith Lab!

Apologies for the long overdue update on the latest from the lab. Somehow time gets away from us and then we turn around to find that spring has sprung here in Nashville! The trees and flowers have been gorgeous in recent weeks. The dogwoods, cherry blossoms, redbuds, azaleas, and forsythia were among some of the most stunning blooms we’ve seen in a while. We are now seeing the irises bloom, and irises are special! They're the state flower so it’s always neat to see them in all their glory. This year’s spring has been exceptionally lovely and filled with cool temperatures to enjoy before the summer heat and humidity arrive.

Tennessee State Flower, the Iris (Photo credit: pixers)

Meanwhile….the Rollins-Smith is perking along like a well-oiled coffee machine. There may be a shortage of gasoline, but there is no shortage of caffeine around here to keep us fueled up and running. As a result, we have two new publications to share!

Bd Review Paper

This is an excellent review paper written by Dr. Rollins-Smith and our post-doctoral fellow, Dr. Emily Le Sage. It’s filled with all you could ever want to know about Batrachochytrium fungi and their relationship with their amphibian hosts.

Bsal Publication

This research looks at the susceptibility of Eastern newts to a newly emerging chytrid fungus, Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal). This is of great importance because Bsal isn’t currently found in the US. There are many ongoing efforts to stave off its entry into the country because this pathogen could have a devastating effect on the amphibian population if it enters the ecosystem. Much of this work was performed by our research assistant Mitchell Le Sage, M.S.

Congratulations, Mitch and our colleagues at the Univ of TN, Knoxville, on your hard work!

As always, publications are very exciting and we are really thrilled to share this work. So grab a latte and a muffin and sit back and enjoy some of our latest research. After all, it’s not like you can drive anywhere, right?

Lastly, we will be joined by a Vanderbilt undergraduate student, Danny Nguyen, this summer. He will work on our Coqui frog project, so stay tuned for additional updates in the coming weeks/months. Welcome, Danny!

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January 4, 2021

reinerlk — Mon, 04 Jan 2021 22:07:40 +0000

January 4, 2021 reinerlk Mon, 01/04/2021 - 16:07 RSS:

Happy New Year from the Rollins-Smith Lab!

We hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and is ready for 2021.

We all appreciate that metaphorical reset button that accompanies January 1^st. But even though we’ve joyfully said goodbye and good riddance to 2020, that doesn’t mean COVID magically disappears. We all must continue to follow the CDC guidelines of wearing facemasks and physical distancing in addition to washing hands and staying home as much as reasonably possible. Thankfully, we now have a working vaccine, so we hope to see lots of injections go into lots of people in the coming weeks. VUMC is actively vaccinating its staff, so rest assured that the current members of the Rollins-Smith Lab are all vacc’d up & mask’d up…or something like that…

Now for the good news: PUBLICATIONS!

We closed out 2020 with the publication of a manuscript that we are very excited about. I can say firsthand that a lot of time and effort went into this research. It called for many late nights in the field collecting amphibians as well as LOTS of skin swabs and skin secretions. This project began in 2017, and it looks at the relationship between climate and disease susceptibility in amphibians.

This is how seriously we took this work.

Click on the link below to read the abstract.

Preparatory immunity: Seasonality of mucosal skin defences and Batrachochytrium infections in Southern leopard frogs

Emily Hall, PhD (pictured above, far left) is our lead author, and she worked very hard to pull together a lot of field data for this manuscript. Congratulations, Dr Hall and colleagues, on this great study!

We also look forward to welcoming back our undergraduate student, Kaitlyn Linney, who will be studying on campus this spring. She will resume her independent project in the lab looking at temperature-dependent virulence levels in Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans. Stay tuned, and we'll provide updates on her project in the coming months.

Until then, stay safe and be well!

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October 1, 2020

reinerlk — Thu, 01 Oct 2020 14:59:59 +0000

October 1, 2020 reinerlk Thu, 10/01/2020 - 09:59 RSS:

Happy Fall from the Rollins-Smith Lab!

We hope everyone is enjoying this nice break from the heat as we have now officially entered the fall season and all things pumpkin spice. We know everyone loves to hate on pumpkin spice, but it’s a necessary evil this time of year. So love it or hate it, it will forever embody cool temperatures, falling leaves, flannel shirts, and the fact that everything is going to be orange for the next 2 months.

In light of this, I highly recommend that you grab yourself a pumpkin spice latte and find yourself a cozy fire pit because we have a fabulous new publication that you’re gonna want to read. Not only do I think it is of extreme interest but it’s also especially relevant in this day and age.

Antibiotics publication

This study examined the effect of amphibian-derived antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) on bacteria commonly found in the human vagina. Previous studies with these AMPs have shown them to inhibit in vitro transmission of HIV. In order to consider them as a prophylaxis, it was critical to test the effect they may have on the normal microbial community within the vagina. Furthermore, we also tested these AMPs for growth inhibition against a relative of the bacteria that causes the STD gonorrhea. Check out the link to the article; the results are very exciting!

This publication is also meaningful because most of the research was conducted by three talented young women who recently worked in the Rollins-Smith Lab…..two of whom were in high school at the time.

Dr. Patricia Smith is a graduate from Vanderbilt University who spent several years working in research at Vanderbilt University Medical Center after she completed her Bachelor’s degree. She worked tirelessly on experiments to test the effects of caerin 1 peptides on lactobacillus growth and tackled much of the troubleshooting to ensure the data were sound. She went on to attend the University of TN Health Science Center College of Medicine and earned her MD in 2017. She is currently a fourth year resident at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, SC.

Anna Ledeczi, a high school student at the time, worked in our lab as part of her enrollment in the School for Science and Math at Vanderbilt. Anna continued experiments testing the effects of caerin 1 peptides on lactobacillus growth. She then tested the effects of active peptides on Neisseria lactamica, a stand in for the pathogenic Neisseria gonorrhoeae. Anna was a bright and motivated student who was always excited to gather data and interpret the results. She is now enrolled in Colombia University where she continues to pursue science.

Julia Rowe was also in high school when she worked in our lab. She spent a great deal of time working on the peptide experiments alongside Dr. Smith. I can recall explaining the concept of molarity to Julia because she hadn’t even taken her first chemistry class yet! Julia earned a Bachelor’s degree in public health with a minor in biology from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and she is now pursuing a Master’s degree in public health at East TN State University. There is no doubt that Julia will be a success in all of her endeavors.

Thanks to Dr. Smith, Anna, and Julia, for all of their hard work. And let's not forget our fearless leader, Dr. Louise Rollins-Smith, for pulling together the data for publication.

And as always, stay tuned! We have manuscripts both submitted and in prep, so I hope to be back soon with more great reading recommendations…..which will no doubt be the perfect complement to all things pumpkin spice.

In the meantime, please take care and be well!

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September 2, 2020

reinerlk — Tue, 01 Sep 2020 20:51:58 +0000

September 2, 2020 reinerlk Tue, 09/01/2020 - 15:51 RSS:

Greetings from the Rollins-Smith Lab!

What!? It's September!? How in the world did that happen!? Where does the time go!?

While the Year of the Plague seems like it will never end, it's also hard to believe we are closing the chapter on summer and looking towards fall. Hopefully some cooler weather and changing leaves will boost our spirits in light of the lingering mental and emotional fatigue.

But we have good news to share! Our lab recently received an NSF award for a new project we are very excited about! This is a collaborative project with Dr. Patricia Burrowes of the University of Puerto Rico and Dr. Ana Longo of the University of Florida. This project will look at immune function of the tropical coqui frog (Eleutherodactylus coqui) in light of seasonal dynamics, specifically focusing on the skin microbial community or the microbiome. The skin microbiome for amphibians can be a key player in innate immunity and it is often driven by seasonal changes. This study will dig into the relationship between amphibian host and chytrid pathogen and how the microbiome may provide protection during different times of the year (cool-dry vs warm-wet). Doctors Burrowes and Longo are both excellent scientists with whom we'll enjoy working. I suggest you check out some of their work.

Secondly, we have accepted a graduate student, William Payne, into our lab for this first rotation period. He will be doing some work looking at the role of leukocytes in response to Bd infection. We are looking forward to adding an additional member to our crew for the next month or so. Welcome, Will!

As always, we hope everyone is healthy and staying safe.

Please be well and check back for updates!

Coqui frog
Photo credit, Wikipedia

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July 29, 2020

reinerlk — Wed, 29 Jul 2020 16:21:45 +0000

July 29, 2020 reinerlk Wed, 07/29/2020 - 11:21 RSS:

Greetings from the Rollins-Smith Lab!

We hope you're keeping sane and healthy in light of the pandemic. The Rollins-Smith Lab is mostly "open for business" these days and getting back to the projects we'd put on hold during the quarantine this spring. We are following CDC guidelines as well as the regulations implemented by both Vanderbilt University and Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Among other things, this includes social distancing, wearing masks, and limiting the number of researchers in both the lab and other common areas. It's not always easy, but safety is priority as we get back to our research.

Speaking of research, we are actively recruiting rotation students at this time, so please reach out to us if you are interested! We have some exciting projects in the works and would love to have a motivated student join us.

And if you're thinking about a rotation with us, check out this fun website we discovered for chytrid-themed merchandise, including face masks! Given the mask mandate, what better way to support your rotation project by wearing it? Metaphorically speaking, of course. This site has all things a chytrid scientist needs to save the frogs including water bottles (it's summer in TN, y'all), spiral notebooks (you're brainstorming all the time, right?!), laptop sleeves (remember that time you dropped your laptop and lost all your data?!), and MOST IMPORTANTLY...coffee mugs. We all know Jonas Salk was running on a well-fortified, caffeine-induced high when he developed the polio vaccine, so don't let yourself be without the basics.

Chytrid merch!

Disclaimer: Neither VU/VUMC, nor the Rollins-Smith Lab, is affiliated with this website or any of these products. They just look cool and fun.

Please contact Dr. Rollins-Smith at louise.rollins-smith@vanderbilt.edu or louise.rollins-smith@vumc.org if you'd like to learn more about a rotation.

In the meantime, please stay safe and be well!

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June 11, 2020

reinerlk — Thu, 11 Jun 2020 15:40:24 +0000

June 11, 2020 reinerlk Thu, 06/11/2020 - 10:40 RSS:

Laura K. Reinert

Greetings from the Rollins-Smith Lab!

We hope all of you are doing well during these trying times.

Needless to say, our lab has been in “maintenance mode” the last few months as a result of COVID-19, so there isn’t a lot to report in terms of research updates at this time. Even though much of our experimental work has been placed on hold, rest assured that our crew has been working on manuscript preparation, project planning, and data analysis during this time outside of the lab.

We are now beginning to return to the “new normal” as Vanderbilt University Medical Center transitions to Phase II for non-clinical and research operations. Our lab should be mostly up and running in the coming weeks.

We are anxious to get back to gathering data and tackling many of our outstanding research questions. We also have some exciting new projects in the pipeline as well as a few pending grant proposals.

Stay tuned for updates!

In the meantime, be kind and stay healthy!

Barking tree frog

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Image Size Requirements in Barista

Visitor — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 18:28:25 +0000

Image Size Requirements in Barista

Resources

Visitor Wed, 02/24/2016 - 12:28 RSS:

Barista Support

Barista has a few areas where images are scaled and cropped automatically. This can prove a bit tricky to get your images to look how you want, unless you know the minimum size requirements. As long as your images meet these requirements, you shouldn't have any trouble adding images to your website.

When placing an image, you should test your site at different sizes (e.g., on a mobile device or in a narrow browser window) as page widths adjust dynamically depending on the available width of the browser. Wondering why ideal sizes are so large? The larger size is used for high resolution displays, e.g., retina displays.

Slideshow Block

The slideshow block is designed to showcase landscape-oriented images, not portrait. Ideally, images for the full-width slideshow placed in the "Featured" region are at least 2016 x 850 pixels, but at minimum 1008 x 425 pixels. Images for the "homepage style" slideshow are ideally at least 1224 x 816 pixels, but at minimum 612 x 408 pixels. Other slideshow placements (full-width slideshows placed in the "Content" region) are also ideally at least 1224 x 816 pixels, but at minimum 612 x 408 pixels.

Directory / Person Page

Headshots should be 400 x 534 pixels at minimum. It's ok to use 200 x 267 pixels, but those images may not look good on retina displays.

Blog / Blog Post

Thumbnail Image The thumbnail image field has a fixed width of 150 pixels. This means if you upload an image larger than 150 pixels wide, it will shrink your image down to 150 pixels wide. If you upload an image smaller than 150 pixels wide, it will increase your image to 150 pixels wide and your image will appear blurry. It's best to use an image 150 pixels wide or larger. The length of your image can vary and will be adjusted to the width proportionally.

Post Image The size of your image will be adjusted proportionally depending on if you have sidebar blocks showing on your post pages or not. For posts that show sidebar blocks, the post image will have a fixed width of 184 pixels. For posts that do not show sidebar blocks, the post image will have a fixed width of 296 pixels. For best image results, upload the largest size and it will be adjusted proportionally. The length of your image can vary.

Tips and Tricks for Adjusting Images

Editing Images Outside of Barista

If you have access to photo editing software, like Photoshop, it may be a good idea to adjust your images before you upload them into Barista. (If you don't have Photoshop, try searching the web for free alternatives for photo editing.)

It's always good to keep the proportion of images in mind. For example, if you have a large headshot image, you could crop the image to the exact size needed (400 x 534 pixels). By cropping the image beforehand, you reduce the background area and can focus more on the actual headshot. If you uploaded a larger headshot, Barista will reduce the image, therefore keeping the large background area and it will make the headshot look smaller.

Adding White Space or a Clear Background

If you don't like the set sizes of some areas, you can work around them by adding white space or a clear background to your image before you upload it into Barista. For example, thumbnail images for the blog template are set at 150 pixels wide. If you feel the images at this size are too big, you can use the trick of adding white space to make them appear smaller.

First, you'll need to edit your image outside of Barista. Decrease the size of your original image to the size you prefer for the thumbnail. Next add white space (or better, a clear background) around your image that makes the image 150 pixels wide. (In Photoshop, this is done by increasing the canvas area.) Now when you upload that image into Barista, it won't get enlarged because it meets the minimum requirement, but will appear smaller due to the white space you added.

PRO TIP Never increase the size of an image or upload an image that is smaller than the minimum requirement. Doing either of these will blow up the image and make it appear blurry and pixelated. If you absolutely can't get a larger image, try the white space trick mentioned above so Barista won't automatically enlarge the image.

Tags

Barista, images, blog/blog post, directory page, person page, blocks

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Vanderbilt News Feeds for RSS Reader Blocks

Visitor — Tue, 16 Feb 2016 16:13:15 +0000

Vanderbilt News Feeds for RSS Reader Blocks

Resources

Visitor Tue, 02/16/2016 - 10:13 RSS:

Barista Support

A great website not only has compelling images and original content, but also ever-changing content. You're more likely to increase your returning visitor rate by having content that is fresh and up-to-date. One way to do this is to create a blog on your site. This can be department news, VUMC news, or perhaps a specific area of medicine. The key to blogging is to do it consistently, so what if you don't have time? That's where the VUMC News feeds come in handy!

What are VUMC News feeds?

Did you know that content featured in VUMC News is tagged? Not only that, but each tag has its own feed! What does this mean for you? It means an ever-changing, updating stream of news that you can add to your website and it maintains itself. For those of you that don't have time (or enough content) to start a blog, you can still implement a news-style block on your website.

How do I find available feeds from VUMC News?

Lucky for us, VUMC News has a list of tags and their feeds. You can view this list at http://news.vumc.org/subscribe/available-feeds/ Most likely you'll find your department feed and probably a few other feeds that would make sense to show on your website.

As an example, here is the School of Medicine listing.

You'll find two links for every listing. The first link (in this case the text "School of Medicine") will take you to the page on VUMC News where you can view all the stories tagged School of Medicine, newest listed first. The link for this is http://news.vumc.org/tag/school-of-medicine/. Add "feed" to the end of this URL (http://news.vumc.org/tag/school-of-medicine/feed). This will be the link used to create an RSS block in Barista.

How do I create an RSS block using the Vanderbilt News feeds?

Now that you have your feed URL, you can create an RSS block. Select "Blocks" from the top black admin bar. Next select the blue "Add Custom Block" button.

Select "RSS Reader" for the type of block.

On the next screen will be your settings. Create a label to identify the block in your block listing. The title is optional, but can be something like "School of Medicine News." In the RSS URL field, you'll want to add your feed URL. You can add multiple feed URLs into one block and the feeds will be merged and sorted by date. Alternatively you can create multiple RSS blocks and display the feeds separately.

Select the rest of the block settings according to your preferences and save the block. Place the RSS block on a page by editing the desired page and checking the box next to your newly created RSS block.

Now your site has a news area that will update automatically every time a new story is published with your specific tag. Easy to maintain and you're providing your readers with ever-changing, up-to-date content.

Tags

blocks, Barista

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Faculty Database Integration with Barista

Visitor — Wed, 20 Jan 2016 06:00:00 +0000

Faculty Database Integration with Barista

Updates and New Features

Visitor Wed, 01/20/2016 - 00:00 RSS:

Barista Support

It's now easier to create directory pages in Barista with our integration with the Faculty Database. Instead of manually creating a Person Page for each faculty member, you can now import their data from the Faculty Database. Not only does this save time, but it keeps information accurate across several websites since it's coming from one source.

What is the Faculty Database?

The Faculty Database is where profile information on each School of Medicine faculty is stored and managed. Faculty (and their delegates) can maintain their profile through this database. The information from the database can then be viewed through other websites such as those on the Barista platform and School of Medicine Faculty Profiles.

How do I use the Faculty Database in Barista?

First, select Person Directory Page from the Create Content dropdown in the top black administration bar. Give your new directory a title and select your preferred layout options under Directory Settings.

The People to Display section is where you will manage information that pulls from the Faculty Database.

Group Title - This field is optional, but you can use it to group people on your directory into categories. For instance, if you wanted to separate primary and secondary faculty, you could name them accordingly here.

Populate this group from Faculty Database - Check this box to pull information from the Faculty Database. Once you check this box, you will be able to use search terms from the database to populate your directory. Learn more on this in the Populating from the Faculty Database section below.

Person(s) from your site to include - In this section you'll find a dropdown where you can select People Pages you've already created manually on your site. This is useful if you want to include people in your directory who are not in the Faculty Database. You must create the Person Page first, and then you can add them to your directory in this section. Select the blue "add another" option to continue to add manually-created person pages to your directory.

TIP To remove a person page from your directory, simply change their dropdown field to "none" and save the directory page.

IMPORTANT Manual sorting is not applicable to groups containing results from the Faculty Database. Manual sorting applies to directories containing only manually-created person pages.

Remove this directory group - This will delete the entire directory group from your directory page.

Add another directory group - This will add another directory group to your directory page.

Populating from the Faculty Database

Once you check the box to use the Faculty Database integration, you will see a few search options.

Department - This field is required. Choose the department from which you want to search for faculty. You can choose multiple departments at a time in this field. To remove a department, select the "x" next to the department name.

Affiliation - An affiliation is a group that can be made of faculty across several departments. For example, you may want to include faculty that are part of a center or program.

Appointment Types - Select the appointment type. Leave this field blank to include all appointment types. You can choose multiple appointment types at a time in this field. To remove an appointment type, select the "x" next to the appointment type name.

VUNetIDs - Enter the specific VUNetIDs of those faculty you want to include (if you don't want to include everyone). Leave this field blank if you want to include everyone. You can add multiple VUNetIDs at a time by separating the VUNetIDs with commas. Please note, the Faculty Database uses VUnetID, not VUMCnetID.

Excluded VUNetIDs - Enter the specific VUNetIDs of those faculty you want to exclude from the search. You can add multiple VUNetIDs at a time by separating the VUNetIDs with commas.

Remove this search - The red "x" at the end of the row of search fields will remove the search criteria.

Add another search to this group - This will add another search to your group.

What if information from the Faculty Database needs to be updated?

Faculty (and their delegates) can maintain their profile through the database. Faculty information from the Faculty Database cannot be updated through Barista. To update information, faculty can log in to the Faculty Database. Once logged in, faculty can assign delegates to access their profiles. Delegates will then have access to update that faculty member's information in the database.

What if I need to update my profile picture?

Faculty (and their delegates) can update their profile pictures through the Faculty Database. Profile pictures cannot be updated through Barista. Log in to the Faculty Database to update your profile picture.

What if I used to have access as a delegate, but I don’t anymore?

Faculty can assign individual delegates to their profiles by logging in to the Faculty Database. Once logged in, faculty can assign delegates to access their profiles.

Tags

Barista, directory page, person page, faculty database

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How to Use the Summary Option on a Blog

Visitor — Fri, 15 Jan 2016 14:57:21 +0000

How to Use the Summary Option on a Blog

How-To Guides

Visitor Fri, 01/15/2016 - 08:57 RSS:

Barista Support

What is the Summary option and why should I use it?

If you use the built-in blog feature in Barista, you've probably noticed that you have two options of how to show your posts on the blog page. One is to show the full post and the second is to show a teaser of each post. Showing a teaser of each post is a great option, because it eliminates a lot of scrolling and your readers are likely to stay on your blog longer if they can quickly see your posts.

However, if you choose to use the teaser option, you'll find it doesn't appear as clean. Different image sizes, font sizes, and font styles for each post can make your blog hard to read. This is where using the Summary option comes in handy!

The Summary field allows you to write a short sentence or two summarizing what your post is about. When you use the Summary option, the blog page will show your short summary instead of a teaser, and your blog page will look much cleaner.

Where can I find the Summary option?

Each time you write a post, you have the option to use the Summary field. You can also go back to older posts and add a Summary. For the Summary option to work, you must set your blog to show "Teaser" under the Blog Settings menu in edit mode.

In edit mode for a post, scroll down just a bit until you see the Body area with the text editor. You should see Body (Edit summary). Select the "Edit summary" link.

A new Summary box with a text editor will show above the Body box. This is where you will type your summary text. I usually write my post first, then go back to this area and summarize it. You can select "Hide summary" if you want to close this box. Hiding the summary will not remove the text you typed.

Once you've created your summaries for each post, you'll see your blog page appears much cleaner and shorter. This WAG blog is an example of a blog that uses the Summary option for each post.

Tags

Barista, blog/blog post

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How to Create Content Behind VUNetID

Visitor — Tue, 15 Dec 2015 15:08:11 +0000

How to Create Content Behind VUNetID

How-To Guides

Visitor Tue, 12/15/2015 - 09:08 RSS:

Barista Support

Barista has a built-in feature allowing content editors to restrict viewing access on any type of content and it's extremely easy to use. You will have two options with access control.

Anyone with a VUNetID

The first level of access control is restricting viewing to anyone with a VUNetID. This means exactly that. Anyone with a VUNetID can log in and view the content on your restricted page.

To implement this feature, edit the page you want to put behind VUNetID and expand the Access Control box to the right.

By default, Everyone is selected. This means your page is public. Change the access control to Anyone with a VUNetID and then save your page. Now, when someone visits this page on your site, they'll see the login below. They can view the contents on the page by logging in with their VUNetID.

If this page is in your navigation menu, a lock icon will show next to the page title, signaling that a login is required.

Specific VUNetIDs

You may want to restrict access to pages on your site even further. Perhaps you don't want everyone with a VUNetID to access your content, but only specific people with VUNetIDs. This is easy to do in Barista, but has a few more steps than the previous option.

The first step is to create a group. This group will contain the VUNetIDs of the specific people you want to be able to access your content.

Creating a Group

To create a group, go to the Users section in the top black admin bar. Scroll down to the Your Groups section. Enter a name for your group and select the green "Create new group" button. You will not be able to edit the name later, but you can delete a group. For this example, our group name is Test Group.

Next add the specific VUNetIDs of those that belong in the group and select the green “Add user” button. You can remove members from a group by checking the box to the left of the VUNetID you want to remove and select the red “Remove checked users” button.

Deleting a Group

To delete a group, select the red “Delete” button in the top right corner of the group area.

Assigning a Group to a Page

To use the Group feature, create a page or edit an existing page on your site. Expand the Access Control area in the right sidebar. Select the “Only members of the user group(s) checked below” option, then check the box next to the user group. The group you created should show here. This will lock down the page to only allow those in the user group to view it. Content Editors will always be able to view any page on the site and do not need to be added to the user group(s).

Tags

Barista, access control, groups, users

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How to Manage Users in Barista

Visitor — Mon, 23 Nov 2015 17:55:37 +0000

How to Manage Users in Barista

How-To Guides

Visitor Mon, 11/23/2015 - 11:55 RSS:

Barista Support

Viewing Content Editors

If you're already a content editor on a Barista site, you can add and remove other content editors. To view a list of your site's current content editors, select Users from the top black admin bar. In the Users section, you'll see a box for Content Editors. This is where you'll find a list of VUNetIDs of all the Content Editors on your site.

Adding Content Editors

IMPORTANT Keep in mind that all Content Editors have the ability to edit all pages on the site and configure site settings.

To add a Content Editor, type their VUNetID in the “Add a VUNetID to this group” box. Select the green “Add user” button. You may add multiple users at once by separating their VUNetIDs with commas.

Removing Content Editors

To remove a Content Editor, check the box to the left of the VUNetID you want to remove. Select the red “Remove checked users” button.

Managing Groups

In the Users section, you can also create specific groups of VUNetIDs. This is helpful when you want to protect a page beyond everyone who has a VUNetID. This will allow you to grant access to a page on your site to a specific group of people. They will not have access to edit your site, only to view what you lock down.

Creating Groups

To create a group, enter a name for your group and select the green "Create new group" button. You will not be able to edit the name later, but you can delete a group. For this example, our group name is Test Group.

Deleting a Group

To delete a group, select the red “Delete” button in the top right corner of the group area.

Assigning a Group to a Page

Tags

Barista, users, groups, content editors, access control

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How to Create Links on Pages

Visitor — Mon, 19 Oct 2015 14:23:46 +0000

How to Create Links on Pages

How-To Guides

Visitor Mon, 10/19/2015 - 09:23 RSS:

Barista Support

How do I link text to a page on my site?

Type the text you want to link. Highlight that text and select the "Link" button.

The "Add Link" window will open with two options, linking to a File, or a URL.

How to create a website link

Once the "Add Link" box is open, enter the URL of the website or webpage the text should link to and click the "Save" button. The URL can be either to another website, or another page within your website.

How to create a link to a file or document

Once the "Add Link" box is open, click the "Open File Browser" link. This opens the file browser for the website, allowing you to find the file needed or upload a new file for the link.

Tags

Barista, text editor

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