NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2013

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The origins of mammalian and avian red blood cells and vascular supply in long bones: Biological insights from Recent and fossil boneRed blood cells (RBCs) are essential for uptake and delivery of oxygen to tissues vertebrates. The sizes and shapes of RBCs vary considerably across vertebrate groups, variation that partly reflects the relationship among RBC size, capillary diameter, kinetics of gas uptake, and aerobic capacities. The structure of cortical canals in bone limits capillary sizes and flow rates, and affects shear stresses in the capillaries. Fellowship funds will support three years of postdoctoral research at University of Utah, during which the fellow will learn imaging technologies (like µ-CT visualization) and experimental paleophysiology techniques, and about ethical research and public outreach activities aimed at disadvantaged students. Lab activities will include surveys of blood values, RBC sizes, and femoral cortical vascular supply (using traditional histology and µ-CT), as well as experiments to study effects of ambient oxygen on vascular supply to bone of alligators. The fellow will analyze data from fossils to identify fossilizable indicators of blood and oxygen transport in non-avian dinosaurs and mammal ancestors.The fellow's research will support student projects on histology and analytical resources at the University of Utah, fostering the professional development of future scientists. The fellow will collaborate with the sponsoring scientist and the Natural History Museum of Utah in constructing "toolboxes" for educating blind children about evolutionary biology, the fossil record, and functional morphology. By reaching out to blind students, the fellow will broaden participation in biology to people who aspire to be future leaders in biological sciences. Data resulting from this project will be archived on a freely-accessible online database of histology images, facilitated partially through the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent) and NSF-supported MorphoBank.org.