Pilots Prevent
March 9, 2021
As UP professors proved when classes shifted online last spring, it’s entirely possible to teach an in-depth curriculum even when you can’t be physically present in a classroom. However, for the professors and students conducting research in labs, the switch to online learning wasn’t so much a pivot as it was a full stop. But with safety measures and protocols in place, many professors and students have been able to get back to their lab work, and they couldn’t be happier.
“The research has been a bright spot in this year for me,” says Cara Poor, assistant professor in the Shiley School of Engineering. “And the students are so appreciative and happy that they can be in the lab and finish their project. A lot are graduating this year, so it’s nice they can finish their project before graduating.”
Poor is overseeing two research projects that literally can’t be done without in-person field and lab work. One group is testing the efficacy of a retrofitted device designed to remove the phosphorous in the stormwater that comes from the green roof on Shiley. The other group is evaluating how age might affect how much phosphorous leaches out in the stormwater infiltration basins around campus, comparing the newer basins to the older ones. Both groups have to take samples every time it rains and get into the labs to evaluate them.
“They can’t do it virtually,” says Poor. “They have to go get samples and use the instruments in the lab to analyze them.”
The same is true for assistant biology professor David Wynne’s project. “All of my research is with lab organisms that we grow on campus,” he says. “Everything we do has to be done using the incubators and microscopes.”
Wynne’s research team studies ways to regulate cell division in a way that produces no errors. “In terms of medical applications, the proteins we’re interested in are targeted in chemotherapies,” he says. “We study the same proteins that are important to cancer.”
Luckily, it’s a long-term project that Wynne was able to keep going on his own over the summer, but he’s relieved to have students back in action, even if the COVID protocols mean it’s at a slower pace.
“Normally we’d have multiple people in the lab at once, but now only one person can be in the lab at a time.” Still, the students are more than willing to follow the rules. “They follow the protocols no problem. They don’t want anything to spoil their experience of being in the lab. It’s fair to say they were chomping at the bit to get back in and do their research.”
Poor says one of her student research groups has even inadvertently tested the efficacy of UP’s Pilots Prevent protocols. “We had a bit of a scare,” she says. “The roommate of one of our researchers got COVID. He stayed home when he found out. He ended up testing positive, but no one else got COVID. It’s comforting to know it didn’t spread through the whole lab. Our safety measures are working. All of our students are really careful about staying masked and distanced, and wiping down countertops and doorknobs.”
Clearly UP’s research students are a conscientious bunch who embrace their responsibility in ensuring in-person lab experiences can continue during the pandemic. “I’ve had two research students working with me throughout COVID,” says Susan Murray, associate professor of biology, whose team is studying how targeted cancer therapies affect T cells in the immune system. “It’s ‘in-person’ research because the students are physically in Swindells Hall setting up experiments. However, we all go into the lab at separate times and only see one another via Zoom.” She credits the students’ early training before the pandemic hit, but also their work-ethic, for keeping the research going. “Because these two students are so responsible, motivated, and self-reliant, it has worked well.”
Jordy Wolfand, assistant professor in the Shiley School of Engineering, says all of the COVID safety restrictions are worth it because there’s no substitute for hands-on research. “I think that research in general is an awesome experience for students,” she says. “It’s so experiential.” She recalls a recent snafu that threatened to stymie her team of three students studying the presence of microplastics in Portland stormwater. “We were out in the field pumping water out of a manhole and the pump wasn’t working. They were like, ‘OK guys, remember back to fluids class?’ It was an awesome example of a problem they’ve solved on paper occurring in real life, and they solved it.”
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