Laura Robles: Researcher and Associate Attend International Conference on Malacology

Laura J. Robles, dean of graduate studies and research and professor of biology attended the World Congress of Malacology last month in Antwerp, Belgium. Accompanying her was Shannon Kelly (Class of ’07, M.S., biology), who is an adjunct faculty member in the chemistry and biology departments and a Minority Biomedical Research Support Program (MBRS) research associate in Robles’ laboratory. The conference was a joint meeting of the American Malacological Society and the European Unitas Malacologia. It was held on the Groenenborger campus of the University of Antwerp. International participants gave presentations on molluscan evolution, ecotoxicology, physiology, taxonomy and ecology.

Robles co-chaired a session on “Molluscan Models: Advancing Our Understanding of the Eye” with Dr. Jeanne Serb from Iowa State University. In the session, Robles gave a presentation on “Using the Octopus to Understand the Cell Biology of the Eye,” which was followed by a presentation by Kelly on “Analysis of the 3’ Untranslated Regions of a-Tubulin and S-crystallin mRNA and Identification of CPEB in Dark- and Light-Adapted Octopus Retinas.” Kelly’s presentation was a summary of her master’s thesis, which she completed this summer at Dominguez Hills.

“It was very rewarding to present my research to a reflective and enthusiastic international audience,” Kelly says. “This was my first international conference, although I’ve encountered international researchers at national conferences, such as one for the American Society for Cell Biology. There I met Dr. Joram Piatigorsky from the National Eye Institute at U.S. National Institutes of Health, who pioneered crystallin research in the octopus lens and he shared some very stimulating insights and recommendations as to what other directions I could take my research. I was also pleased to have enlightened Dr. Piatigorsky as he was taken with the CPEB/CPE topic and has decided to investigate its role in his own research.”

After receiving her Bachelor of Science from MIT, Kelly did research in academia at Tufts University and in industry at Millennium Pharmaceuticals. She began working with Robles at Dominguez Hills in 2003 and decided to pursue her master’s degree here since because the university offered some higher level chemistry and biology classes that she wanted to take as refresher courses.

For more than 30 years, Robles has been conducting research on the similarities of the octopus retina to its human counterpart. She describes the variety of research – and breakthroughs – that have been facilitated through similar methods.

“Besides being an important food source and providing us with beautiful pearls coveted for centuries,” says Robles, “the mollusk continues to be an important animal in which to study basic cellular and molecular processes, especially those connected to the nervous system.

“In the 1950s, A.L. Hodgkin and A.F. Huxley studied the electrical properties of the squid giant axon,” she goes on to say. “Their work led to our understanding of how nerve cells conduct electrical impulses and they received the Nobel Prize for this pioneering study. The common sea slug, Aplysia californica, which is found in our coastal inter-tidal pools, has provided valuable information about learning and memory through groundbreaking work by Dr. Eric Kandel, professor of physiology and psychiatry at the Center for Neurobiology and Behavior of the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He also received the Nobel Prize in 2000 for this work.”

Robles is program director for the MBRS Research Initiative for Scientific Enhancement (RISE) and Support of Continuous Research Excellence (SCORE) programs. Last spring, she hosted the California State University’s systemwide student research event on the Dominguez Hills campus. She is currently preparing for the CSU Dominguez Hills Student Research Day to be held on campus on November 15.

For more information on Student Research Day, click here.

- Joanie Harmon

Photo above: Shannon Kelly, MBRS research associate (Class of ’07, M.S., biology) Photo by Joanie Harmon