Kara Oberle has joined the lab this semester. She is a graduate of Kansas State University and will be working as a lab technician for the guinea pig steroid project. Currently, Kara is learning the techniques used in the lab, but soon she will be continuing Robert Alexander's project. She will be studying the effects of prenatal steroids on the development of the diaphragm in guinea pigs.

 
Ryan Spragg has also joined the lab this semester. He is studying the diaphragm of bottlenose dolphins to determine if the region of this muscle around the esophagus acts as a sphincter to prevent regurgitation at depth. He will be comparing the fiber-type profile of this region of the diaphragm to the costal region to determine if there is an increased proportion of slow-twitch fibers around the esophagus. A high percentage of slow-twitch fibers is a characteristic of sphincters, which require the ability of these fibers to contract for long periods without fatigue.

Kent Thompson has been a member of the Dearolf lab since this past summer. Kent's project is a study of the effects of prenatal steroids on an expiratory muscle in guinea pigs, the rectus abdominus. Kent is currently imaging the stained control and treated fetal muscles and beginning data collection. He is also presenting his results at the 2007 SICB meeting. Click on the picture to read our abstract.