The new research team, 2021-2022

Ants, flies, summer research, SICB conference, and new respirometry setups!

Our 2021 summer research took place in a temporary space in the new Science Complex while the renovation of Albertus Magnus Hall made our main lab inaccessible. The sunshine and huge space was appreciated and put to use!

We did a lot of collecting, including this trip to a park outside Boston with BU PhD student Zach Coto, who is collaborating with us on measuring the metabolic rates of ant brains.

One of the ants we studied was the invasive needle ant, which happens to be found outside one dorm on campus, mostly in and around the irrigation supply/access boxes.

Here’s a closeup of one of our campus needle ants, Brachyponera chinensis.

One of our part-time lab members, Bobby, inspecting our ant colonies with the help of Diraliz (PC ‘23).

We spent a lot of time dissecting the brains out of flies and ants, to measure their oxygen consumption rates using an Agilent Seahorse metabolic phenotyping system.

Presenting the first results from our summer’s research at the SURF conference at URI.

In the Fall, we participated in the Rhode Island Natural History Survey’s Bioblitz in Cumberland, RI.

One of our major research drives has been adapting the Sable Systems MAVEn for doing thermophysiology, measuring the metabolic rates of ants and flies across a range of temperatures.

We’re using a mouth aspirator (“pooter”) to move flies from their vials into respirometry chambers to avoid the metabolic impacts of gas-based anesthesia.

You really can’t take Dr. Waters anywhere. Here, they aren’t doing yoga, but they are looking at a huge colony of Camponotus ants found under a large rock beside a portable toilet in the desert near Payson, Arizona.

Kate and Princely, proud of one of our lab’s posters at the SICB meeting (Phoenix, AZ).

Arizona was pretty awesome, love doing research, growing, and exploring with this crew!