Redesign your in-person course for online: Creating connections and promoting engagement for better learning.

This spring, instructors moved their courses online in an emergency fashion as campuses were closed due to the pandemic. As colleges prepare for the next academic year, there is a need to provide flexible instruction that is more intentional for quality online learning. We taught two undergraduate courses online for the first time this spring and surveyed our students' reactions to the course experiences.

Professional societies can play a vital role in career development.

Ph.D.s in the life sciences are seeking nonacademic careers in large numbers, and private sector employment is reaching an all-time high.

From bench to board-side: Academic teaching careers.

Teaching positions provide a rewarding career pathway for Ph.D.s wishing to stay in academia outside of the research-focused position.

3D morphological analysis of spiral intestine morphogenesis in the little skate, Leucoraja erinacea.

Background: The evolution of organ asymmetries is less explored than the field of organ morphology and coiling. The digestive tract of elasmobranchs provides a fascinating model for studying the evolution of morphological asymmetries. Unique to elasmobranchs and all basal fishes is the spiral intestine, which may represent an intermediate morphology in evolution from the straight gut of lamprey to the elongated coils of higher vertebrates.

RNA in situ hybridization in whole mount embryos and cell histology adapted for marine elasmobranchs.

Marine elasmobranchs are valued animal models for biomedical and genomic studies as they are the most primitive vertebrates to have adaptive immunity and have unique mechanisms for osmoregulation. As the most primitive living jawed-vertebrates with paired appendages, elasmobranchs are an evolutionarily important model, especially for studies in evolution and development. Marine elasmobranchs have also been used to study aquatic toxicology and stress physiology in relationship to climate change.

Evidence of a rudimentary colon in the elasmobranch, Leucoraja erinacea.

The transition from aquatic to terrestrial life presented tetrapodamorphs with the challenge of maintaining water homeostasis and preventing desiccation on land. The colon evolved in terrestrial vertebrates to help maintain fluid balance. Although marine elasmobranchs lack a colon, their spiral intestine contains a subregion that histologically appears to be colon-like, possibly representing an evolutionary precursor to terrestrial digestive tracts.

Comparison of acid mucin goblet cell distribution and Hox13 expression patterns in the developing vertebrate digestive tract.

The digestive tract of vertebrates is a complex organ system required for the digestion of food and the absorption of nutrients. The colon evolved as a water absorption organ essential for vertebrates to survive on land. In contrast to land vertebrates, the Chondrichthyes (sharks, skates and rays) are nearly iso-osmotic with their ocean environment and do not reabsorb water from food waste.

Sox9 and Nkx2.5 determine the pyloric sphincter epithelium under the control of BMP signaling.

The organs of the digestive tract are specified by coordinated signaling between the endoderm and mesoderm during development. These epithelial-mesenchymal interactions lead to the organ-specific morphogenesis and differentiation of regions along the gut tube. In this paper, we show that in the chick, the SRY-related transcription factor Sox9 is a marker for the posterior gizzard.

Wnt signaling during development of the gastrointestinal tract.

Wnt signaling pathways have been demonstrated to play important roles in controlling tissue patterning and cell proliferation. In the gastrointestinal tract, mutations that lead to activation of the canonical Wnt pathway through beta-catenin result in familial and sporadic colon cancers. The downstream transcription factor Tcf4 is required to maintain the proliferative stem cell compartment in the crypts of the small intestine.