News >

Titled “TtRET1 Is Required for Mating Initiation in Tetrahymena thermophila,” the project—also co-authored by marine biology major Brandon Garcia ’23—examines how membranes, which form the barriers between the inside and outside of a cell, acquire their shape. The group found that a membrane bending protein is required for the changes in cell shape that occur during mating in Tetrahymena.

This was Williams’ first scientific research conference, and while there were over 2,000 poster presentations across many disciplines within biomedicine, he received a poster presentation award. The same research also led to a peer-reviewed publication in the journal Micropublication Biology.

Williams' work in the lab focused on how the barriers that separate the inside of the cell from the outside (called membranes) get their shape. Membrane shape changes dramatically when cells divide, move, and grow, and alterations in membrane shape are associated with all sorts of diseases.

To study this, Guerrier and Williams used a single-cell organism, called Tetrahymena thermophila, because of its ease to grow in the lab, its similarity to human cell proteins, and the ability to make it undergo membrane changes as part of their mating process in the lab, thus yielding a reproducible way to study membrane shape. Williams found that a protein that they discovered was important for membrane shape changes that happen early in the mating process in Tetrahymena.

The annual ABRCMS is the American Society for Microbiology's (ASM) conference in support of multidisciplinary science and workforce development. Now in its 24th year, ABRCMS has been the premier multidisciplinary scientific conference for supporting all communities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, including those historically excluded in these fields. ABRCMS focuses on academic excellence, career and workforce development for scientists of all career stages, including community college, undergraduate and postbaccalaureate students.

• Biology |
• Highlights |
• Student-Faculty Collaborative Scholarship