FARMINGTON — University of Maine Farmington biology professor Timothy Breton has received a $551,599 grant from the National Science Foundation to conduct studies that could lead to new research on the brain, pancreas and gut health, and new commercial and therapeutic applications.

Breton has assembled a preliminary team of biology students to assist him in the three-year project to study a family of hormone receptors found in the cell membrane of fish and humans and how they affect reproduction. The work will be a continuation of his 2021 research on hormone receptors, in which he discovered a new gene with potential biomedical and commercial uses.

It will also provide hands-on experience to students at high schools in Farmington, Dixfield, Paris and Skowhegan.

Research assistants include Will Harriman, a junior from Biddeford majoring in pre-med biology; Maria Oliveira, a junior originally from Brazil majoring in pre-med biology; Joanna Korasadowicz, a sophomore from Alexander majoring in pre-med biology; and Eme Saverese, a senior from Farmington majoring in biology.

“This NSF grant is an excellent example of how small universities are able to explore interesting research questions and leverage them into further student opportunities,” Breton said.

The research assistants will have the opportunity to be involved with cutting-edge techniques. The data from this project will also provide a hands-on research experience in computational bioinformatics to UMF students and participants at Dirigo High School in Dixfield, Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School in Paris, Mt. Blue High School in Farmington and Skowhegan High School.

“Experience with these career-based skills is especially important as life science industries are among the fastest growing occupational areas in Maine,” Breton said.

UMF will be working with fish supplied by the University of Florida, specifically using zebra fish, mummichog and the puffer fish, Breton said.

“Essentially, what one of the big things that they’re doing this year is going to be studying these groups of genes,” he said. “We don’t really know what their functions are, or really sort of where they’re located in certain organs.

“They’re going to be looking at certain tissues, different types of organs,” he said, “and we’re going to be slicing it up into little thin sections and they’re going to actually be seeing these genes light up in the tissues on the microscope slides and basically mapping where these genes are found.”

There will be also be two collaborators: the University of Florida providing the fish samples and Belgium and Germany where the chemical compound used on the fish samples is produced.

UMF President Joseph McDonnell called the project a “valuable investment in Western Maine. This collaborative regional partnership will provide hands-on research experience to UMF students and high school students and educators helping them develop high level, career-focused skills in the life sciences,” he said in a news release.

Copy the Story Link