dialogue

studentwise: Fostering Collaboration

by Elizabeth Slocum
Carolyn Bauer and Daniela Kim smiling in a science lab, holding a large cutout of a degu. In the background are graphs drawn on a whiteboard.
laurence kesterson
Assistant Professor of Biology Carolyn Bauer (left) and Daniela Kim ’23 with a cardboard model of a degu. In reality, degus are far smaller, about the size of a hamster.
Daniela Kim ’23, a bioeducation special major from Weston, Fla., worked with Assistant Professor of Biology Carolyn Bauer last summer on a behavioral study of how fostering affects postnatal development of the degu (Octodon degus), a species of social rodent related to guinea pigs and chinchillas. The research team — which also included Krystle Boadi ’23, Sabrina Ellah ’24, and Kaja Arusha ’24 — videotaped the degus and engaged in animal husbandry to see if being fostered with siblings causes less stress than being fostered alone.

studentwise: Fostering Collaboration

by Elizabeth Slocum
Daniela Kim ’23, a bioeducation special major from Weston, Fla., worked with Assistant Professor of Biology Carolyn Bauer last summer on a behavioral study of how fostering affects postnatal development of the degu (Octodon degus), a species of social rodent related to guinea pigs and chinchillas. The research team — which also included Krystle Boadi ’23, Sabrina Ellah ’24, and Kaja Arusha ’24 — videotaped the degus and engaged in animal husbandry to see if being fostered with siblings causes less stress than being fostered alone.
Carolyn Bauer and Daniela Kim smiling in a science lab, holding a large cutout of a degu. In the background are graphs drawn on a whiteboard.
laurence kesterson
Assistant Professor of Biology Carolyn Bauer (left) and Daniela Kim ’23 with a cardboard model of a degu. In reality, degus are far smaller, about the size of a hamster.
 Why degus?  Similar to humans, both female and male adult degus provide parental care, and they will readily accept fostered offspring.
Major findings:  The team is still analyzing Kim’s behavioral videos, but Boadi’s research found that mothers provide less maternal care to fostered litters, and Arusha and Ellah discovered differences in weight gain and play behaviors between pups fostered by themselves vs. those fostered with their siblings.
Providing support:  The research was sponsored by a Eugene M. Lang Summer Research Fellowship.
Working collaboratively:  “I most enjoy the energy that Daniela and my other students bring to the project,” says Bauer. “Because the pandemic had prevented in-person research in summer 2020, we were all just so happy to be working together on an exciting project.”
Lab time: The labmates spent about 350 hours total on the research. “But some days were very long, whereas others were short,” Bauer says. “When you’re working with live animals, you have to adapt your schedule to them!”
Looking ahead:  “In the future, I hope to become an OB-GYN,” says Kim, “so I love learning about development and how it can be affected by different factors, such as stress.”
What they did: The team worked together to monitor animal weight and health, take biological samples, and record behavior. Kim focused on assessing anxiety-related behaviors via behavioral tests, while the other lab members analyzed maternal care, offspring play behavior, and development of the offspring’s endocrine stress response.