Contact:  Rick Peterson, Manager of News Services, 920/832-6590
For Immediate Release
July 26, 2000

Lawrence University Biologists Awarded Grants for Aquatic Ecosystems,
Muscle Development Research Projects  


     APPLETON, WIS. -- Lawrence University husband and wife biologists
Bart and Beth De Stasio will spend the coming academic year away from
the Appleton campus working on separate independent research projects.
But thanks to grants from the National Science Foundation and the Marine
Biological Labroratory, they won't be spending that time away from each
other.
     Bart De Stasio, assistant professor of biology, has been named a
Faculty Fellow in Environmental Science at the MBL in Woods Hole, Mass.,
home of the renowned oceanographic research institute.  Beth De Stasio,
associate professor of biology and holder of the Raymond H. Herzog
Professorship in Science, has been awarded a $66,700 NSF Professor
Opportunity for Women in Research and Education (POWRE) grant and will spend the
year at the nearby Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston. 
     A specialist in aquatic biology and predator-prey interactions,
Bart De Stasio will utilize the MBL's resources to continue his research
on the impact of global warming on zooplankton populations. He is
examining how changes in zooplankton populations can impact entire
aquatic ecosystems, including water clarity, algae concentrations and
fish 
survival rates.  His current research focuses on the upper heat limits
of zooplankton collected from lakes located in arctic, north temperate
and subtropical zones to assess the consequences of climate change over
a broad geographic range. 
     In 1997, Lawrence became a partner institution in the
MBL's-sponsored "Semester in Environmental Science" program consortium.
The program provides Lawrence students opportunities to work closely
with world-class scientists who are studying issues related to how human
activities change basic ecological processes and the affect those
changes have on the ability of ecosystems to support life.
     One of the the premier research institutions in the country, the
MBL was founded in 1888 and is the oldest private marine laboratory in
the Western Hemisphere. It serves as a year-round home for leading
biologists and ecologists from around the world.
     A 1982 graduate of Lawrence, Bart De Stasio earned his Ph.D. in
ecology and evolutionary biology at Cornell University and joined the
Lawrence biology department faculty in 1992.  He was a 1998 recepient of
a "Cutting Edge" award from the Appleton Joint Rotary Clubs for
innovative education contributions to the community. 
     The National Science Foundation created the POWRE awards in 1997 to
increase the participation, prominence and influence of women in the
science and engineering community.  While at MIT, Beth De Stasio will
use her POWRE grant to further investigate the role of myosin, a major
muscle protein, in the assembly of muscles.  Using a small roundworm --
C. elegans -- as a model system, De Stasio will study the role the
enzymatic portion of myosin plays during the development and assembly of
various muscle subunits.
     MIT is the home to the nation's premier  C. elegans laboratories
and has trained most of the nation's leading "second generation" C.
elegans researchers.
     In addition to her work on myosin, Beth De Stasio also will
continue additional, but separate, genetic research at MIT on how nerves
and muscles "talk" to each other.  She is attempting to determine which
genes and gene products are needed to produce functioning muscle.  Her
gene research is supported by a three-year, $108,000 grant from the
National Institutes of Health.    
     Using C. elegans on this project as well, De Stasio uses worms that
are paralyzed due to a mutation in a single gene.  She exposes the worm
to a chemical mutagen that alters its DNA, then studies the subsequent
offspring of these mutagenized worms in an attempt to identify worms
that can now move normally. 
     "By looking at what the altered gene is doing when it's broken, we
can infer what it does when it's working properly," De Stasio explained.  
     Including her recent NSF and NIH grants, Beth De Stasio has been
awarded four major research grants since 1993, totalling nearly
$694,000.
     A 1983 graduate of Lawrence, De Stasio earned her Ph.D. in
molecular biology, cell biology and biochemistry from Brown University
in 1988.  She has been a member of the Lawrence faculty since 1992.