Chemical messages turn tadpoles into frogs, toads
The Billings Gazette highlighted a University of Cincinnati project examining the hormones responsible for the growth and development of frogs.
UC College of Arts and Sciences Professor Daniel Buchholz and his students are using the gene-editing tool CRISPR to understand the roles hormones play in a tadpole's dramatic metamorphosis into a frog or toad.
“Their immune system changes. Their hemoglobin changes. Even their eye pigment changes,” Buchholz said. “That’s why frog metamorphosis is a really good model to study hormones and development. It has such a dramatic effect.”
Students are studying African clawed frogs, an animal scientists use as a model system. Buchholz cares for more than 300 of them in various tanks in his lab.
Chemical signals from hormones play a major role in our own growth and development along with regulating processes like our immune system.
“The more we can learn about frogs, the more we can learn about ourselves. And those are compelling reasons to study animals,” Buchholz said.
Read the Billings Gazette story.
Featured image at top: UC Professor Daniel Buchholz is studying the hormones that regulate metamorphosis in frogs. Photo/Andrew Higley/UC Marketing + Brand
Latest UC News
- Primary care systems are under pressure, but new models could alleviate the strainPatient access is just one of a host of issues facing the primary care discipline. The workforce is not growing fast enough to meet the needs of the U.S. population, and the country continues to underinvest in primary care, according to the nonprofit Milbank Memorial Fund’s 2024 scorecard on the health of primary care in the U.S. Yet primary care is essential to good health, Barbara Tobias, MD, professor emerita in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine recently told Crain's Cleveland Business.
- Study finds microRNA target to combat breast cancer treatment resistanceMSN highlighted new University of Cincinnati Cancer Center research that has identified a particular strand of microRNA as a promising new target for overcoming breast cancer treatment resistance and improving outcomes.
- Lindner announces two new professional programsThe Carl H. Lindner College of Business has launched two new courses available through Lindner Professional Programs’ open enrollment offerings. Women Lead: Nurturing Your Leadership Power and HR Analytics: Driving Impact with Data are available to professionals seeking to advance their careers through immersive learning experiences.
- How to talk to Gen AlphaUC Distinguished Research Professor Gail Fairhurst offers advice about how to bridge the communication divide with Gen Alpha just in time for the holidays.
- Should the FDA reconsider antidepressant boxed warnings?The University of Cincinnati's Jeffrey Strawn, MD, spoke with Medscape about whether the Food and Drug Administration should reevaluate boxed warnings on antidepressants linking the medications to an increased risk for suicidal thoughts and behaviors in young people.
- Meet crystals that explode in lightUC chemistry students are exploring the bizarre properties that make photosensitive lab-grown crystals bend, twist and explode. The crystals could improve air safety and aid space travel.
