New sequencing technology allows students to analyze DNA from three Midwestern rivers under the guidance of Alastair Pringle, PhD, professor of biology.
New sequencing technology allows students to analyze DNA from three Midwestern rivers under the guidance of Alastair Pringle, PhD, professor of biology.
Growing up in Tynemouth, England, biology professor Alastair Pringle, PhD, loved his high school science classes, especially when the classroom was the adjacent North Sea. He was fascinated by the life swimming in shallow pools between the water and the beach. “A complex ecosystem of seaweed, fish, crabs, shrimp and sea anemones was right at my front door,” Pringle said.
Now, the nearby Missouri, Mississippi and Illinois Rivers provide aquatic opportunities for his students. Their work is shining a national spotlight on Maryville as students gain attention for their research and impress heads of graduate programs. Thinking outside the box and employing innovative technology have played a crucial role.
In 2019, Pringle and his student Fujr Ibrahim worked together to develop a cost-effective method for extracting and purifying DNA from waterway samples. But they still needed an efficient, affordable process for sequencing the DNA. Standard technology costs as much as $100,000, something only elite research institutions can afford.
But Pringle learned about a tool called the Nanopore sequencer, a small, robust DNA sequencing system. Two years ago, he got the go-ahead to order a $1,000 starter kit. “This is all brand-new stuff, almost too good to be true,” Pringle said. “But you have to be comfortable with the new and different.”
The relatively inexpensive setup has more than paid off by thrusting Maryville into the realm of top-level research. Using their river samples and the sequencer, seniors Ibrahim and Haneen Butt were able to identify different microbial species and antibiotic resistance markers within their genomes. In 2020, their pilot study was presented at the annual American Society for Microbiology conference. “I was thrilled,” Pringle said.
New methods and technology are also paying off for Maryville students looking into graduate programs. They’re dazzling interviewers not only with their experience with DNA sequencing but also their ability to talk through the process, Pringle said. “They’ve been able to do the work and also able to understand the science and explain it,” Pringle said. “It makes them more attractive to these schools.”
Indeed, Ibrahim has been accepted into the PhD program in Human Genetics and Molecular Biology at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She believes working on the pilot study, which was made possible by the Nanopore sequencer, was a factor in her acceptance, Pringle said.
Following his golden days as a high schooler studying the North Sea, Pringle began learning more about biology as a university undergrad. But he found the study of chemical reactions and enzymes too abstract to hold his interest. Then he had his first lab. He was fascinated by the way invisible microbes from his hand proliferated on a plate containing certain nutrients. “I was hooked,” Pringle said.
Now when Maryville students first walk into Pringle’s Introductory Microbiology lab, he introduces them to a similar hands-on experience so they can see for themselves the abundant life forms that exist on our bodies. “We’re in Missouri, right?” Pringle said. “And Missouri is the Show-Me State.”
Pringle came to Missouri through a circuitous route that began in the 1970s with a post-doctoral position in Kansas City. He later relocated to St. Louis after being hired by Anheuser-Busch as a yeast expert.
Before the pandemic, yeast, malt and hops were ingredients in Pringle’s lecture classes. Introductory students ended the term with a tasting of foods made by microbes, including a tiny sip of beer. “The students would leave saying, ‘This was the best lecture ever,’” Pringle said.
Lectures are online for the time being, but in-person labs still present opportunities for enjoyment. Pringle awards the student whose hand produced the most microbes a prize that’s especially useful right now: hand sanitizer. “It cracks the class up,” Pringle said. “And it gets them interested.”