Defense Scholarship Supports Microbiology Student
While pursuing a PhD in microbiology at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Meaghan Adler knows exactly where she’ll be starting her career. The Department of Defense (DoD) awarded her a scholarship for service, providing financial support for her studies in exchange for future employment with the DoD.
Adler joined the Department of Microbiology in 2023 and the following spring was awarded the DoD Science, Mathematics, and Research for Transformation (SMART) Scholarship. Since its inception in 2006, the SMART scholarship has been a centerpiece for developing the future workforce of the DoD, particularly in critical STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) areas of need. In addition to full tuition, a stipend, and a health insurance allowance, the program includes summer internships, a mentor, and future employment with the DoD, in STEM fields.
Before graduate school, Adler worked at the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Army Research Laboratory (DEVCOM ARL), where she learned how widely fungi can be used in biotechnology. Now at UT, she’s investigating fungal genomes with an eye toward developing new tools in areas such as biocontrol of agricultural pests and biosensors for biotechnological application.
“I think fungi can save the world and make it a much better place,” she said.
Adler’s current research in the Parker Lab, under Assistant Professor Ben Parker, is centered on pathogenesis in the lineage of the first terrestrial fungi, Zoopagomycota. “I want to know how the fungi grows and kills,” she said. “I think about how the host (aphid) coevolved with the pathogen (fungus Pandora), as they have fought for years against each other for survival, and I am looking at how this shaped their genomes and gene expression.”
“I do this through the integration of genomics and transcriptomics data and microscopy, and soon proteomics and metabolomics,” said Adler. “I am working to identify and characterize genes in non-model fungi, like Pandora, so that the information can be applied in genetic toolkits to support biotechnology.”
“My current goal of identifying novel genes, such as candidate biosensor pathways, can be built on to develop new biocontrol methods of agricultural pests,” she explained.
She received four years of support, for which she commits to four years of service. Her summer internships at ARL prepare her to work with the team there full time as a government scientist after graduation.
Evolving Interests
Adler has been fascinated by nature and the details of how things work since she was a child, and she enjoyed the challenge of high school science classes.
As an undergraduate dual majoring in anthropology and biochemistry and molecular biology at Gettysburg College, she attended a seminar by a professor researching the anticancer metabolites in black garlic. The study was inspired by the low gastrointestinal cancer rates in a small region of India. “This connection blew my mind, because it allowed me to connect my cultural anthropology interests to my scientific research interests,” Adler said.
She participated in a study abroad program focusing on environment and indigenous medicines in China, completed an anthropology honors thesis on modern-day Dai medicine practices and wrote her senior capstone on her semester research project with filamentous fungi.
At UT, Adler is studying Pandora neoaphidis, which grows only inside aphids and kills only aphids. “I use a combination of wet-lab experiments, in vitro and in vivo, and bioinformatic tools to understand how the aphid is responding to the fungi and how the fungi are killing the aphid,” she explained. “This includes constructing a chromosome-level genome with next-generation sequencing, and analyzing it with dual RNAseq over the lifecycle of the fungi and its pathogenesis in the aphid. This will reveal novel genes related to sensing, enzymes applicable for biowaste degradation, new metabolites, and likely many other things.”
“I want to take advantage of what Mother Nature has already spent millennia evolving and apply it in innovative contexts in order to help people and the environment,” Adler said.
Supportive Department
The range of research groups in UT’s Department of Microbiology has allowed Adler to learn new techniques and think creatively with other students about how to answer new questions. “We may work in different buildings, on very different systems, but we get together and talk about science and get excited about the same things,” she said.
Adler also has been able to take courses in other departments that support her research and expand her knowledge on subjects such as computational methods, population genetics, and pangenomics, an emerging field.
“The most special experience I have had at UT was serving as a graduate student mentor for BiGG REEU, which teaches undergraduate students genomics/bioinformatic skills through application on active projects,” she said. “Being there for the students and letting them know that they have someone in their corner who is excited to support them, especially when they are going through growing pains from learning new skills is very rewarding.”
“I would not be where I am without my supportive mentors, and I look forward to continuing to return the favor,” Adler said.
By Amy Beth Miller