{"id":5437,"date":"2016-11-30T10:06:56","date_gmt":"2016-11-30T15:06:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/groups.etown.edu\/news\/?p=5437"},"modified":"2016-12-12T10:08:41","modified_gmt":"2016-12-12T15:08:41","slug":"sharing-more-than-thought-in-campus-housing-is-subject-of-e-town-biology-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/2016\/11\/30\/sharing-more-than-thought-in-campus-housing-is-subject-of-e-town-biology-research\/","title":{"rendered":"Sharing more than originally thought in campus housing is subject of E-town biology research"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"microorganism\"<\/a><\/p>\n

When we spend a good deal of time with another person, we begin speaking similarly and picking up mannerisms. But as Debra Wohl, professor of biology at Elizabethtown College, and Megan Mendenhall \u201916 found out, that\u2019s not all we pick up.<\/p>\n

The two recently presented \u201cSharing more than an apartment? The Human Forearm Skin Microbiome of Individuals Living in Campus Housing\u201d at an international conference for ecology. Their study examined the skin microbiome of students living together over a period of five weeks in on-campus housing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you spend time together it does affect your skin microflora,\u201d Wohl said, referring to collective bacteria and other microorganisms. Similarly, when roommates separate over a five-day break, their skin microbes differ.<\/p>\n

The study of human microbiomes is fairly new, Mendenhall said. A big area of research, according to Wohl, is the microbial cloud. \u201cIf you knew what your microbial cloud looked like or the microbes that cover the inside and outside of you, we might be able to predict diseases or prevent particular diseases from occurring,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\n

… we might be able to predict diseases or prevent particular diseases from occurring.”<\/h2>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Wohl said the community composition and diversity of microorganisms associated with each individual make up a pattern. She and Mendenhall hypothesized that they\u2019d be able to sample a person and, based on the patterns, determine to which group (i.e. housing unit) they belonged. Their data supported this hypothesis. They found, though, that after individuals were apart for an academic break, there are enough differences in microorganisms associated with the skin to form an unclear pattern, making it difficult to determine to which group an individual belongs.<\/p>\n

As a student enrolled in a year of research, Mendenhall followed her project from start to finish. Formulating the research question to presentation of the findings is unique for a research project done on this timeline. \u201cOften you jump in (to a project) when someone\u2019s already started, or you start it and somebody else finishes it,\u201d Wohl said.<\/p>\n

This study arose from another exploratory project done two years ago when one of Wohl\u2019s students, interested in microorganisms, sampled other students\u2019 arms before and after a biology lab to determine if the microorganisms looked like those on the lab benches, on their lab partners or remained as they did upon arrival.<\/p>\n

Mendenhall\u2019s project took a different approach, by choosing to sample students who spend a larger amount of time together.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought if you lived together for so long you\u2019d probably look a lot like your roommates, and we found you only look somewhat like them,\u201d Wohl said, referring to the microorganism patterns.<\/p>\n

While this was a collaborative project, it was driven by Mendenhall, Wohl said. \u201cWe bounced ideas back and forth all the time and sort of fleshed out the questions,\u201d she said. Though she helped Mendenhall analyze the data, the student devised the idea of sampling the College\u2019s Schreiber Quadrangle residents, swabbing everyone\u2019s arms and taking on the challenge of catching students as they arrived back on campus from Fall Break, prior to seeing their roommates.<\/p>\n

Mendenhall initially presented their findings at the College\u2019s 2016 Scholarship and Creative Arts Day. Then, she and Wohl reanalyzed the data prior to presenting at the conference. They focused on the microbes during the five-week period roommates spent together.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was, for me, personally, very fun and satisfying to go to a conference with Megan,\u201d Wohl said. \u201cShe was great to work with [and very] disciplined.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When we spend a good deal of time with another person, we begin speaking similarly and picking up mannerisms. But as Debra Wohl, professor of biology at Elizabethtown College, and Megan Mendenhall \u201916 found out, that\u2019s not all we pick up. The two recently presented \u201cSharing more than an apartment? The Human Forearm Skin Microbiome […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":5438,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[178,7],"tags":[490,233,1128],"class_list":["post-5437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-achievements","category-campus-community","tag-achievements-2","tag-biology","tag-feature","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5437"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5437\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5481,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5437\/revisions\/5481"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}