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Stony Brook University

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Maurizio Del Poeta in his laboratory at Stony Brook University. Photo by Antonella Rella

By Daniel Dunaief

Researchers at Stony Brook University, the University of Arizona and Wake Forest University School of Medicine in North Carolina may have found an enzyme that drives the worst COVID-19 symptoms. Secreted phospholipase A2 group IIA, or sPLA2-IIA may lead to severe symptoms and death, making this enzyme a potential therapeutic target.

P116, Maurizio DelPoeta, Microbiology

In an examination of plasma samples from 127 patients hospitalized at Stony Brook University Medical Center between January and July 2020 and a mix of 154 patient samples from Stony Brook and Banner University Medical Center in Tucson between January and November 2020, scientists including Distinguished Professor Maurizio Del Poeta of the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University found that 63 percent of people with concentrations of the enzyme that were over 10 nanograms/ milliliter generally died. Most healthy people have circulating levels of the enzyme around 0.5 nanograms/ milliliter.

“It is possible that sPLA2 levels represent a tipping point and when it reaches a certain level, it is a point of no return,” said Del Poeta.

The collaborators involved in the study, which was published this week in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, were encouraged by the finding.

“This is exciting as it is leading to really novel connections for COVID-19,” Yusuf Hannun, Director of the Cancer Center at Stony Brook and a contributor to the research who participated in the discussion and data analysis, explained in an email. “It may lead to both diagnostics (for risk prediction) and therapeutics.”

Looking closely at the levels of sPLA2-IIA together with blood urea nitrogen, or BUN, which is a measure of the performance of the kidney, the researchers in this study found that the combination of the two measures predicted mortality with 78 percent accuracy.

“That is an opportunity to stratify patients to those where an inhibitor” to sPLA2-IIA could help patients, said Floyd Chilton, director of the University of Arizona Precision Nutrition and Wellness Initiative and senior author on the paper, said.

While they found a difference in the amount of the enzyme between healthier and sicker patients, the scientists recognize that this could reflect a correlation rather than a causation. The progression of the disease and the threat to people’s lives may come from other contributing factors that also intensify the severity of the illness.

“These studies do not establish causality at the moment, but the strength of the correlation and the known functions of this enzyme raise the possibility of participating in the pathology of the disease,” Del Poeta explained.

Floyd Chilton. Photo from University of Arizona

Indeed, Chilton has studied sPLA2-IIA for over three decades and has described some patterns in other diseases, including sepsis.

The enzyme performs an important role in fighting off bacterial infection by destroying microbial cell membranes. When the concentration of sPLA2-IIA rises high enough, however, it can threaten the health of the patient, as it can attack and destroy cells in organs including the kidney.

The enzyme “plays a critical role in host defense,” said Chilton. “These same systems can really turn on the host.”

In order to determine a causative link between sPLA2-IIA and the progression of the disease, Chilton, Del Poeta and others will need to increase their sample size.

“We’ve been very fortunate at getting individuals at some of the top global organizations… who have connected me with medical centers” that have a larger patient population, Chilton said. These executives may be able to expedite the process of expanding this study.

In the 1990’s, scientists studied an inhibitor that had the ability to act on the enzyme. 

That effort had mixed results in phase 2 clinical trials.

“In 2005, the first phase of the phase 2 clinical trials were highly encouraging,” Chilton said. “It really inhibited mortality at 18 hours” by reducing severe sepsis. The second part of those tests, which used a slightly different protocol, failed.

While he’s not a clinical trials expert, Chilton is hopeful that researchers might find success with this same drug to treat COVID-19.

Only clinical trials would reveal whether inhibitors would work with COVID-19, scientists said.

As with many drugs, inhibitors of sPLA2-IIA have side effects.

By blocking the activity of these enzymes, “we do also decrease the production of arachidonic acid, which is a precursor of prostaglandins,” said Del Poeta. “In condition of hyperinflammation, this is a good thing, but prostaglandins are also important in a variety of cellular functions” including blood clots and starting labor.

Chilton pointed out that sPLA2-IIA is similar to the active enzyme in rattlesnake venom. It can bind to receptors at neuromuscular junctions and disable the function of these muscles, he explained.

In nature, some animals have co-evolved with snakes and are no longer susceptible to these toxins. Researchers don’t yet understand those processes.

While copying such evolutionary solutions is intriguing, Chilton said he and his collaborators are “much more interested in the inhibitors” that were taken through clinical trials in 2005 because that might present a quicker solution.

The research collaboration started with Chilton, who partnered with Arizona Assistant Research Professor Justin Snider. The first author on the paper, Snider earned his PhD at Stony Brook, where he knew Del Poeta well.

Snider “knew what a great researcher [Del Poeta] was. I also knew [Hannun] in a former life. We were both working on similar biochemistry 20 to 25 years ago,” Chilton said.

Chilton called the efforts of his Stony Brook collaborators, including Research Assistant Karen You, Research Associate Professor Chiara Luberto and Associate Professor Richard Kew,  “heroic” and explained that he and his colleagues recognize the urgency of this work.

“I’ve been continuously funded by the [National Institute of Health] for 35 years, and I’m very grateful for that,” Chilton said. “There is nothing in my life that has felt this important,” which is why he often works 18 hour days, including on weekends.

After studying the effects of variants on the population, Chilton recognized that building a firewall against COVID-19 through vaccinations may not be enough, especially with the combination of lack of access to the vaccine for some and an unwillingness to take the vaccine from others.

“We may have to go to the other side of the equation,” HE said. “We’ve got to move to specific therapeutics that are agnostic to the variant.”

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A screenshot of the app created by Christopher Gobler and Sung-Gheel Jung of Stony Book University.

Stony Brook University’s Christopher Gobler, endowed chair of Coastal Ecology and Conservation, and Sung-Gheel Jang, faculty director in the Geospatial Center at Stony Brook University, have created a free app that provides information on water quality on Long Island.

Through the downloadable Long Island Beach and Water Quality App, also known as LIBAWQA, residents can gather information that can connect to a person’s location, indicating the health and safety of beaches, bays, estuaries or waterways near them.

Gobler’s lab provides the water quality data, which comes from measures they make in 30 locations from East Hampton to Hempstead.

The New York State Department of Health provides updates on about 200 beaches across the Island, while the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation offers shellfishing data for more than 500,000 acres of bays, harbors and estuaries.

Jang, whose expertise is in the mapping related to geographic information systems, or GIS, helped build a service he targeted for the general public.

Instead of calling the county to find out if their favorite summer destination is open, residents can “use the app and you will know the current water quality,” Jang said.

Shellfishing and bathing restrictions use different criteria to determine the safety of swimming or pulling up clams and other shellfish.

“This is the beauty of the app,” Gobler said. One day last week, he noticed that a site in Center Moriches allowed swimming but not shellfishing. “The beach right next to it” allows shellfishing. “Which one would you rather go to?”

The app, which is available by installing ArcGIS AppStudio Player from Google Play, the App Store or the Microsoft Store and using a QR code on a camera, can show the health history of a beach.

While the system, which Gobler described as being in “version 1.0” doesn’t have text alerts, it does provide real-time information.

Users can track their location on the map in the app, checking on the shellfish or bathing status of nearby waterways.

The idea for this app came about a couple of years ago when Jang visited Gobler’s lab and the two Stony Brook researchers talked about collaborating.

“I was impressed by [Gobler’s] work,” Jang said. “His lab collected water quality data for many, many years.”

Jang suggested creating an easy-to-use mobile app. Gobler wanted to add other information beyond the water quality data his lab collected regularly.

Gobler and Jang expect to modify and enhance the information by next summer, when it could include a crowdsourcing opportunity, in which participants share updated information, including limitations on parking or beach closures.

Gobler and Jang said they would need to provide a filter before posting information to ensure it contains quality data.

The service isn’t available in the Google or Apple app stores yet.

“By next summer we hope we can release a new version,” Jang added. “We wanted to show we have a working app first.”

Scientists of any age, from primary school through postdoctoral researchers, can use the information for their own research papers or studies, Jang said.

Anyone who is interested in accessing and using the data for their own research projects can contact Jang through his email at [email protected].

The scientists have received funding from the Rauch Foundation and The Chicago Community Trust. The pair will seek renewals from both sources this fall.

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Photo from Kevin Wood

The PJ-SBU shuttle is back!

Starting Thursday, Aug. 19, Stony Brook University students can come Down Port to shop, eat and enjoy what the village has to offer.  

Created in 2019 as a partnership between the Port Jefferson Parking and Mobility Department, the university’s office of Community Relations and the Port Jefferson Business Improvement District, the program had to stop in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Kevin Wood, the village’s parking and mobility administrator.

Now, nearly a year and a half later, students can take advantage of it again.

“When Stony Brook came back from remote learning, it signaled to me that we should bring the bus back,” Wood said. “The university is looking at Port Jefferson as its downtown, so the bus makes it a direct link there now.”

Photo from Kevin Wood

The shuttle is free to students and runs four days a week — Thursdays through Sundays. It starts at the university’s SAC circle and then moves to the Hilton Garden Inn Hotel, SBU’s Chapin Apartments, Stop and Shop East Setauket, Arden Place in the village and ends at the LIRR before heading back to the campus. 

“Stony Brook University is proud to partner with Port Jefferson and the Business Improvement District to provide the student shuttle service for shopping, dining and entertainment in the village,” said SBU Community Relations Director Joan Dickinson.

Wood added that the shuttle is a 19-passenger vehicle and is ADA compliant. 

“Anytime we can bring visitors who spend money to the village without having to park is a win,” he said. 

Mayor Margot Garant said the village welcomes all SBU students, staff and residents.

“The shuttle is important to connect the Brook to Port Jeff Village, and to ensure the student body are welcome and have safe, easy access to our shops and restaurants,” she said. “We encourage them to sit back and enjoy the ride!”

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Stony Brook University's played in the summer Olympics with Team Puerto Rico's women's basketball team. Photo from India Pagan

Stony Brook University’s India Pagan, competing in the Olympics for Puerto Rico, took several shots against China in the preliminary round of the basketball tournament, but none of them went in.

India Pagan at the summer Olympics opening ceremony. Photo from India Pagan

Against Belgium, the 6-foot-1-inch forward finally put the ball through the hoop, something she’d done so frequently at Stony Brook that she scored over 1,000 points as a Seawolf.

“I remember the first one I made” at the Olympics, said Pagan. “I didn’t have to stress anymore. I couldn’t stop smiling.”

Pagan, who was on Puerto Rico’s first women’s Olympic basketball team, scored two baskets and sank two free throws, scoring six points in that game.

Despite the challenges and restrictions created by the Delta variant of COVID-19 and the three losses the Puerto Rican team had in games against China, Belgium and Australia, Pagan had plenty of reasons to smile as she enjoyed everything from the opening ceremonies to taking selfies with some of the best athletes in the world to some limited sightseeing.

After a lengthy journey to the other side of the world, Pagan cheered her way through an opening ceremony full of familiar pageantry, but devoid of its customary shouting spectators.

“It was surreal to me,” Pagan said. “I watched this on TV a couple of years ago. Walking with the flag, with the whole delegation of Puerto Rico, seeing the stage, the torch, the dances, the acts of music, everything, it was just so beautiful.”

Pagan said she cried three or four times during the ceremonies.

Behind the scenes, Pagan said the time spent waiting for the ceremonies to begin and the hours on their feet amid the excitement took their toll.

“By the end of the night, all of our backs hurt, our feet hurt,” she laughed. “Thankfully, we didn’t have practice the next day, so we had a little time to recover.”

Around the games, Pagan soaked in the atmosphere and reveled in the moment on one of the world’s largest, albeit emptiest, athletic stages.

One of the big stories to come out of the Olympics involved American gymnast Simone Biles, who pulled out of most of the competition amid concerns about her mental health and her ability to get her bearings while flying and twisting through the air.

“We understood the mental health aspects” of Biles’s decision, Pagan said. “She’s got to do what’s best for her. We did feel for her.”

Pagan said the Puerto Rican basketball team met with their coach, who told them they could speak with a doctor or a psychologist if they needed support.

Pagan missed her family and friends but didn’t need those mental health services during her time in Tokyo.

Pagan was thrilled to run into several superstars in their sports, taking selfies with National Basketball Association star Jayson Tatum from the Boston Celtics, and with Spanish basketball sensations Marc Gasol, who currently plays for the Los Angeles Lakers and his brother Pau, who retired from the NBA in 2019 after an 18-year career. She also ran into Serbian tennis great Novak Djokovic.

“Seeing those people was cool for me,” Pagan said.

Pagan takes a photo with Spanish basketball sensation Pau Gasol. Photo from India Pagan

Everyone had to wear face shields in the dining hall which made conversations, even among teammates, challenging.

“It was tough to interact” while she was eating, Pagan said.

She did, however, have the opportunity to speak and play games with other masked athletes in a recreational area. Pagan and teammates Jada Stinson and Jacqueline Benitez visited with athletes from the South African soccer and track teams, and several teams from Ireland, Italy and Iran while playing table tennis, pool and darts.

During her stay in Tokyo, Pagan recalled the lives of two people she and her family recently lost. She wrote the names of Tatiana Mayas, one of her closest childhood friends, and Gloria Sotomayor, a friend of her mother’s, on a white ribbon and pinned them on a memorial tree.

While the athletes couldn’t explore Tokyo on their own or travel much outside the Olympic village, they took a bus tour to Mt. Fuji, which, at 12,380 feet, is the tallest mountain in Japan.

“If we got off the bus and the [International Olympic Committee] found out, they would have kicked us out of the Olympics,” Pagan said.

Pagan remained appreciative of an opportunity she didn’t take for granted, especially since she has no guarantee that she or the Puerto Rican team will return for the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

“I was ready for anything and I was grateful for anything,” Pagan said.

In addition to returning with a collection of memories, photos and selfies, Pagan brought back numerous souvenirs for herself and her family.

She purchased a letterman jacket that she said she “had to have,” because it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

She also purchased shoes, shirts, key chains, umbrellas, pins and notebooks.

“It was like Christmas,” she laughed. The gifts were worth the money, as her family’s faces “lit up” when she produced their presents.

During her Olympics, she appreciated the outpouring of support for her and for the team.

“My phone has never blown up as much as it did when I was at the Olympics,” said Pagan, who is returning to Stony Brook to earn her master’s this fall and to use a fifth year of eligibility the National Collegiate Athletic Association granted to athletes amid the pandemic.

She left North America with 6,000 Instagram followers and returned with 11,000.

One of the first things she did when she returned, after sharing presents, crying and catching up with family, was to get behind the wheel.

“I couldn’t wait to drive my car and be free and go wherever I wanted to, instead of being restrained and told to stay in one place or being locked up in a room,” Pagan said.

She hopes the team will return to the next Olympics in Paris in 2024.

“Hopefully, we’ll be back,” she said. “This experience will definitely help us grow as a program. We’re on our way up.”

As for what’s next, she plans to rest and recover from the exhausting and exhilarating trip and to add the Olympic rings tattoo to her leg.

Pagan appreciates the opportunity to play a game she loves at the Olympic level.

“It was a blessing and an honor,” Pagan said.

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Photo from Stony Brook University

A Commencement, double White Coat Ceremony and extended orientation to start the school year on the right foot 

The COVID-19 Pandemic has taken many recognitions and rights of passage away from those who have worked hard to reach their goals. Case in point: Commencement for an entire graduating class was celebrated virtually, if at all. An entire class of first-year students were unable to begin their college experience on campus. And, other professional students were unable to mark their hard-earned accomplishments with the proper pomp and circumstance.

Stony Brook University is now ensuring that all of these students will be able to finally have the opportunity to throw their caps, get to know their campus and ceremoniously put on their white coats, marking a return to some normalcy on campus.

Photo from Stony Brook University

On August 15, The Renaissance School of Medicine At Stony Brook University will host two white coat ceremonies. One of these is for the students in the Class of 2021, who will start their medical school journey this fall. The other is for the students who make up the incoming Class of 2020, who were unable to experience this milestone occasion because of restrictions caused by the COVID-19 Pandemic. Now these students can proudly participate in this right of passage by donning their white coats in front of friends, family, colleagues, faculty and staff. These ceremonies will take place in the Staller Center.

Stony Brook University will also be celebrating the graduating class of 2020, with an in-person Commencement ceremony. Taking place on Friday, September 10 at 4 p.m., this special commencement event will allow those students who were part of the 2020 graduating class a chance to create special memories with friends and family. Invitations were sent to more than 7,500 graduates and to date, more than 900 have indicated they will attend. More information will continue to be posted here.

As the Fall 2021 class of first-year students makes its way to campus, so will the 2020 class who did not have the opportunity to start their college experience off the way so many have done before them. To ensure everyone feels welcome and gets acclimated to the college campus, Stony Brook is kicking off New Seawolf Welcome Week. The week will kick off with move-in day on Monday, August 16 and the multi-day experience will be filled with workshops, meet-and-greets and more.

For more information on the White Coat Ceremony, or to attend, please contact Gregory.Filiano@stonybrookmed.edu.

For more information on the upcoming Commencement or orientation plans, please contact [email protected]. 

Photos courtesy of Stony Brook University. 

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Photo from Pixabay

Looking out the window on a sunny day, one might notice a not-so-subtle haziness in the sky. However, that haze isn’t harmless clouds or fog, it’s smoke that’s traveled a far distance across the nation from raging wildfires in California and Canada.

As concerns grow over the impact of these wildfires stretching their way over to the East Coast, Long Islanders are beginning to become uneasy about the repercussions the hazy smoke might have among residents. 

With multiple reports of poor air quality in the past few weeks, people who have vulnerable conditions such as asthma, emphysema, or heart disease need to be wary and avoid going outside or doing strenuous activity. 

“There is something called fine particulate matter, which is very small ash,” said Adrienne Esposito, executive director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment. “The cause of concern is that this is the type of material that causes respiratory ailments. It irritates the throat and respiratory system, but most importantly fine particulate matter can lodge in your lungs and make microscopic perforations, much like asbestos.”

According to Esposito, It is highly likely the ash will also be deposited into Long Island’s estuary and could affect the marine environment. However, it is uncertain exactly how much will accumulate due to the variables of wind speed and the amount of ash that will be pushed toward the Island. 

“The East Coast should absolutely have an increased concern of weather events associated with climate change,” she added. “What we are having right now is an increase of torrential rain, and an increase in intensification of storms which means that hurricanes that might normally be a Category 1 [the lowest] now have the ability to reach 2, 3, or 4.” Esposito said. 

Kevin Reed. Photo from Stony Brook University

Although air pollution issues are nothing new to New York, there are always certain times of the year, particularly in the summertime, that fine particulate matter can get trapped. The question of the future frequency of surrounding wildfires still stands.

While Long Island is experiencing a rainy season, California is currently facing one of the worst droughts in history. Within a two-year period, rain and snow totals in parts of the West have been 50 percent less than average.  

“Just because Long Island is having a really wet season right now doesn’t mean it couldn’t shift later this year,” said Kevin Reed, a Stony Brook University School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences researcher. 

According to Reed, the winds that blow from out West don’t always streamline toward the East Coast. Direction in wind patterns could cause the air flow to “wobble,” so it is uncertain whether or not Long Island may face more smoke pollution in the future. 

“Drought is certainly becoming more severe, potentially longer lasting, and at a larger extent, which means larger parts of land will be susceptible to wildfire,” Reed said.

Adding that wildfires are typically a natural occurrence and benefits land by replenishing it, Reed said the extent of the current wildfires is most likely a result of climate change and has potential to harm people and the environment.

“Air pollution could really affect our human health, especially to certain groups that are more susceptible to issues with air quality,” he said. “Even if it’s here for one day it could have an impact and of course the impact is going to be multiplied if it’s a longer-term event.” 

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H. Reşit Akçakaya during a recent bird watching expedition. Photo by T. Lybvig

By Daniel Dunaief

In the world of conservation, scientists and policy makers have relied on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species to understand just how likely species are to go extinct, often as a result of human actions.

When a species moves from one threat level to another, conservationists typically spring into action, taking steps to protect individuals within a species and the habitat in which that species lives.

A team of over 200 scientists in 171 institutions tested a new measure, called the Green Status, that is designed to measure how effective those conservation efforts have been.

“There are always stories about conservation successes,” said H. Reşit Akçakaya, one of the leaders of the effort who helped develop the methodology for this new metric. The scientists wanted to “create a standard, objective way of recognizing the success and effectiveness of conservation measures. That is very important. We need optimism. People don’t act unless there is hope.”

The Green Status monitors a species recovery, measuring the impact of past and future conservation efforts. Researchers including Akçakaya, who is a Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolution at Stony Brook University, came up with a formula to determine Green Status. 

The formula includes elements conservations consider important: it should be safe from extinction, it should have a large enough population to have all its natural interactions with the other parts of the ecosystem, and it should be represented in every ecosystem in which it naturally exists and has existed.

The scientists considered the trade-offs between practicality in aiming for a system that is feasible to apply to many species and comprehensiveness, which incorporates relevant aspects of, and factors involved in, species recovery, Akçakaya explained in an email.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature Green Status of Species will join the IUCN Red List to provide a more complete update on a species’ conservation condition, which includes their extinction risk and recovery process.

In a new paper, published in Conservation Biology, scientists from around the world contributed to creating preliminary Green Status for 181 species.

It took seven years from the time the scientists came up with the method, developed it further to make it applicable to all species, published papers, organized workshops and other consultations to get feedback and tested the method.

Akçakaya, who has been involved with the Red List since 1999, said the new system provides information about the status of the species that goes beyond the risk of extinction.

“It’s not sufficient to prevent extinction,” Akçakaya said. “We want them to recover as well.”

One of the challenges in developing this method was in deriving definitions that apply across all species and that are not specific to the conditions and threats any one species faces.

Extinction is difficult to measure but easy to conceptualize, he explained. Recovery, on the other hand, is “not as clear cut.”

The first goal of this enterprise was to come up with ways of standardizing how to measure the recovery of a species that would reflect whether conservation efforts were working.

A species on the Red List might have been critically endangered over a decade earlier. After considerable conservation effort, that species may still be critically endangered, according to the same Red List.

That, however, does not indicate anything specific about whether the conservation efforts are working.

The Red List “doesn’t tell us how much more we need to work to get to a level that we can call recovered,” Akçakaya explained.

The Green Status is not currently a part of conservation policy decisions, particularly because it has only been applied to 181 species. The IUCN, however, which is the world’s largest network of conservationists and conservation scientists, has approved it.

Getting from 181 to tens of thousands will take several years, although Akçakaya said he “has a good start” and he has interest from different people who are involved in conservation.

“We are on our way” towards creating a metric that affects conservation policy, he said. “It will take several years to be used” to affect conservation policies for threatened species.

When the Green Status is more broadly available for a wider collection of species, Akçakaya believes it will provide a way for government officials to make informed decisions.

The IUCN, however, does not tell local and national officials what to do with the information provided with the Red List or with the Green Status.

In developing the Green Status, Akçakaya worked with numerous scientists and conservationists. For this methodology, the researchers received hundreds of comments from people who  shared insights online. They also announced the work within the IUCN network, through which they received feedback.

Part of the larger advances in the context of the Green Status came from looking not only at the resilience of the species, but also at what the species is doing in the ecosystem. “Is it fulfilling its ecological role and its function in the ecosystem?” Akçakaya asked.

The Stony Brook scientist is pleased with the Green Status work. The intelligence of the group is larger than the intelligence of any one person, he said.

The group “had the same goal,” he added. “It was a really satisfying experience in terms of how we came up with a system.”

The Green Status can help balance the conservation news. While conserving biodiversity is urgent, one of the things this measure can achieve is to formalize the successes.

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Stony Brook University: Entrance sign
Matthew Lerner, PhD, LEND Center Co-Director. Photo courtesy of SBU

Stony Brook University is the first institution on Long Island to receive a federal grant designed specifically to train students, professionals, families and self-advocates for the purpose of improving the lives of children and adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and neurodevelopmental disabilities (ND). Called Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and other related Disabilities (LEND), the program at Stony Brook will involve graduate level training through the School of Social Welfare, Department of Psychology, and other Health Sciences programs.

The LEND grant, funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration, Maternal and Child Health Bureau, and provided to the SUNY Research Foundation, is a five-year $2.2 million grant that is effective through June 2026. It is designed to provide training and resources to individuals with ASD and NDs, their families and clinicians, as well as researchers and policymakers through the establishment of a regional Center.

The leading goals of Stony Brook LEND are: to increase the number and expertise of clinicians and leaders who are well-prepared to deliver high-quality, interdisciplinary, family-centered and culturally responsive care to those with ASD/ND and their families; through Stony Brook Medicine clinics affiliated with Stony Brook’s Autism Initiative, provide additional services to benefit children in the region; through outreach initiatives and regional collaborations, establish a base of better-informed and trained professionals for the ASD/ND community; and advance research and scientific knowledge about the challenges, needs, strengths, and opportunities of children and adults with ASD/ND and their families.

“LEND will target interdisciplinary, evidence-based clinical training for healthcare professionals and students, alongside the experts themselves, people with disabilities and their families,” explains Michelle Ballan, PhD, Stony Brook’s LEND Program and Center Director, Professor, and Associate Dean for Research in the School of Social Welfare and Professor of Family, Population and Preventive Medicine. “Cultivating a cohort of trained leaders will ultimately advance systems of care across the lifespan, and thereby help to reduce numerous health inequalities children and adults with ASD/ND face.”

Stony Brook LEND will involve faculty representation from 11 disciplines, with more than 65 additional supporting faculty representing several medical sub-specialties and arts and science disciplines. The program will also collaborate with 55 affiliated programs across the region and multiple states, including community agencies, academic medical and research programs, and school districts. There will also be participation by cultural consultants from traditionally underserved communities throughout Long Island.

Michelle Ballan, PhD, LEND Program and Center Director. Photo courtesy of SBU

“LEND is a game-changer whose impact for individuals with autism and other neurodevelopmental disabilities and their families will ripple across Long Island and beyond,” says Matthew Lerner, PhD, LEND Center Co-Director, Research Director of the Autism Initiative, and Associate Professor of Psychology, Psychiatry & Pediatrics. “With the LEND Center, whole generations of families, self-advocates, clinicians, and academics will develop a deeper understanding of the complex network of services and supports available to those with autism and other developmental disabilities, and will learn how best to work together to navigate this network to produce the best quality of life and care.”

Training will begin at the start of the 2021-22 academic year. Each year approximately 300 trainees will take part in the Stony Brook LEND program. Some will be long-term trainees gaining education and clinical training (300 or more hours), medium-term (40-299 hours) and short-term trainees (39 hours or less). All trainees will have access to didactic coursework, clinical workshops, and community-based training. The LEND Center will also work with community partners to provide consultation and continuing education.

The first round of LEND long-term trainee applications are due August 13th, with rolling deadlines throughout the year for medium- and short-term trainees.

For more information, and to apply, please see this School of Social Welfare webpage.

 

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A group of gelada monkeys in Ethiopia. Photo from Jacob Feder

By Daniel Dunaief

Timing can mean the difference between life and death for young geladas (an Old World monkey species). Geladas whose fathers remain leaders of a social group for as much as a year or more have a better chance of survival than those whose fathers are displaced by new males under a year after they’re born. 

New males who enter a social group can, and often do, kill the young of other males, giving the new male leaders a chance to impregnate the female members of their social group who might otherwise be unable to conceive.

Jacob Feder

 

The odds of a new male leader killing a young gelada are about 60 percent at birth, compared to closer to 15 percent at around a year of age, according to researchers at Stony Brook University (SBU).

Additionally, pregnant gelada monkeys often spontaneously abort their unborn fetuses once a new male enters the group, as the mother’s hormones cause a miscarriage that enables them to dedicate their resources to the future progeny of the next dominant male.

At the same time, the survival of females depends on becoming a part of a group that is just the right size.

Jacob Feder, a graduate student at SBU, and Amy Lu, Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology in the College of Arts and Sciences at Stony Brook, recently published a paper in Proceedings of the Royal Society B that explores the ideal group size that optimizes the longevity of females and the number of their offspring.

The researchers discovered a Goldilocks effect. By studying the behavioral and group data for over 200 wild geladas over the course of 14 years, they determined that a mid-size group with five to seven females has the greatest benefit for their own fitness and for the survival of their offspring.

“There tends to be a trade off” in the dynamics that affect female geladas in different groups, Feder said. Females in the biggest groups face a higher risk of takeovers and takeover-related infanticide, since males are more likely to try to dominate a part of larger social groups where they have greater reproductive opportunities.

By contrast, individuals in the smaller groups may live on the periphery of a multi-group dynamic. These females are less protected against predators.

In their native Ethiopia, geladas are vulnerable to leopards, hyenas, and jackals, among others.

For the females, the survival of their offspring depends on the ability of males to remain in the group long enough.

“The male turnover is one of the major drivers of their reproductive success,” explained Feder.

Researchers have seen new males enter a group and kill infants born from another father. The infants, for their part, don’t often recognize the need to avoid new males, Lu said.

When males enter big groups, females often have to reset their reproduction.

Groups with about nine to 11 females often split into units of four to seven, Feder said. A new male might become the leader for half of the females, leaving the remaining male with the other half. Alternatively, new males may take over each group.

The pregnant females who are part of a group with a new male will spontaneously abort their offspring about 80 percent of the time, as females “cut their losses,” Feder said

About 38 percent of females live in a mid-sized group that is close to optimum size.

Gelada charm

According to Feder and Wu, geladas are a compelling species to research, Feder and Wu said.

Feder found his visits to the East African nation rewarding, especially when he had the opportunity to watch a small female named Crimson.

An important part of daily life for these primates involves grooming, where primates comb through each other’s hair, remove insects and, in many cases, eat them.

Crimson, who was a younger member of the group when Feder started observing geladas, didn’t have much grooming experience with this activity. Instead of running her hands over the body of her grooming partner, she focused on her mouth. Her partner’s wide eyes reflected surprise at the unusual grooming choice.

One of the favorites for Lu was a monkey who has since passed away named Vampire. A part of the V group, Vampire was taller and bigger than most adult females. She displaced male geladas, some of whom were larger than she, almost as often as they displaced her.

“If you go out in the field enough, you know the individuals pretty well,” Lu said. “They all have their own personalities. Some of them walk in a different way and react to situations differently.”

A resident of Centereach, Feder grew up in northern Connecticut, attending Wesleyan University as an undergraduate, where he majored in music and biology. A bass guitar player, Feder said he “dabbles in anything with strings.”

In fourth grade, Feder read a biography of Dian Fossey, which sparked his interest in biology.

While he has yet to combine his musical and science interests with geladas, Feder said these monkeys have a large vocabulary that is almost as big as chimpanzees.

Lu, meanwhile, started studying geladas as a postdoctoral researcher. They’re a great study species that allow scientists to ask compelling questions about reproductive strategies. “At any point, you can follow 20 social groups,” Lu said.

Lu, whose two children are four years old and 16 months old, said she has observed the similarities between human and non-human primate young.

“Babies throw tantrums, whether it is my child or a gelada infant protesting being put on the ground,” she described in an email. Gelada infants use a sad “cooing” sound. Sometimes, the sad cooing sound is real and sometimes “they just get what they want.”

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India Pagan playing basketball for Stony Brook University. Photo from Stony Brook Athletics

India Pagan has a tattoo of the outline of Puerto Rico on her right arm. The image has two stars on it, where Hatillo and Mayagüez are located.

India Pagan practices with Puerto Rico’s Olympic team. Photo from the Pagan family

The connection to Puerto Rico for Pagan, a graduate of Stony Brook University who is now in a master’s program, runs much more than skin deep.

The 6-foot, 1-inch basketball star, who helped Stony Brook win back-to-back America East conference championships, is representing the island at the upcoming Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, joining the first women’s basketball team from Puerto Rico to compete at the games.

A talented forward who plays in the low post area near the basket, Pagan, who became one of only 18 Seawolves to score over 1,000 points in her career and set a school record last year for the highest shooting percentage for a season, is the second-youngest member on a team Puerto Ricans are calling “the 12 warriors.”

When she saw pictures of herself on the main Puerto Rican Olympic pages on Instagram and Facebook confirming she’d made the team, Pagan took screenshots and called her parents Moises, who was born in Mayagüez, and Carmen, born in Hatillo.

The excitement was palpable over the phone, as her parents “were both yelling” with delight, she said.

“I’m so thankful to be Puerto Rican,” Pagan said. “I say that every day.”

Indeed, Pagan, who spoke Spanish in her house growing up, traveled regularly to Puerto Rico to see her large and supportive extended family.

Her mother Carmen, who was a competitive runner when she was younger, wanted to give her daughter an opportunity to compete on a larger stage she herself didn’t have growing up as the 17th of 18 children.

A runner whose floor-length braided hair was so long that she had to pin it inside her shirt to prevent false starts, Carmen Pagan didn’t have the chance to compete against other athletes from around the world in her specialty, the 400- and 800-meter races.

“That’s why we went the extra mile with India,” mother said.

India Pagan playing for SBU. Photo from Stony Brook Athletics

“We are accomplishing our dreams through her,” Moises Pagan added. “She exceeded our expectations when it came to basketball.”

Soon after learning of her opportunity to represent Puerto Rico, India Pagan found out that the athletes would attend the Olympics under strict restrictions and would play in empty stadiums, to reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19.

Her family, who has already seen Pagan play in Italy among other places, canceled their travel plans.

India Pagan still feels fortunate to be at the games and to have the long-distance support of people she considers family in Puerto Rico; New London, Connecticut, where she was born and raised; and on Long Island.

Stony Brook “is my family and the girls are my sisters,” she said. That includes two of her close friends on the Stony Brook team, Courtney Furr and Leighah-Amori Wool, who cried when Pagan left and are staying in touch across the world.

Moises Pagan, who is 6 feet, 5 inches tall and played one year of semiprofessional basketball in Puerto Rico, recalls how his daughter kept his size-15-feet shoebox filled with acceptances from colleges. India Pagan visited Stony Brook last and decided within moments of her arrival that she wanted to be a Seawolf.

Her parents made her wait a day to decide. A day later, she took the final women’s basketball scholarship.

Her parents felt the same connection to the team, often traveling with home-cooked food for the players, who called them “Ma” and “Pa.”

Moises cooked around 40 empanadas for the team, while Carmen contributed a chicken-and-rice dish and meatballs.

“We like to give back to the team and the coaching staff,” Moises Pagan said. “They’re our extended family.”

Despite the connection India Pagan felt at Stony Brook, she wasn’t initially prepared to stay for the extra year of eligibility granted to athletes amid the pandemic.

Speaking to her new coach Ashley Langford, Pagan changed her mind.

Langford is thrilled for the experience Pagan will have at the Olympics. She told her new coach how much more physical the Olympic players are than the collegiate competitors.

For Pagan, various women have served as inspirations and role models.

She admires plus-size model Ashley Graham’s confidence and appreciates her ability to represent a group of women often excluded in modeling.

India Pagan at 13 years old. Photo from the Pagan family

Pagan also literally and physically looks up to American basketball star Brittney Griner. At 6 feet, 8 inches tall, Griner is also not the typical woman in society.

While Pagan said COVID remains in the back of her mind, she expressed confidence in the health protocols designed to protect athletes and area residents.

Even before reaching the Olympic Village, Pagan described how each floor has security. The team isn’t allowed to leave the hotel unless they are attending practice.

“We wake up, eat breakfast, go to practice and come back,” she said. “The protocols are extreme. They want to protect the athletes.”

Pagan’s parents said they remain concerned for their daughter’s health, although they feel reassured by safety measures that include seeing the sights of Tokyo without getting off the bus.

While the flights to Tokyo took over 23 hours, which makes the limited travel and other opportunities disappointing, Carmen Pagan said her daughter and the rest of the team are focused on making the most of their Olympic opportunity. The team “is there to play their hearts out for Puerto Rico,” the mother said.

Langford sees India Pagan as a winner, as she is “representing our university and women’s basketball. Regardless of the outcome, she’s already won. This is an amazing accomplishment.”

In addition to the memories from her Olympic experience, Pagan is looking forward to getting a tattoo of the five Olympic rings on her body.

The historic Puerto Rico opener is against China July 27.

While the Pagans won’t be able to watch their daughter compete in Tokyo in person, they are likely to gather with extended family, where everyone will “bring a dish,” Moises Pagan said. “Let the games begin!”

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