Research Roundup at Montana State University (#271), Montana’s un-dinosaurs, Bacteria, dead or alive?, Summer job, added value, Artificial knees

Montana’s un-dinosaurs

Many people confuse marine reptiles with dinosaurs, but the two are different, a Montana State University expert said at the grand opening of the Siebel Dinosaur Complex at MSU’s Museum of the Rockies. Dinosaurs lived mostly on land and the marine reptiles in water, Pat Druckenmiller said as he described three types of marine reptiles, or "un-dinosaurs," that lived 245 to 65 million years ago in what is now known as Montana. Plesiosaurs moved through the water with modified limbs. Ichythyosaurs mainly used their tails to swim. Mosasaurs swam by undulating their entire body. Their skulls also had two hinges, which gave them a great ability to munch on large prey. Druckenmiller said Montana has lots of mosasaur fossils, but they haven’t been studied much.

Bacteria, dead or alive?

One of the major obstacles to detecting harmful bacteria on the basis of their genetic material is the difficulty in telling live cells from dead cells. That’s because their genetic material tends to be very stable even after the cells die. Differentiating between live and dead cells may become far more feasible, however, because of research by professors Andreas Nocker and Anne Camper with MSU’s Center for Biofilm Engineering. They developed a fast, easy-to-perform detection method that may someday help replace slow, traditional methods that are based on growing bacteria. The technology could help with everything from monitoring food and water safety to analyzing bioterrorist threats. MSU recently licensed the technology to QIAGEN, a leading world provider for sample and assay technologies for life sciences, applied testing and molecular diagnostics.

Summer job, added value

Erin Snyder thought she was getting just a summer job when she started working for Pat Hatfield and Hayes Goosey a few years ago. But one summer turned into four, and the MSU senior from Bozeman said she has learned valuable lessons from the MSU researchers. Hatfield and Goosey are conducting an experiment that compares the effectiveness of sheep, chemicals and tillage practices on weeds in fallow wheat fields. Snyder samples the plants before and after the sheep start grazing. She has also explained the experiment at three conferences this year. Her paper on the project won second place for the applied industry award at the western section meeting of the American Society of Animal Science. Her poster and oral presentation won third place at the Montana Livestock Forum and Nutrition Conference.

Artificial knees

Tens of million prosthetic devices are implanted every year in the United States, says Bruce McLeod, an MSU professor in electrical and computer engineering. Most of the operations are successful, but persistent infections occur in approximately 1.3 million patients. Many times, it’s probably because a community of bacteria lives on a surface of the prosthetic, McLeod said. Doctors currently have no way of clearing up the infection without removing the prosthetic and inserting it again. McLeod has received a grant, however, to address the problem. Since magnetic fields stimulate the growth of bone cells, he wants to see if specific magnetic fields will induce currents in the knee and increase the metabolism of bacteria so the bacteria takes in more antibiotic. McLeod wants to develop a small, lightweight device that can fight infection from outside the body. He is focusing on knee implants.

Evelyn Boswell, (406) 994-5135 or [email protected]; Tracy Ellig at (406) 994-7371 or [email protected]

http://www.montana.edu/cpa/news/nwview.php?article=5085