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Zoo InternQuest is a seven-week career exploration program for San Diego County high school juniors and seniors. Students have the unique opportunity to meet professionals working for the San Diego Zoo, Safari Park, and Institute for Conservation Research, learn about their jobs, and then blog about their experience online. Follow their adventures here on the Zoo’s website!
This week we met with Senior Scientist Chris Tubbs and Research Coordinator Rachel Felton who both work in the Reproductive Sciences division at the Institute for Conservation Research. Both Dr. Tubbs and Ms. Felton are reproductive endocrinologists. Endocrinology is the study of hormones, which act as chemical messengers throughout the body. More specifically, hormones help to regulate bodily functions including growth, metabolism, and reproduction. Hormones are made in glands and then travel through the blood to get to wherever they need to get to in the body. Once they get to wherever they need to go, like a certain cell, they bind to receptors to either trigger a process to start happening, continue happening, or to stop. It’s like a lock and key mechanism, the hormone being the key and the receptor being the lock.
Why do researchers like Dr. Tubbs and Ms. Felton study hormones? Hormones are a good indication of an animal’s health, and what is going on within their bodies. By knowing what hormones are present and the level of those hormones, scientists are able to figure out the processes that are occurring within in animal. They can detect certain hormones and their levels through blood, urine, or fecal analysis. However, hormone levels do fluctuate over time and it can be difficult to fully determine anything from just one sample. So, scientists do something called hormone monitoring where they test hormone levels over a period of time by taking samples nearly every day, analyzing them, and plotting the data on a graph.
Hormones aren’t usually something that comes to mind in the world of conservation, but they can actually play an instrumental role in the conservation of endangered species. We learned about a hormone called progesterone that is produced heavily in females during pregnancy and drops to a very low level after birthing. By monitoring progesterone levels over time, they can determine whether a female is pregnant or not. They test hormone levels through a process called an ELIZA, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. In short, they utilize color change as in indicator of hormone levels from a sample. After having the process explained to us, we were able to perform an ELIZA ourselves!
You may be wondering, “How do scientists get samples to test for hormones?” Well, scientists get the most accurate results from testing blood samples as that’s how hormones travel through the body. However, it is difficult to get blood samples nearly every day from an animal. It’s like if you had to get your blood drawn every single day. You may be okay with that knowing that it’s beneficial for your health, but animals don’t and would rather not get poked by needles daily. So, most samples are taken from fecal and urine samples – poo and pee! This isn’t the most pleasant way to obtain samples, but it is the easiest. The reproductive sciences lab we visited has refrigerators filled with just urine and feces that they’ve obtained over time. Talk about a smelly science! We even played a game comedically titled, “Who DUNG it?” where we had to match feces to the animal that produced it.
With all this info, Dr. Tubbs and his colleagues can figure out how factors, like environment and diet, may be affecting a species’ hormones production and in turn, their ability to reproduce. Reproduction plays a huge part in the conservation of a species and scientists like Dr. Tubbs and Ms. Felton are making huge steps in the preservation of animals and their ecosystems.
Andi, Real World Team
Week Three, Fall Session 2017
This week we met with Senior Scientist Chris Tubbs and Research Coordinator Rachel Felton who both work in the Reproductive Sciences division at the Institute for Conservation Research. Both Dr. Tubbs and Ms. Felton are reproductive endocrinologists. Endocrinology is the study of hormones, which act as chemical messengers throughout the body. More specifically, hormones help to regulate bodily functions including growth, metabolism, and reproduction. Hormones are made in glands and then travel through the blood to get to wherever they need to get to in the body. Once they get to wherever they need to go, like a certain cell, they bind to receptors to either trigger a process to start happening, continue happening, or to stop. It’s like a lock and key mechanism, the hormone being the key and the receptor being the lock.
Why do researchers like Dr. Tubbs and Ms. Felton study hormones? Hormones are a good indication of an animal’s health, and what is going on within their bodies. By knowing what hormones are present and the level of those hormones, scientists are able to figure out the processes that are occurring within in animal. They can detect certain hormones and their levels through blood, urine, or fecal analysis. However, hormone levels do fluctuate over time and it can be difficult to fully determine anything from just one sample. So, scientists do something called hormone monitoring where they test hormone levels over a period of time by taking samples nearly every day, analyzing them, and plotting the data on a graph.
Hormones aren’t usually something that comes to mind in the world of conservation, but they can actually play an instrumental role in the conservation of endangered species. We learned about a hormone called progesterone that is produced heavily in females during pregnancy and drops to a very low level after birthing. By monitoring progesterone levels over time, they can determine whether a female is pregnant or not. They test hormone levels through a process called an ELIZA, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. In short, they utilize color change as in indicator of hormone levels from a sample. After having the process explained to us, we were able to perform an ELIZA ourselves!
You may be wondering, “How do scientists get samples to test for hormones?” Well, scientists get the most accurate results from testing blood samples as that’s how hormones travel through the body. However, it is difficult to get blood samples nearly every day from an animal. It’s like if you had to get your blood drawn every single day. You may be okay with that knowing that it’s beneficial for your health, but animals don’t and would rather not get poked by needles daily. So, most samples are taken from fecal and urine samples – poo and pee! This isn’t the most pleasant way to obtain samples, but it is the easiest. The reproductive sciences lab we visited has refrigerators filled with just urine and feces that they’ve obtained over time. Talk about a smelly science! We even played a game comedically titled, “Who DUNG it?” where we had to match feces to the animal that produced it.
With all this info, Dr. Tubbs and his colleagues can figure out how factors, like environment and diet, may be affecting a species’ hormones production and in turn, their ability to reproduce. Reproduction plays a huge part in the conservation of a species and scientists like Dr. Tubbs and Ms. Felton are making huge steps in the preservation of animals and their ecosystems.
Andi, Real World Team
Week Three, Fall Session 2017
