Originally posted on December 16, 2019

Happy Holidays from the Sparks lab!
Things are going well here in Newark!  We had a new MS student, Stephen Smith, join us from the Bioinformatics program. Stephen will be working on the Environmental aspects of root growth and development and we are excited to have him on board.  We will also have a MS student from Chemical Engineering, Rickey Egan, visiting the lab during Winter Term for a fun mini-project on oil palm.  As the group continues to grow we are grateful for the talent and enthusiasm of all our team members.


In granting news, we received funding from the University of Delaware Research Foundation Strategic Initiative Award in collaboration with Dr. Monique Head in Civil Engineering to start exploring the structural mechanics of corn using her expertise as a bridge engineer. This work will kick off in January, so stay tuned for pictures and updates on our collaboration. We further received funding from the Delaware Biosciences Center for Advanced Technology in collaboration with Dr. Alyssa Koehler, Plant Pathologist. For this work, we are partnering with a Delaware corn producer to study pythium infections and develop mitigation strategies for the Mid-Atlantic.  We are delighted by this research support and excited to continue working with wonderful partners.


Research-wise, we are trying to sort through the mountains of data that we collected from the field over the summer.  As you all know, data analysis is an iterative process. For our field-based mechanical testing to understand brace root function, we took a second look at our data and decided maybe there is a better way to analyze it!  So back to the drawing board.  We are committed performing a robust analysis and that means spending time with our data and understanding all of the nuances.  We’re optimistic to have this analysis completed in early 2020, so we can tell you more about how brace roots function to stabilize plants and what makes a brace root good at it’s job.


Other research areas continue to progress as we continue to develop new technologies and explore their function in understanding plant growth dynamics. We are particularly excited about the “Plant Pusher” developed by a team of UD Engineering Senior Design students.  These students went from idea, to concept, to functional prototype in one semester.  We are blown away by their aptitude and progress. The goal of the project was to develop an automated platform for mechanical testing in the greenhouse.  We are currently using this device to compare the mechanics of plants grown in the field versus greenhouse to finalize a methods paper on this topic.  While several field-based mechanical testing devices exist (see our recent review on arXiv), the application of these devices to the greenhouse is limited.  This device will allow us to test plants under abiotic and biotic stresses that we cannot perform in the field.  This has expanded the potential research applications exponentially.


Other than that we are gearing up for our move to a new building in early 2020!  We are excited for the new space and to be closer to our colleagues in Agriculture.  We’ve also added a new section to the lab website of Lab Pictures, so check it out. We will work to keep it updated with pictures of our science and fun happenings.
We wish you all a happy and relaxing holiday season and a joyous new year!

Originally posted on September 20, 2019

Once again a post that starts with “where has the time gone”.  I don’t know how time flies so fast, but it’s already Fall!  Welcome to pumpkin spice everything (it really should be a national holiday). It was a busy summer in the Sparks lab as we embarked on our 3rd field season. Things seemed to run a little smoother this year then they have in the past (fingers crossed I didn’t just curse us).  I got an email the other day saying it was my 3rd field season, so I should have everything figured out – HA!  Maybe add a zero to that… Surely I will have it figured out by my 30th field season. 🙂
​
In addition to our regularly scheduled research, we hosted Dr. Mandy Rasmussen in the lab for a couple of months this summer. It was a busy trip, but very productive.  Mandy introduced her expertise in physiology to our lab and we are hoping to have some exciting mechanics/physiology results soon. We also managed to submit a grant together and outline a couple of papers.

People-wise the Sparks lab welcomed a new postdoc in the mix in September – Adam Stager. Adam is probably familiar to you already. He’s been working with us as a graduate student in Mechanical Engineering for the past 2 years and we are delighted that he’s joining us for a postdoc.  After major field-prep, Adam did the first deployment of our brace root phenotyping robot. There are still some kinks to be ironed out, but overall a successful first run!

​This post is part of a migration of posts from our previous website.

Originally posted on June 10, 2019

Wow – where has the time gone??? June 1st marked UD’s graduation and the 2nd birthday of the Sparks lab.  This past year has flown by.  After a year without any teaching responsibilities, Dr. Sparks spent her second year in course development land!  Last Fall it was a split undergraduate/graduate course on Plant Development and this Spring was an undergraduate course on Controlled Environment Agriculture.  While incredibly different, both courses offered Dr. Sparks the chance to become a better instructor and opportunities to get to know the amazing graduate and undergraduate students here at UD.  Now that teaching has wound down for the year, we can take a short breather and plow right into field season!

We had some really exciting results from last field season that suggest the brace root contribution to plant anchorage varies with genotype. This summer we aim to repeat these experiments and get some of our field-based phenotyping robots deployed. Science is chugging right along.  We submitted two pre-prints this past year (Erndwein et al., https://doi.org/10.1101/547794 and Stager et al., arxiv.org/abs/1903.10608) and are hoping to get some more of our data out there ASAP!  Dr. Sparks should be working on the figures now, but is likely procrastinating…perhaps by writing a blog post… 😉

We absolutely cannot wait for the summer ahead.  Dr. Amanda Rasmussen from the University of Nottingham will be visiting for a few months (July-Sept) to show us the beauty of root physiology.  We’re so excited to combine our mechanical results with her physiology approaches. In addition, PhD student Lindsay Erndwein and Dr. Sparks will be headed to Montpellier, France for an exciting collaboration with Dr. Christophe Pradal, and we hope to welcome a new Postdoc into the lab this summer. However, all of this excitement means we will not be traveling to many of our favorite meetings this year. We are sorry to miss you, but will catch you again next year!

​We wish you all a bountiful beautiful summer and may the maize be ever in your favor.  😉




​P.S. Dr. Sparks spent an amazing 2-weeks visiting Agriculture Victoria this past May, so here is a Koala for your viewing pleasure.

As we close out the end of a busy summer, the Sparks lab is gearing up for a great school year.  In June we celebrated the first birthday of the Sparks lab and had a great gathering of friends and collaborators. We are all excited to see what this second year brings.

First lab news is of departures and arrivals.  We said farewell to our summer undergraduates a few weeks ago, as well as Hyeon-Hye Norikane who was instrumental to helping get the lab up and running.  We were also able to welcome Noah Ouslander as a lab tech. Noah worked in the lab as an undergraduate for the past year and we’re excited to have him working full-time. Another new addition is Sarah Blizard, who joins us as a Master’s student after working as a lab technician for the past few years.  We are so excited for the future of the Sparks lab!

Other lab news involves grant funding! We’ve been fortunate enough to receive seed grant funding for our research from NASA, the University of Delaware Research Foundation, and the Delaware Biosciences CAT program.  In addition, in collaboration with Dr. Christophe Pradal, we were awarded a Thomas Jefferson Fund award to promote US-French collaborations. Funding includes support for a 1-month stay for PhD student Lindsay Erndwein in Montpellier!  Lastly, in collaboration with Dr. Ullas Pedmale, we received a NSF grant (#1755355) to look at the Mechanisms of Light Control of Root Growth. We are beyond grateful for the support of these funding agencies and can’t wait to see the results from these projects.
​
Other than that we are collecting and processing data. We hope to have our first research publications out early next year, so stay tuned… This promises to be a busy Fall with students taking classes and Dr. Sparks teaching Plant Development and Departmental Seminar. More updates soon!  Hope everyone has a great semester!

​This post is part of a migration of posts from our previous website.

Originally posted on May 10, 2018

The first spring in Delaware for the Sparks Lab has been lovely!  As the semester comes to an end, we thought to share some of the great things happening to our group and what’s on the horizon…

First, congratulations go out to PhD student Lindsay Erndwein for her acceptance and scholarship to attend the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories Frontiers and Techniques in Plant Science course!!!  We are so excited that Lindsay will become an alumni of the @CSHLplantcourse and can’t wait to hear all of the amazing things she will learn.

Second, a big congratulations to undergraduate Sarah Kubat for winning a University of Delaware College of Agriculture and Natural Sciences Unique Strengths summer internship!  Sarah is a Plant Sciences major and has been working with us since the start of Winter Term. We are so excited that she will get to spend the summer in the lab thanks to this amazing opportunity.

Another new addition to the lab is undergraduate Kyle Ebersole who is joining us for the summer from Hagerstown Community College.  Kyle will be working with Nathan Harlan for the summer and we are super excited for his contributions to the lab.
​
Lastly – be on the look out for Sparks lab members at meetings near you this summer.  Erin, Nathan, Lindsay, and Wenbo will be at the Mid-Atlantic ASBP meeting.  Nathan, Lindsay, and Wenbo all have posters so if you are at the meeting, come check out their work!  Then Erin and Nathan will be at the “big” ASPB Plant Biology Meeting in Montreal. Nathan will again be giving a poster, so come see the great work he is doing.  Erin will be giving talks at the Plant Biomechanics meeting in Montreal, and the International Association for Plant Biotechnology in Dublin this summer. Lots of travel and excitement for the Sparks lab this summer. 🙂
​
Keep our eye out for our next post… “The Sparks Lab First Birthday” (yes, we are having a party).

Originally posted on April 27, 2018

On Saturday April 14th, Dr. Sparks was honored to participate in the inaugural Sussex County Delaware STEM “Engineering Your Tomorrow” event for 6th-8th grade girls. This amazing event featured interactive activities – Dr. Sparks and Dr. Megan Killian coordinated a robotic hand activity where girls learned about biomechanics and motion – drone and robot demonstrations, a rousing speech by the First Lady of Delaware – Tracey Quillen Carney, Dr. Sparks as the key note speaker, and so much more!  During her key note address, Dr. Sparks talked how much she didn’t like science when she was in middle school and her journey to become a scientist. In particular, she recalled that when she was the age of these girls, she took a “career survey” that told her she would be nothing when she grew up! She hopes that her story was inspirational to these young girls and is overwhelmed and grateful for the opportunity to participate in this great event.  For news coverage and video from the event please click below.
Sussex County Engineering Your Tomorrow 2018

We especially want to thank Cindy Isaacs, the lead event coordinator; Michele Walfred, the volunteer media guru; and Adam Stager, who let us borrow his robot for demonstrations!  The girls loved running the robot off the tables and taking selfies with the forward facing camera!

Originally posted on April 5, 2018

As they say – “when it rains it pours”, and in the Sparks lab it is pouring amazing new team members!  This month we welcome Wenbo Zhao to the lab as a Master’s student.  Wenbo comes to us from the Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology graduate program, and has an interest in Data Mining and Text Mining.  Wenbo will be co-advised with Dr. Cecilia Arighi and Dr. Chuming Chen, who will provide him with amazing guidance on building databases and data mining.  We are excited for the new and different skillsets that Wenbo will bring to the lab.
​
We also just finished interviewing PhD candidates to join the lab this Fall.  We were lucky to have three excellent candidates come visit us in Newark, and are excited that one of them will be joining us this Fall.  All of the paperwork is in the works, and we will follow up with an official announcement after everything is completed. So, be on the lookout for another update soon!

Originally posted on March 14, 2018

Well it has been an eventful few months for the Sparks lab!  We are growing (plants and people) and starting to feel like a “real” lab!  This semester we have added Nate Harlan, a recent UD graduate to the lab. Nate will start his Masters Degree research in the Sparks lab in the Fall of 2018, and is taking this opportunity to get a jump start on his research and get acclimated in the lab. We also have Lindsay Erndwein joining us as a PhD student this semester.  Lindsay has a fascination with all things insect, so she will start a joint PhD project with the Sparks lab and the (Ivan) Hiltpold lab in Entomology and Wildlife Ecology. We’re really excited for the opportunity to collaborate with the Hiltpold lab and learn more about bugs! We also managed to convince Noah Ouslander to stay on with us after graduation as a lab technician. Noah was one of the first members of the Sparks lab and has been an exceptional undergraduate, and we’re really excited that he will stay on with us after graduation.
And with the arrivals generally comes the departures. The first member of the Sparks lab, Jon Reneau, will be departing next week to take a new job in the Controller’s Office and the Cost Accounting Department at UD. While we don’t understand what his new job will entail (too many accounting things), we are sure he will miss digging in the dirt. We wish him the best of luck with his new position and hope he comes back to visit!