An email from the University of Cambridge

COVID-19 update, changes to teaching and the latest research...


Zoology alumni

Dear ,

COVID-19

We are proud to report that the Department is successfully adapting to the difficult challenges provided by the COVID-19 pandemic. Some members of the Department have been carrying out vital research directly related to the pandemic and others have been acting as volunteers in local testing centres. We have adjusted how we teach and assess our students, and we are looking forward to welcoming back a full cohort of students to the Department in the Michaelmas Term.

The Department is now open for the safe return of those doing laboratory work and we are doing all we can to ameliorate the problems that some graduate students and postdocs have undoubtedly faced. The short Q & A with our Departmental Administrator below fleshes out how we are reorganising our labs for the new conditions.

The future

We are delighted to announce the appointment of two lecturers (Dr Emília Santos, Lecturer in Evolutionary Biology and Dr Helen Leggett, Lecturer in Evolution and Medicine). The research news here features exciting work done by the youngest members of the Department, as either undergraduates, graduates or postdocs.

Zoology Alumni Day 2020: Field trip in the Brecks

Because of the current situation, we have decided to hold our Zoology Alumni Day not in the Department but in the open air at the iconic Breckland locality of Cavenham Heath (assuming regulations allow this). The visit will start at 2pm on Saturday 5 September, and will be led by Professor William Sutherland and Dr Lynn Dicks. We hope that lots of you will take the chance to meet up and find out, on the ground, about the ecology of this fascinating area. Please register your interest at the end of the newsletter.

Best wishes,

Dr William Foster

Teaching during lockdown: survival and adaptation

Tim Weil talking to students at the Part II open day in early March

We are working hard to provide for our Zoology students an educational experience that is as good as we can possibly make it under current lockdown conditions. We have formatively assessed our first- and second-year students, providing general feedback in lieu of formal marking and classing. Our Part II students completed their research projects and have been examined remotely, completing their papers online within a 24-hour window: they will be classed and then graduate in absentia this summer.

All our students will return to Cambridge next term and we are developing a range of innovative ways of teaching so that we can deliver the highest quality education within the projected limitations. These will include holding face-to-face small-group supervisions, the cornerstone of a Cambridge education.

Our postgraduate research students are back in the labs, albeit in a reduced capacity and with safe working practices. We are especially proud of the postgrads who have submitted and passed their vivas while in lock-down. We wish them the best of luck in their future endeavours.

Zoologists respond to COVID-19

Bioinformatics and COVID-19

Terry Jones and Barbara Mühlemann (PhD 2015-2019) of the Centre for Pathogen Evolution, are currently working full-time on bioinformatics in relation to the virus, at the Charité in Berlin. They are co-authors on papers that have appeared in Nature and The Lancet Infectious Diseases. A new study they are involved in shows that viral loads in infected children are only minimally lower than in adults and that around a third of such children carry a load above the threshold of infectivity.

Solution scanning

When COVID-19 struck the UK, William Sutherland was concerned that decision-makers were not considering the full range of options. Previous work in his group had shown this could be a serious problem. He assembled a team of 36 experts in public health, epidemiology, business and policy, from eight countries, to identify the options. A total of 275 options were identified: for example, if the concern is that a space is too congested, this gives 21 possible options for reducing or spacing out demand.

This research achieved enormous publicity with nine TV/radio interviews and well over 60 newspaper articles; the UK Government's chief scientist, Patrick Vallance, asked for a copy and the Irish Government adopted many of the ideas.

Volunteer 'lab rats'

Professor Bill Amos, Principal Assistant Elizabeth MacRae, and Dr Helen Leggett have been volunteering on COVID-19 testing during lockdown. Bill and Liz are working at the Cambridge COVID testing centre, a joint venture between Cambridge University, AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline. Bill has been working in a team that triages the thousands of triple-wrapped samples that arrive every day. Exerting great care to spot rare leakages, volunteers read the barcodes of the samples, place them into ordered arrays and pass them on to the RNA extraction team. Liz works in this team and has enjoyed manning the automatic robots that perform the RNA extractions.

Helen has been working in the Cytology Department of the Cotman Centre in Norwich, which — together with the Virology Department in Norwich — covers all hospitals, care-homes and drive-through testing centres in Norfolk and Suffolk. This lab is also part of a national COVID-19 sequencing programme.

Staying engaged with the Museum in lockdown

The beginning of April saw the launch of the Museum of Zoology's blog — a new online space for our public programmes. We all know the value of being in nature, and our first response in these uncertain times was to support our audiences in engaging with the natural world. 'Wildlife From Your Window' is an area of the blog filled with activities and information about the animals on your doorstep, alongside short, informal wildlife films by the Museum team, and a community gallery of wildlife sightings and makes by the public.

Q&A with the Department's Administrator

We are delighted to welcome Louise Balshaw, who joined us as the Departmental Administrator in June 2019. She is an economics graduate of the University of Manchester, and has had a wide range of experience as a Business and Operations Manager, before joining us just in time to guide us through the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and the new working landscape into which we will all eventually emerge.

Read the Q & A

Professor Jennifer Clack FRS (1947 – 2020)

We are very sad to report the death of our colleague Jenny Clack, who died peacefully at home on 26 March 2020. Jenny joined the Museum and Department as an Assistant Curator in 1981 and subsequently became the Professor and the Curator of Vertebrate Palaeontology, and an FRS in 2009. She was well-known to generations of undergraduates for her memorable lectures and demonstrations on vertebrate evolution, often illustrated by the classic fossil material she had herself collected. She was the world authority on the origin and evolution of early tetrapods, and a full appreciation of her remarkable career is given on our website.

New Lecturer in Evolutionary Biology

We welcome Dr Emília Santos, who has been appointed to this Lectureship, filling the vacancy created by the retirement of Professor Paul Brakefield. Emília is currently a NERC Independent Research Fellow in the Department and leader of the Morphological Evolution Group. She did her first degree in Lisbon, and completed her PhD on Cichlid fishes at the University of Basel. Her research focuses on the genetic, developmental and selective contexts of the evolution of morphological traits.

Watch the video

Lecturer in Evolution and Medicine

We are delighted to announce that Dr Helen Leggett, who has been working as a Lecturer in the Department since 2017 (part-funded by Sidney Sussex College) will now be fully funded by the University for four more years. Helen works on the evolutionary ecology of microbes, studying their evolution in real time in the laboratory.

Research news

Invasive predators in the Galápagos Islands

PhD student Sophia Cooke (Part II 2012) is the lead author of a study on the diet of the smooth-billed ani, an aggressively predatory member of
the Cuckoo family, which was introduced into the Galápagos Islands in the 1960s. The study establishes that the bird feeds on endemic snakes, scorpions and the Galápagos Carpenter Bee, a keystone pollinator on the islands.

A side by side of a reptile with different coloured skin

How do polymorphisms persist during species radiations?

It is striking that the same polymorphism often occurs in multiple closely related species. For example, there are many groups of species of birds and reptiles that share the same colour polymorphisms, and most Primula species have long- and short-styled individuals. In a recent paper, Gabriel Jamie (Part II 2012, PhD 2013 – 2017) and Joana Meier review such trans-species polymorphisms. Intraspecific morphs are typically seen as precursors to species. However, Gabriel and Joana point out that if morphs become new species, these new species should not be polymorphic anymore. The occurrence of the same polymorphism in many closely related species is thus puzzling.

The nuanced strike of the praying mantid

Sit-and-wait predators, denied the thrill of the chase of the more glamorous fast-moving predators, are often assumed to catch their prey in a stereotypical manner – lurking inconspicuously until the hapless individual stumbles within reach. But Sergio Rossoni, a current PhD student in the Department, and Jeremy Niven (PhD 1997 to 2000) have demonstrated that the strike of the praying mantid is unexpectedly nuanced and adjusted to the speed of approach of their prey. They used beads on a wire (and the occasional fly to keep the mantid happy) presented to the predator at different speeds.

Climate Change: the Board Game

Michela Leonardi, together with members of the Evolutionary Ecology Research Group, has created a scientific board game, in which each player is a species of mammal that lives over a long period of time, and that can disperse, mutate, adapt to new habitats or become extinct as the climate changes over time. The game, for two to five players, is suitable for those aged 8 and upwards, and lasts about 30 minutes. Although primarily designed as an educational resource for use in schools, it is also fun for families and friends. Everything needed for the game can be downloaded from the files on the website.

Get the game

Events

Alumni Day in the Brecks!

5 September 2020

Government regulations permitting, we will hold this year’s Annual Alumni Day in the field, at Cavenham Heath in the Breckland. Please register your interest using the button below. Once we know we can definitely hold the event we will be in touch.

Our campaign for the University and Colleges of Cambridge is raising funds to attract the brightest minds, create the finest facilities and give the freedom to create more world-changing ideas. To do this, we need your help.

Department of Zoology

Call: +44 (0)1223 336600
Email: alumni@zoo.cam.ac.uk

Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, United Kingdom

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