On hot summertime nights in West Texas, with her eyes broad and heart racing, Grace Coppinger discovered how to catch rattlesnakes.
She signed up with Dr. Jason Strickland, a biology teacher at the University of South Alabama, and 2 college students on an excursion near Big Bend National Park. After sundown, they drove through the desert trying to find snakes crossing the roadway.
Using tongs or a pole with a hook, the South scientists reduced the snakes into a sack. The next day, they navigated the snakes into a plastic tube, then had them bite down on a plastic cup to launch their venom.
“We caught way more snakes than I thought we would,” Coppinger said. “We were up into the 20s and 30s. Especially during the night, it was damp and dark, and you’re in some cases handling poisonous reptiles. It was an outrageous experience, doing something not everybody can do. The adrenaline rush was insane.
“There was one night when we were out collecting scorpions. In order to find them, you shine a black light and they glow in the dark. So we’re along this cliffside in the middle of Texas, 1 a.m., and there are huge stars and the biggest night sky you’ve ever seen. I never felt so small in my life. A super cool experience.”
Back in Mobile, Coppinger has actually discovered her own specific niche in snake research study. She gathered typical garter snakes – usually safe to human beings – near the nature tracks on school and drawn out venom from their rear fangs for analysis. It’s an inadequately comprehended location of research study.
The Honors College trainee has an interest in what proteins are produced in the venom of the garter snake, and how they are various from other rear-fang snakes. Also, whether female garter snakes, which are bigger than males and tend to consume larger victim, have more intricacy in their venom.
The 21-year-old junior biology significant hopes her work will be released in an academic journal such as Toxicon. She’s already been a co-author on a tree frog short article by Dawn Canterbury, a previous South college student, in Herpetological Review. She is likewise an undergraduate research study assistant on a tick research study job that is a cooperation in between Strickland and Dr. Meghan Hermance in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology.
Coppinger is among 4 South undergrads chosen for a 2023 Goldwater Scholarship in science, innovation, engineering or mathematics. She’s preparing a profession in hereditary research study. The Seaman’s Bethel building, home to the Honors College, is among her preferred put on school.
“I just love going in there and hearing about what everyone’s working on,” she said. “One of my friends is an anthropology major studying all of these interesting things. It’s just amazing, this melting pot of people.”
At South, Strickland runs a biology laboratory called the SSSTING Lab, which is brief for Snakes, Scorpions, Spiders, Toxins, INformatics and Genomics. Coppinger took among his genes classes and sent him an e-mail inquiring about research study tasks.
“She was a freshman at the time, so it was great to bring her in early,” Strickland said. “As soon as we started talking, it was clear that she was smart, energetic and highly motivated. She’s a good person to have in the lab. She’s always looking to be helpful. She’s always trying to be a team player.”
Coppinger is grateful for the opportunity to do research study as an undergrad. She keeps in mind Strickland using her numerous research study opportunities. One of them, the garter snake job, he referred to as “from the ground up,” needing great deals of work over numerous terms.
That sounded good to her.
“In my mind, if you’re going to do something, it needs to be 100 percent,” she said. “Within the hour, I got back to him, saying please can I do this, and I will work so hard. That’s where I went, and I’m so glad I did.”
From Missouri to Mobile
Coppinger matured outdoors St. Louis in Union, Missouri. During high school, she did a summertime program at the University of Chicago, however picked to go to South since of the Honors College and Dauphin Island Sea Lab.
She ended up studying reptiles, instead of amphibians, which shocked her moms and dads.
“My mother hates snakes, so at first she was kind of worried about me,” Coppinger said. “I don’t think any of us expected me to end up in this, but I’m happy to be here now.”
In Mobile, she works part-time at a regional hardware store. She runs numerous times a week and does the periodic 5K race. She has actually a dog called Gator.
This summertime, she will take part in Research Experience for Undergraduates, a National Science Foundation program, with the Boyce Thompson Institute at Cornell University.
Coppinger has systems to go to graduate school and go on to make a Ph.D. There’s a fulfillment that includes field work that results in laboratory analysis and released outcomes.
“I love the community that builds around research,” she said. “I love being in the lab. I like contributing to something. There are a couple of plant projects I’m interested in, using genetics, but I could see myself working with rattlesnakes or pit vipers the rest of my life.”
(Courtesy of University of South Alabama)
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