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Research during COVID:

How five biology professors are dealing with new restrictions

By California State University, Bakersfield

October 22^nd, 2020

In the seven months since COVID-19 forced events to be cancelled, movie theaters to be closed, and California State University, Bakersfield to go online, doing things virtually has become the new normal.

As professors in the School of Natural Sciences, Mathematics, and Engineering navigate remote classes and think of creative ways to provide students the same material they would learn from in-person classes, they are also adjusting their own research to accommodate new restrictions.

Campus laboratories, once bustling with several students, can now only have one person inside at a time. Lab teams that previously juggled a handful of projects at a time have had to choose what to focus on and stagger experiments.

Five biology professors shared how they and their students are continuing research while dealing with new limitations.

Dr. Lucas Hall

For Dr. Lucas Hall, being a wildlife ecologist involves far more days in a lab analyzing data than time outside with the animals themselves. Now, during a pandemic, Dr. Hall and his students are conducting their research not even in a lab but in their own homes.

Dr. Hall uses noninvasive, remote cameras to study how different species interact or don’t interact with each other at water sources in the desert. In particular, much of his research centers around kit foxes. With around 300 cameras set up from Utah to California, he and his students can determine what animal is in a photo, when it was there, and what water source it is near. Now in his second year at CSUB, Dr. Hall plans on setting up cameras across CSUB’s campus and on other school campuses around town but continues to analyze images from those already set up elsewhere.

“I count myself as lucky in that my research didn’t shut down with COVID, it just changed the way in which we do it,” Dr. Hall said. “We’re still able to answer the same questions and collect the same data, it’s just a little different.”

In an ordinary semester, Dr. Hall would be in the lab teaching his students the programs used to analyze the photos. He’s still doing that now, but instead of being beside a student and guiding him or her to specific buttons or features in the program, he can do that remotely in a way that is actually easier than dictating directions.

“This was something one of my research students showed me how to do just a few weeks ago,” he said. “They can grant me remote access and now instead of me directing them, ‘OK, go up to File, then go to Options – no, over there in the upper right,’ they can give me remote access and then I can use my mouse and show them the buttons and different features they need to use, which is pretty awesome.”

Setting up a research project could be more difficult than continuing with ongoing projects, Dr. Hall said, but his team will make it work. Now that the university has approved his project, they will set up cameras around campus, with students taking a few each and setting them up and managing them on their own.

Although one prospective graduate student in his lab lost funding for her project because of COVID-related issues, Dr. Hall said he is fortunate that the work he and his eight students are doing has been able to continue uninterrupted. He is also working on a new project that the graduate student will be able to join in the future, keeping her from being delayed from starting too much further.

“When life gives you lemons, you can always find some way to make lemonade, and right now, the lemonade we’re making in my lab is just phenomenal,” Dr. Hall said. “In a pandemic, we’ve been able to start seven papers, and I have yet to even meet with one of these students in person, let alone go out in the field, just because we’re fortunate enough to have access to long-term studies that are still ongoing.”

Dr. Isolde Francis

Molecular microbiologist Dr. Isolde Francis has taught at CSUB since December 2014, researching virulence mechanisms of plant pathogenic bacteria and how they are regulated upon encountering a host plant. In her time here, her work has evolved from purely lab-based molecular science to incorporate more field-based components and projects with a direct application in agriculture, a major industry in the Central Valley.

With undergraduate students no longer able to be on campus, Dr. Francis had to pause some of her own work and take on additional projects those students would typically conduct.

“From one day to the next I lost five undergraduate students,” Dr. Francis said. “Apart from the impact of this on the students themselves, the projects had to be halted. Most of my projects are grant funded which means that reports on results are due. This made my summer very heavy because now I had to take on these projects on top of what I was already working on.”

Dr. Francis has also given her four graduate students priority when it comes to reserving lab time, now that it is limited to one person at a time. Although this sets back her own research, it is important to her that the students finish their thesis projects on time, and those students haven’t missed a beat.

“The graduate students adopted really well to the new strategy and handled the restrictions very gracefully,” Dr. Francis said. “I am very fortunate with this group of students. They have kept their work pace and all projects are moving along really well.”

Before the pandemic, Dr. Francis would regularly meet with students in her office and work with them in the lab, always nearby to offer help or show the students a new technique. Now, she is still doing those things, just in the same way classes and other meetings are now done: via Zoom.

“I haven’t seen my students in person in a long time, but we keep communicating very frequently,” Dr. Francis said. “Most graduate students were already engaged in their project for about a year, so they have experience with the normal day-to-day business in the lab and a fair amount of experience with the techniques needed for their projects. For new techniques, I am virtually with them in the lab, meaning, we turn on Zoom and I guide them from home.”

The projects that have been allowed to continue during COVID are making good progress, Dr. Francis said, and her team is working well within new restrictions. Still, she and her students eagerly await the day their research can return to a pre-pandemic normal.

“The dynamic in the lab is gone because we are now in there all alone. That is really sad because one fun part about science is teamwork. Nobody likes these restrictions, but we all know they are necessary, so we make the best of it. And we did and continue to conduct good research.”

Dr. Rae McNeish

Dr. Rae McNeish has a personal rule for fieldwork that has served her well throughout her research career: always have a buddy. Only during COVID would that rule not keep her student researchers safe.

Not only does the aquatic ecologist like her students to have a partner in the field so they won’t be alone in remote areas, most of the research her lab carries out requires a team of three to six people. Because of this, COVID forced them to stop the bulk of her lab’s research on connections between freshwater and terrestrial habitats and how those connections are impacted by human activities.

“Throughout my entire research career, I’ve always had a really large undergrad team because of the amount of work it takes to go out and deploy an experiment, collect all the data samples and bring it back to the lab and process,” Dr. McNeish said. “Before COVID, I had a couple students who were dissecting fish digestive systems and looking at how much microplastic was inside the fish. I also had students working on identifying microplastics and aquatic insects.”

Now in her third year at CSUB, Dr. McNeish had only just settled into her lab last year. After a few months of productive research in her official lab space, the pandemic forced her eight undergraduate researchers off campus and her graduate student to restart her own project. Dr. McNeish commended NSME Dean Dr. Kathleen Madden and biology chair Dr. Paul Smith with quickly getting faculty and graduate students permission to be on campus.

“That was great, but access was step one,” she said. “But then step two was like, well, now what do I do? COVID happened and we missed a lot of the sample collection we needed to do in the rainy season, so a lot of those projects either have to be restarted or abandoned, or maybe we have enough data for publication, depending on the project.”

One of Dr. McNeish’s undergraduate students has been able to work on a project from home, measuring aquatic insects from photos using a program she was able to download to her computer.

“For all lines of research, there are always hurdles to cross,” Dr. McNeish said. “Whatever barriers are there, I’ve always been able to navigate them so we’re still successful in achieving our research goals. The navigation of trying to adapt to COVID has definitely made that way more challenging than probably any other barrier I’ve had to face so far.”

With her graduate student able to continue her work in the lab and undergraduate students possibly able to join in a limited capacity in the future, Dr. McNeish is doing her best to keep doing productive research and give her students a meaningful lab experience.

“It’s a challenge but we’re doing what we can. We’re trying to be positive and find ways to keep people involved and make sure that we’re being as successful as we can given the limitations that we have.”

Dr. Anna Doty

Ecophysiologist Dr. Anna Doty only had one full semester at CSUB before COVID forced the majority of campus operations to be moved online. By the time students return to campus, she will have taught more classes virtually than in person. It’s an interesting time to have started a new job, to say the least, but she’s making the most of it.

“Flexibility as a research scientist is extremely important,” Dr. Doty said. “You never know what might delay your laboratory or fieldwork; not only was my research threatened by COVID-19, but also by the wildfires! It’s important to remember that although not ideal, we can make it through difficult times together; we are resilient.”

Dr. Doty’s research studies how animals save energy in response to habitat changes brought on by climate change. Her work involves extensive fieldwork and radiotracking, following small mammals and their movements to understand how they use a landscape. Like other professors, her fieldwork had to be paused because of restrictions on travel this summer. But Dr. Doty had an additional restriction her colleagues didn’t: a moratorium on handling the specific subject she studies, bats.

“My laboratory work has not been slowed; however, my field work has been completely halted,” she said. “I am a very field-oriented researcher, so this has been difficult to adapt to.”

As a new professor, Dr. Doty didn’t yet have many students in her lab and would have been building her team in the last few months if not for COVID. She currently has one undergraduate student and one graduate student. The former is working in the lab with special permission, while the latter is able to conduct all research remotely.

“I was not actively conducting a research project when COVID first started, so fortunately I was not highly impacted right away,” Dr. Doty said. “However, I had to resolve a number of issues related to a research project I had planned on conducting over the summer in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. I have been successful in initiating a research project recently, which has been positive for me – thankfully, it was feasible for me to have only person in the lab at a time to help with this project.”

Adjusting her research hasn’t been easy, but Dr. Doty is happy to be able to continue her research in the safest way possible. Just as she has come to understand the importance of flexibility, Dr. Doty hopes her students will as well.

“Sometimes, even in the best of situations, research projects can go awry for a plethora of reasons – maybe your target species couldn’t be located, or perhaps your equipment is stolen by a mischievous bear. This is a good lesson to help students understand that, sometimes, we can’t control every aspect of our lives – but we can make the most of the cards we are dealt.”

Dr. Kane Keller

A community ecologist now in his fourth year at CSUB, Dr. Kane Keller is used to having quite a crowd in his small lab space. His own research revolves around studying species interactions, patterns of diversity and how terrestrial communities are being altered by human activity, and some of his students are leading their own projects on similar topics.

“We have a super active collaborative group that engages in a mixture of lab, greenhouse and field work,” Dr. Keller said. “It’s very dynamic and exciting. With multiple simultaneous projects, we include undergraduates and graduate students. Typically, we’re really working with each other a lot.”

This semester, his group of eight undergraduate students shrunk to three. His four graduate students have had to recalibrate their plans.

“I was bummed because we were finally getting into a really strong rhythm,” he said. “My first two years, I had limited lab and equipment access, and the third year, we finally hit our stride. We had been so actively preparing the last 12-18 months for what we were planning to do this past field season, before COVID changed everything.”

Though many projects had to be scaled back or delayed, others have been able to continue in some form or another. Graduate students are able to be on campus and work in the greenhouse or lab on a limited basis, while undergraduates are reviewing literature and learning how to analyze data from their homes. At the same time, Dr. Keller is continuing to conduct some of their planned experiments and virtually demonstrating protocols.

“They may not have as many hands-on activities, but I don’t want them to lose that experience of the process,” Dr. Keller explained.

Another way Dr. Keller’s team is continuing research remotely is by caring for their plants at home. Taking experiments home isn’t something all other scientists can do easily, of course, but for Dr. Keller and his students, it’s similar to a bit of home-gardening.

“We are growing plants in pots and creating a temporary greenhouse environment at home on a smaller scale,” he said.

Even though the lab’s productivity has been affected by COVID-19 restrictions, Dr. Keller believes it is all worth it to protect students. He’s proud that CSUB has been taking the virus seriously from the start.