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Summary of Research Project:

This research focuses on the synthesis of novel peptides (aka small segments of proteins) that are capable of functioning as potent antioxidants and metal chelators. We aim to incorporate non-natural amino acids into our peptide sequence to increase the peptide’s stability in biological applications. We are also incorporating non-natural amino acids that are potent antioxidants – these antioxidant amino acids will increase the overall antioxidant capability of the peptides.

Background/Training:

I earned my B.S. degree in Chemistry from Emmanuel College in Boston, where I completed three summer research fellowships studying extracellular matrix proteins and their mechanisms. This research cumulated in an undergraduate honor’s thesis. I then attended the University of Vermont (UVM) for graduate school and conducted research under the guidance of Professor Robert Hondal. The research conducted for my graduate career was interdisciplinary, ranging from chemical synthesis to protein biology. I learned many techniques including small molecule synthesis, peptide synthesis, and protein enzyme assays. I studied at UVM from 2015-2020, when I completed my Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry. I then completed a one-year post-doctoral research fellowship at Boston College studying proteomics. After this post-doctoral experience, I began as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Norwich University in Fall 2021, where I lead a team of undergraduate researchers who are interested in chemical biology. I have been conducting interdisciplinary research that is largely student focused in the field of peptide chemistry, and beyond.

Student Involvement in Research:

Undergraduate students are heavily involved in my research projects. I’ve mentored students from the time I first started at Norwich University and continue to mentor students during both the academic years and summers. This past summer (2026), I mentored three full-time research students who each designed and executed their own individual projects. Two of my students are currently working on capstone projects based on our work. I try to design all my research projects with undergraduate student involvement in mind. I have sent numerous students to local and national conferences where they present our work.

Current Collaborations:

I collaborate with Dr. Robert Hondal at UVM. Dr. Hondal has been instrumental to my research successes and is my current VBRN Science Mentor. I collaborate with other faculty at Norwich University, including Sarah Gallant, Ethan Guth, and Simon Pearish.

Potential Impact of your Research on Human Health and Beyond:

My research aims to design and synthesize a novel peptide that is an exceptionally powerful antioxidant, radical scavenger, and metal chelator, which could serve in a variety of applications. We hypothesize that our peptides will be superior antioxidants that can function as vitamins or therapeutics to combat damage caused by oxidative stress, including DNA and protein damage, diseases, and aging. Such antioxidant peptides could also be used to combat lipid peroxidation in the food preservation industry – the oxidation of fats and oils during processing and storage of food products has a negative effect on the quality and nutritional value of lipids. Peptides, since they are generally non-toxic are a fantastic alternative to the potentially harmful chemicals commonly used in food preservation techniques. Another application for antioxidant peptides, particularly metal-chelators, is as an antimicrobial agent. Metal chelating peptides are commonly employed as anti-microbial agents. Peptides are also widely used as active ingredients in cosmetics and skin care products to scavenge free radicals and combat signs of aging.

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Vaccines have historically been targeted to generate responses in white blood cells such as T and B lymphocytes because they are well studied for their adaptive responses. Recent discoveries that other white blood cells with innate immunity such as monocytes also demonstrate adaptive characteristics, making them worthy of further investigation to improve vaccine effectiveness and longevity. Utilizing single-cell RNA sequencing technology and bioinformatics analysis, this study intends to 1) identify immune cell subsets in blood samples pre- and post- routine vaccinations, comparing cell subpopulation numbers and heterogeneity with a focus on monocytes, and 2) evaluate monocyte subpopulation signals for comprehensive transcriptome signal acquisition without prior cell enrichment via flow cytometry. Follow-on studies would be directed toward the public health aim of contributing to future vaccine design targeting both the innate and adaptive immune cell populations for long term and wholistic protection against disease.

Background/Training:

My DVM and PhD are both from Tufts University. I am a licensed veterinarian with clinical experience, and strong interests in comparative anatomy, physiology and immunology. In my PhD dissertation work I applied knowledge of milk and mastitis in dairy species to study factors in breast milk from HIV-1-infected sub-Saharan African breastfeeding mothers and the association with breast milk viral burden. Prior to working at VTSU, I served as a post-doctoral trainee and later as research assistant professor at Dartmouth Medical School’s Dept of Microbiology & Immunology studying infant stool intestinal markers of inflammation, vaccine development for milk-derived antibodies, breastmilk cell populations and cytokine production, and the role of mammary cells in transmitting HIV-1 virus or otherwise contributing to viral reproduction.

Student Involvement in Research:

This is my first VBRN award and I anticipate future involvement of students particularly those interested in bioinformatics.

Current Collaborations:

This project is a collaboration with: Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine’s DartLab Shared Resources for Flow Cytometry & and Immunoassays, the Genomics and Molecular Biology Shared Resource at Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine’s Cancer Center, and University of Vermont’s Larner College of Medicine’s Bioinformatics Core (VBRN Data Science Core).

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Measuring differences between chronological and biological brain age from brain image data offers a promising, non-invasive diagnostic tool in medicine, but provides only observational, correlative study of the mechanisms of brain aging. The fruit fly, which shares developmental and functional nervous system components with humans and is experimentally amenable to artificial selection and direct genetic manipulation, is an opportune system to tease apart genetic and environmental determinants of whole-brain aging. In this research we aim to develop a pipeline for high-throughput processing, imaging, and classification of fly brain age to ultimately study genetic and lifestyle factors that hasten or slow whole-brain aging.

Background/Training:

Keating is a broadly trained neuroethologist with a B.S. in Biology from the University of Vermont, and M.S. in Biology from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Arizona.

Student Involvement in Research:

Research in the Godfrey Lab is sustained in large part by undergraduate students conducting independent research within the broader aim of developing methods to assess whole-brain aging in the fly.

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Potential Impact of your Research on Human Health and Beyond:

Potential impact of research on human health: Our research takes the perspective that brain aging is a complex phenotype resulting from multiple gene-environment interactions. The fly model provides us the opportunity to employ this perspective experimentally by establishing lifestyle variation across different genetic backgrounds, thus studying brain aging as a complex trait. We expect insights from this study design will shed light on combinations of variables that underlie greater vulnerability to or protection from aging in the brain.

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Location, nutrient availability, interspecies competition, and environmental conditions have historically played a role in the development of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) (Davies et al., 2010). Defining locations and types of ARGs in Arctic samples will help further our understanding of their presence and aid in predicting the impact of these genes being added to the biosphere when the permafrost melts. Gene transfer and acquisition of resistance genes have been defined in many microbial interspecies (Larsson et al., 2022), and prediction of potential changes based on historical data using the metagenome from Arctic samples will help identify areas where intervention and increased focus can be used to improve health outcomes. ARGs have previously been found in permafrost microbes (Decosta et al., 2011). Within the permafrost layer, microbes are ubiquitous in Arctic regions (Ottoni et al., 2022).We hypothesize that ARG’s and will be found in permafrost samples and that these ARGs and their activity levels will be unique in samples collected from Utqiagvik, Alaska (February 2025) and Cambridge Bay, Canada (May 2025).

Background/Training:

1. Five Field expeditions to the Arctic across different locations and seasons. 2. Metagenomics workshops at UVM.

Student Involvement in Research:

Nike Buonocore, Dominic Mazzilli, Caleb Tilton, Ben Boggio, Charles Schwenker.

Current Collaborations:

a. Ross Lieblappen- Interpretations of Polar Environments at the Nanoscale (CRREL) b. Charlie Schwenker senior Capstone Project Advisor-Exploring CO2 Respiration in Arctic Permafrost

Potential Impact of your Research on Human Health and Beyond:

We are finding a broad range of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in Arctic samples. While the microbial taxonomy of permafrost is largely similar (abundance of microbes) across sites and locations, ARGs are mapping to different microbes by location. This indicates that resistance might not be happening in the same microbes across Arctic permafrost and could help to map the acquisition of resistance genes as permafrost melts.

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As the U.S. population ages and more older adults remain in their homes, preventing falls has become an urgent public health priority due to their substantial contributions to morbidity, mortality, and healthcare utilization. Poor nutritional status has emerged as a modifiable yet under explored risk factor for falls, particularly among community-dwelling older adults whose nutrition and health behaviors are shaped by complex physiological, social, and environmental influences that remain insufficiently understood in rural and seasonal contexts. Building on prior work in Vermont, this study extends to Maine and New Hampshire to generate qualitative and quantitative evidence on healthy behaviors, geography, and social determinants of health interact to influence nutrition and fall risk, thereby informing community-based strategies to support healthy aging in place.

Background/Training:

Dr. Tarleton is a registered dietitian and Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach who has spent the majority of her career teaching, conducting, and facilitating high quality and innovative translational research. She is currently an Associate Professor at Vermont State University, where she is the co-coordinator of the undergraduate Health Science program and coordinator of the Health and Wellness Coaching program. Dr. Tarleton has led qualitative and quantitative nutrition research studies in various healthcare and community settings. Her main research interests include the role of nutrition in mental health and the role of nutrition in maintaining independence as we age.

Student Involvement in Research:

This study collects both qualitative and quantitative data and undergraduate students are involved in every aspect of the project, from design to data collection, entry, and analyses.

Current Collaborations:

Understanding the relationship between falls risk and malnutrition in older adults * Nancy Gell, PhD, PT, Associate Professor, Rehabilitation and Movement Science, UVM * Alison Howe, PhD, Assistant Dean - Institutional Research and Data Management, Assistant Professor - Medical Education, Geisinger College of Health Science * Using health and wellness coaching to help older adults stay healthy and maintain independence * Andrea Corcoran, PhD, Associate Professor, Health Science, Vermont State University

Potential Impact of your Research on Human Health and Beyond:

Upon successful completion of this project, we expect to have engaged undergraduate students in mixed-methods research while obtaining contextual data to design community-specific interventions that improve nutrition status and decrease fall risk, supporting aging in place. Findings from this study could have significant positive impacts on the long-term health of community-dwelling older adults in New England.