An grownup 13-lined floor squirrel rests curled in its nest throughout torpor, a deep state of hibernation through which physique temperature, heart price and metabolism drop dramatically. UW-Oshkosh researchers research these pure survival mechanisms for insights into human well being.
When NCS’s Vital Signs explored how hibernating animals may maintain clues to treating most cancers, heart disease and even defending astronauts in house, a part of that story traced again to the University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh.
The episode highlighted cutting-edge biomedical analysis involving hibernating animals, however a lot of the foundational work behind these discoveries has been going down quietly for many years at UW-Oshkosh , the place faculty-led analysis, undergraduate coaching and a novel floor squirrel breeding program have created a useful resource utilized by scientists all over the world. Watch the episode here.
A nationwide story rooted in UWO analysis
The NCS phase adopted researchers inspecting how hibernation permits animals to survive excessive physiological stress, together with situations that mirror heart assaults, hypothermia and most cancers dormancy. One portion of the episode centered on most cancers analysis led by University of Utah professor Christopher Gregg. While the phase didn’t dwell on the place the underlying knowledge originated, UW-Oshkosh has lengthy supplied floor squirrel tissue samples and knowledge units that help hibernation analysis, together with Gregg’s research now informing most cancers analysis.
The episode additionally featured footage from a specialised hibernation facility often called a hibernaculum, a managed chilly darkish surroundings that enables animals to safely enter, cycle by way of and exit hibernation. That hibernaculum was developed by way of National Institutes of Health facility renovation funding at UW-Oshkosh and is central to the University’s capability to research hibernation below rigorously monitored situations.
From left: Ryan Sprenger ’14, ’16, and Benjamin Sajdak ’13, who’ve appeared on NCS’s Vital Signs phase discussing floor squirrel hibernation analysis, stand with Dana Merriman, professor emerita of biology, and Nicha Boonpattrawong, Ph.D., assistant professor of biology, in a UW-Oshkosh laboratory the place a long time of floor squirrel analysis laid the muse for nationally acknowledged hibernation science.
A singular analysis useful resource in UW-Oshkosh laboratories
The NCS phase additionally highlighted work by Fauna Bio, a biotechnology firm that research hibernating animals to unlock new approaches to drugs. Central to that work is a analysis useful resource at UW-Oshkosh: the world’s first and solely captive breeding program for 13-lined floor squirrels that reliably hibernate.
That breeding program has made UW-Oshkosh a hub for hibernation analysis, supporting research spanning most cancers, heart disease, neurological situations and spaceflight. While the NCS story centered on its relevance to human well being, the infrastructure that makes these discoveries doable has been constructed over greater than 20 years in Oshkosh.
That connection extends past analysis supplies. Three UW-Oshkosh alumni now work for Fauna Bio as a part of its Oshkosh-based analysis operations, all of whom skilled in hibernation analysis on campus earlier than launching their scientific careers.
A 13-lined floor squirrel eats a peanut whereas being held by a UW-Oshkosh pre-veterinary scholar. Hands-on animal care and undergraduate analysis are central to the University’s hibernation analysis program.
Decades of faculty-led analysis
Dana Merriman, professor emerita of biology at UW-Oshkosh, started the bottom squirrel analysis program greater than 20 years in the past. Initially centered on imaginative and prescient analysis, this system advanced right into a nationally and internationally acknowledged useful resource for scientists learning imaginative and prescient, hibernation, metabolism and disease.
At a time when rats and mice dominated biomedical analysis, Merriman acknowledged that floor squirrels provided one thing completely different: a mammal with a human-like visible system and a pure capability to hibernate. Captive breeding, nonetheless, was broadly thought-about impractical.
Through years of trial, refinement and shut consideration to animal welfare, Merriman and her college students succeeded in constructing a steady breeding colony. That achievement reworked UW-Oshkosh right into a hub for hibernation analysis and allowed scientists elsewhere to pursue questions that had beforehand been out of attain.
Over the years, Merriman’s lab has supported researchers throughout the United States and internationally, together with educational laboratories and trade companions resembling Fauna Bio. Her work helped set up protocols that allowed hibernation analysis to transfer ahead in managed, moral and reproducible methods.
Titan alumni on a nationwide stage
UW-Oshkosh alumni Ryan Sprenger (’14, ’16) and Benjamin Sajdak (’13) each appeared within the NCS phase as a part of Fauna Bio’s Oshkosh-based analysis crew.
Sprenger, senior analysis physiologist and director of Fauna Bio’s house applications, mentioned seeing the work featured on a nationwide platform was each surreal and affirming.
“A lot of work went into the work featured on the segment and it took a great team to do it, so I was quite happy to see it featured on such a stage,” Sprenger mentioned. “To have some of that work done at UWO made it all the more special too since that is where I started my career in research and hibernation.”
Sajdak, director of analysis at Fauna Bio, mentioned the NCS story wouldn’t exist with out UW-Oshkosh.
“The institution’s initial and continued support of Dr. Dana Merriman’s ground squirrel research and colony is how any of this begins,” Sajdak mentioned. “It’s decades of really hard work from Dr. Merriman, her students and many collaborators that brought us to where we are now, with a squirrel colony that has become an invaluable resource for the scientific community.”
Benjamin Sajdak ’13, director of analysis at Fauna Bio, and Ashley (Hermans) Thompson, a Fauna Bio analysis staffer, evaluation a DEXA (Dual-Energy X-ray Absorptiometry) scan from a floor squirrel that exhibits how fats, muscle, and bone mass every contribute to the animal’s complete physique weight, serving to researchers higher perceive particular physique weight adjustments that happen throughout hibernation and when treating situations like weight problems.
Why UW-Oshkosh issues to hibernation analysis
Sprenger mentioned UW-Oshkosh’s worth lies not simply in its historical past, however in what the squirrel colony makes doable right now.
“UWO is the only breeding facility for squirrels that hibernate in the world right now,” he mentioned. “Observing the ‘neat’ things that hibernators do and showing that to the world is one thing, but taking those neat things and turning them into treatments for people is the real goal. That doesn’t happen without the resources the UWO squirrel colony provides.”
That entry instantly shapes his work at Fauna Bio.
“Take an example from my own work,” Sprenger mentioned. “We’re studying hibernation in space to improve astronaut health, and that won’t be possible without animals from the UWO facility where we can train the animals in preparation for space flight.”
Sprenger earned his bachelor’s diploma in biology in 2014 and his grasp’s diploma in biology in 2016 at UW-Oshkosh. During that point, he labored intently with biology professor Courtney Kurtz, whose mentorship performed a key function in his improvement as a researcher.
That expertise helped launch Sprenger into doctoral coaching and worldwide analysis alternatives earlier than he joined Fauna Bio in 2023.
Sajdak credit UW-Oshkosh with shaping not simply his technical abilities, however the way in which he approaches scientific questions.
“UW-Oshkosh taught me how to think,” Sajdak mentioned. “I started with vague interests in writing, reading and science. Courses in writing, philosophy, psychology and biology turned those interests into a passion for lifelong learning.”
He earned a Bachelor of Science in biology with a minor in neuroscience from UW-Oshkosh in 2013 and was a McNair Scholar and undergraduate researcher.
“My time in the McNair Scholars Program showed me what is possible after graduation,” Sajdak mentioned. “And my lab experience built the foundation for the skills needed to become a career scientific researcher.”
From left: Ryan Sprenger, Benjamin Sajdak, Ashley (Hermans) Thompson, Emily Knapp, colony supervisor and Fauna Bio employees member, and Elainna Jentz, ‘17, stand within the Fauna Bio laboratory at UW-Oshkosh, the place they help ongoing floor squirrel hibernation analysis.
Learning to ‘speak squirrel’
Merriman mentioned she was not shocked when Fauna Bio employed UW-Oshkosh alumni to employees its Oshkosh-based lab.
“They spoke fluent squirrel, and this was the squirrel home base,” Merriman mentioned.
The phrase displays greater than technical experience. It describes the deep understanding of the animals’ biology, physiology and habits that college students develop by way of hands-on analysis and long-term care.
For Merriman, the visibility from NCS captures solely a fraction of what has grown out of the UW-Oshkosh program.
“There’s a much longer list of accomplishments that could have been featured that started with Oshkosh squirrels,” she mentioned. “You’d have to have like a two-season series on Netflix to get all of it.”