One in five people at high clinical risk will experience psychosis in their life. But that doesn’t mean it is inevitable or lifelong, according to Northeastern University student  TaKaya McFarland.

Early intervention can prevent repeat episodes and even stop psychosis before it begins, she says.

Understanding and addressing psychosis is at the heart of TaKaya McFarland’s research. A psychology major at Northeastern, McFarland is working in a clinical research position at Beth-Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a position that grew out of a co-op she completed in fall 2023.

“They give us a lot of opportunities to learn about research, participate in data collection and work on our own independent studies,” says McFarland, whose goals include providing mental health care in a community setting.

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Photo by Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University

A groundbreaking study by Geoffrey Trussell and James Corbett at Northeastern University, published in Science Advances, outlines one of the first examples of rapid evolution in a marine system in response to an invasive predator and warming oceans.

The paper, titled “Evolution in changing seas: the loss of plasticity under predator invasion and warming oceans,” uses field experiments in the Gulf of Maine conducted 20 years apart, to document rapid changes in shell thickness of the intertidal snail L. obtusata and the potential processes driving these changes Shell thickness is a key defense for these animals against shell crushing predators – such as the invasive predatory green crab Carcinus maenas. The study found that the snail’s rapid evolution coincided with a geographic shift in the green crabs’ range expansion. The initial study conducted in the late 1990s showed that the presence of cues signaling green crab predation risk induced snails to produce thicker shells via plasticity. Now, however, it appears that natural selection has been eroding this plasticity, leading to genetic fixation of variation in shell thickness in response to more established green crab populations.   The study highlights the importance of understanding the basis of adaptation in order to facilitate more robust predictions of the ecological and evolutionary impacts of ongoing environmental change.

Research was conducted by the Trussell Lab at Northeastern University’s Coastal Sustainability Institute and Department of Marine and Environmental Sciences. This study builds on decades of work investigating ecology and evolution of marine communities, particularly the role of species interactions in shaping communities.

Full Abstract from ‘Evolution in changing seas’:
The impact of invasive predators during the early stages of invasion is often variable in space and time. Such variation is expected to initially favor plasticity in prey defenses, but fixed defenses as invaders become established. Coincident with the range expansion of an invasive predatory crab in the Gulf of Maine, we document rapid changes in shell thickness—a key defense against shell crushing predators—of an intertidal snail. Field experiments, conducted 20 years apart, revealed that temporal shifts in shell thickness were driven by the evolution of increased trait means and erosion of thickness plasticity. The virtual elimination of the trade-off in tissue mass that often accompanies thicker shells is consistent with the evolution of fixed defenses under increasingly certain predation risk.

For further information, please contact:

Dr. Geoffrey Trussell
Coastal Sustainability Institute/ Department of Marine and Environmental Sciences

Northeastern University

[email protected]

Chelsea Pe Benito always knew she would be a dancer. But in her mind, it didn’t look quite like this.

Pe Benito trained for 15 years as a ballerina growing up in central New Jersey, studying at the prestigious Princeton Ballet School through high school, dancing in standards like “Swan Lake” and even touring in a production of “The Nutcracker” around the tri-state area. “It was all tutus and pointe shoes,” she says. “I was in love with ballet.”

Before too long, she would indeed be dancing professionally — but in sneakers and heeled boots.

The 2019 graduate of Northeastern University is in her second season as an NFL cheerleader for the Philadelphia Eagles. The classical suites and elongated, legato movements of her youth have been replaced with screaming football fans, pom poms and whip-like choreography designed to be seen in the nosebleed seats.

“I tear every time up waiting in the tunnel line to go onto the field,” Pe Benito says. “You can quite literally feel the ground shaking. There’s no better feeling.”

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Editors note: This story was published in February 2024 and has been updated to include information on the Eagles’ trip to Super Bowl LIX. 

Courtesy Photo

What if you could detect allergens even better, so that before you even put something in your mouth, you knew whether it was dangerous? And what if frogs could help you do it?

Those are the questions Jing-Ke Weng, a professor of chemistry, chemical biology and bioengineering at Northeastern University, tackled in a recent paper that sheds new light on frog biology –– and what it could mean for humans.

Weng and his team reveal that out of hundreds of animal species, amphibians, specifically frogs, have the highest number of bitter taste receptors, known as TAS2Rs. While humans have 25 TAS2Rs, mostly in the tongue but also in the gastrointestinal tract and even brain, a species like the wood frog has 248, nearly 10 times more, with some located in the liver and skin.

Weng says he hopes their findings –– attributed in part to an evolutionary adaptation –– could help scientists understand how humans detect similar signals, like allergens.

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Courtesy photo.