Searchin’ the Urchins – Ecotoxicology with Fengjia Liu
BY ALLY HUGHES
Fengjia Liu is a first-year PhD student with the University of Highlands and Islands and based at the Scottish Association for Marine Sciences (Scotland, UK). Her research focuses on ecotoxicology of sea urchins. https://www.sams.ac.uk/people/research-students/fengjia-liu/
Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got into your current role?
I did a master’s in biotechnology at Heriot-Watt University (Scotland, UK), and my research project was looking at whether nanoparticles cause DNA damage and oxidative stress on zebrafish larvae. I stayed in that lab after my project, as a research assistant working on several ecotoxicology studies. During this time, I learned a lot about ecotoxicology in general and trying to decide what I wanted to do for a PhD project. I started looking for very specific projects after I figured out what I wanted and that is how I ended up with my current project working on ecotoxicological implications of environmental chemical discharge on marine invertebrate organisms with Dr. Helena Reinardy at the University of Highlands and Island/Scottish Association for Marine Sciences.
What is the focus of your PhD research? Why was this project of particular interest for you?
My research is on the genetic and epigenetic responses of sea urchins under chemical stress. I am interested in DNA damage and stress, as well as epigenetic marks like DNA methylation. The main purpose of my project is to see if the offspring of exposed parents will respond differently to stress, or even have different behaviours, compared to the offspring of non-exposed parents. It is these possible transgenerational effects that interest me. They can be used as an indication of whether chemical contaminations in the environment are likely to have long term effects. This carries a lot environmental significance, but is still a developing and less-well known field in environmental research. Hopefully, my research will make a contribution to the field.
Three different species of Sea Urchin; Psammechinus miliaris, Paracentrotus lividus and Echinus esculentus (Photo credit: Fengjia Liu)
The first year of a PhD is a steep learning curve. What has been your experience so far and what are some of the important things you have learned that may be useful for future PhD students?
It’s been very interesting! I enjoy the science a lot and my supervisor has been great. I came into this kind of knowing what to expect because of the many talks I’ve had with my previous supervisor. It’s important to know why you’re doing a PhD, that it’ll be very difficult, and it involves a lot of writing (something I’m still learning to accept).
How has COVID-19 affected your research at this early stage?
I was in the middle of lab work when the lockdown in Scotland happened. I had just finished a set of data and planned to start the next experiments that week. I’ve obviously been really stressed like everybody else and productivity has been very low with all the change and uncertainties. On the plus side, it gives me time to try to finish my literature review and plan more experiments so I can start lab work again as soon as this is over.
Star Trek Starfleet logo (left) and sea urchin larva (right) (Photo credit: Google)
What’s your favourite fact/story about sea urchins?
Rumour has it that the creator of the Star Trek ©® series is interested in sea urchins and the star fleet logo is based on the larvae of a sea urchin!
