Nylah McClain, a senior majoring in the Environmental Science, Marine Science Program at UMES, won an award for the best poster at an early November meeting of the National Association of African American Honors Programs in New Orleans.
The Richard A. Henson Honors student and Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation Scholar presented the results of work completed during a summer internship with Dr. Ten-Tsao Wong of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Sciences Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology. The poster title was, “Genetic Typing of Reproductively Sterile Sablefish.”
McClain’s summer work was a part of Wong’s research into the sterilization of aquaculture grown fish. Sablefish are a commercially popular fish that are grown in open net pens in the ocean, she said. “If the nets are damaged by extreme weather events, the farm-grown fish could escape and mate with wild fish resulting in genetic contamination with consequences we are not aware of,” McClain said. To prevent this, she said, Wong is working to sterilize farm-grown sablefish.
Because male and female sablefish grow at different rates, researchers have to determine their sex to properly monitor their growth. One way to do this, McClain said, is to cut the sablefish open and look at their gonads, which kills the fish. The nonlethal process is to use genetic typing. The process used for genetic typing is called polymerase chain reaction (PCR). It is a DNA replication process that takes almost three hours, she said. “Because PCR is finicky, small changes can result in your final product being either messy or the final product will not appear,” McClain said. “This study provides the optimal methods to use with PCR to save time and resources.”
“Nylah’s research on sablefish is compelling and her poster is clearly designed to communicate to the scientific community the relevance of the study undertaken,” said Dr. Michael Lane, director of UMES Richard A. Henson Honors Program, who accompanied the students to New Orleans. “I think what most impressed the judges of the poster competition is Nylah’s ability to articulate the purpose, scope, methods, and results of her research to specialists and non-specialists alike, to respond confidently to their questions, and to present herself with such professionalism. She expertly represented the Richard A. Henson Honors Program and UMES.”
Lane said there were 500 registrants this year to the all-student, all discipline conference. Roughly 20 Historically Black Colleges and Universities across the U.S. participated with 50 poster presentations submitted. McClain competed with students from Miles College, Alcorn State University, Tennessee State University, Morehouse College, Southern University and Xavier University.
McClain, a native of Prince George’s County, is currently employed on-campus as a research assistant through the Living Marine Resources Cooperative Science Center. After graduation, she plans on attending a post-baccalaureate program.
