About Us

Each semester, Tiny Earth at FAU consists of 192 non-STEM undergraduate students (in RI:BSC 1005L), five graduate teaching assistants, multiple DIR researchers, work-study students and one lab manager under the leadership of Diane Baronas-Lowell, Ph.D. Undergraduate students in the General Microbiology Labs (MCB 3020) (~100 students per semester) further characterize the unknown bacteria with the best antibiotic-production profiles. Together, we are searching for novel antibiotic-producing bacteria, and we are partnering with FAU chemists to isolate novel antibiotic compounds.

Research

Elizabeth May, Amy Donne, Alexis Martin and Diane Baronas-Lowell. Analyzing the Antibiotic Activity of a Novel Depsipeptide KTG3 and Two Novel Soil Bacterial Strains. Presented at the Wilkes Honors College Symposium, April 2020.

Elizabeth May, Amy Donne, Alexis Martin and Diane Baronas-Lowell. Analyzing the Antibiotic Activity of a Novel Depsipeptide KTG3 and Two Novel Soil Bacterial Strains. Presented at the 10^th Annual Undergraduate Symposium, April 2020. Received 1^st place prize in her category.

Renata Rigueira, James Clark, Rachel St Clair, Timothy Stinson, Elan Barenholtz and Diane Baronas-Lowell. Data Mining 16S rRNA Gene Sequences from Antibiotic-Producing Bacteria. Presented at the 10^th Annual Undergraduate Symposium, April 2020.

Elizabeth May, Amy Donne, Alexis Martin and Diane Baronas-Lowell. Analyzing the Antibiotic Activity of a Novel Depsipeptide KTG3 and Two Novel Soil Bacterial Strains. Presented at the Florida Collegiate Honors Council Annual Conference, February 2020.

Elizabeth May, Amy Donne, Alexis Martin and Diane Baronas-Lowell. Analyzing the Antibiotic Activity of a Novel Depsipeptide KTG3 and Two Novel Soil Bacterial Strains. Presented at the Florida Undergraduate Research Conference, February 2020.

August 2019 Pic

Elizabeth May, Amy Donne, Alexis Martin and Diane Baronas-Lowell. Analyzing the Antibiotic Activities of a Novel Depsipeptide KTG3 and Two Novel Soil Bacterial Strains. Poster. Presented at the OURI Summer Retreat and SURF Poster Showcase, August 2019.

Diane Baronas-Lowell. Tiny Earth Team Energy. Presented at the Tiny Earth Symposium at University Wisconsin – Madison, July 2019.

Alexis Martin, Alex Copeland, Shweta Singh, Paul Scesa, Lyndon West and Diane Baronas-Lowell. 2019. Discovery of Soil Bacteria Which Display Broad-Spectrum Antibiotic Activity. Florida Atlantic Undergraduate Research Journal 8: 25-33.

Alexis Martin, Paul Scesa, Brittany Dehler, Renata Rigueira, Cynthia Raaijmakers, Mark Dawod, Qinjin Chen, Karla Rivera, Lyndon West and Diane Baronas-Lowell. Optimized Protocols for Extraction of Microbial Natural Products. Presented at the 9^th Annual Undergraduate Symposium, April 2019. Received 2^nd place prize.

Amy Donne, Alexis Martin and Diane Baronas-Lowell. Optimizing Antibiotic Production of Soil Microbes. Presented at the 9th Annual Undergraduate Symposium, April 2019.

Diane Baronas-Lowell. Broadening SWI Efforts at FAU. Presented at 5th Annual SWI Symposium, June 2018.

Alexis Martin, Paul Scesa, Shweta Singh, Alex Copeland, Lyndon West and Diane Baronas-Lowell. Discovery of a Novel Cyclic Depsi-lipopeptide Isolated from soil Bacteria in Palm Beach County, FL. Presented at 5th Annual SWI Symposium, June 2018.

Alexis Martin, Paul Scesa, Shweta Singh, Alex Copeland, Lyndon West and Diane Baronas-Lowell. Antibiotic Discovery in Bacteria from Palm Beach County Soil. Presented at FAU's 8th Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium, March 2018.

Diane Baronas-Lowell. Keeping Students on Schedule in the Antibiotic Discovery Process of SWI. Presented at 4th Annual SWI Symposium, June 2017.

Jayson Burkhardt, Noah Kaplan, and Diane Baronas-Lowell. Isolation and Characterization of Antibiotic-Producing Bacteria from a Soil Sample Collected at Florida Atlantic University Campus. Presented at the 4th Annual Small World Initiative Symposium, June 2017.

Funding

Special thanks to FAU’s Office of Undergraduate Research and Inquiry for funding Renata Rigueria’s Spring 2020 Grant.

Special thanks to FAU’s Office for Undergraduate Research and Inquiry for funding Cesar Rivas’ Fall 2019 Grant.

Special thanks to FAU’s Office of Undergraduate Research and Inquiry Funding Two Graduate Research Consultants for the Research Intensive Course, RI:BSC 1005L during the 2019-2020 academic year.

Special thanks to FAU’s Office for Research and Inquiry for funding Elizabeth May’s 2019 Summer SURF Grant.

Special thanks to FAU’s Office of Undergraduate Research and Inquiry Funding Two Graduate Research Consultants for the Research Intensive Course, RI:BSC 1005L during the 2018-2019 academic year.

Special thanks to FAU’s Office of Undergraduate Research and Inquiry for faculty professional development funds for Diane Baronas-Lowell.

Special thanks to FAU’s Office for Research and Inquiry for Amy Donne’s Spring 2019 Grant.
Special thanks to FAU’s Office for Research and Inquiry for Diane Baronas-Lowell's Fall 2018 Curriculum Grant.

Special thanks to FAU’s Office for Research and Inquiry for Alexis Martin’s Summer 2018 Grant.
Special thanks to Tiny Earth for Alexis Martin’s Travel Grant to attend the SWI Symposium 2018.
Special thanks to FAU's 2018-2019 Tech Fee Grant Program.

Special thanks to FAU's 2017-2018 Tech Fee Grant Program.

The Tiny Earth Team at FAU

Team Pics

Spring 2020

Team Spring 2020 Pic

Top Row (Left to Right): Diane Baronas-Lowell Ph.D., Elizabeth May, Thomas Mersch, Satima Visitdesotrakul, Tasmia Kader. Second Row (Left to Right): Peter Forester, Bodhi Stone, Alexis Martin, Amy Donne, Brooke Hekker. Third Row (Left to Right): Ariana Rivera-Smikle, Andrea Velez, Matthew Satar, Sydney Longfellow, Tahoe Albergo. Fourth Row (Left to Right): Ian Fernandez,Brittany Dehler, Gage Collamore, Brittany Desyr, Renata Rigueira. Bottom Row: Cesar J. Rivas.

Upon FAU’s transition to remote working on March 16, 2020 due to COVID-19, our Tiny Earth team kicked into high gear to preserve the efforts of our teaching labs and team this far in the semester. On March 16 through March 18, Amy Donne (Tiny Earth Lab Manager), Thomas Mersch (Tiny Earth TA), Satima Visitdesotrakul (Tiny Earth TA), Alexis Martin (Tiny Earth TA) and Diane Baronas-Lowell (Tiny Earth Partner Instructor) ran all of the Tiny Earth teaching lab students' PCR reactions (over 250 reactions) on eighteen gels. These PCR reactions amplified the DNA from the 16S rRNA gene for purposes of identifying the students’ bacteria. The PCR reactions with good quality were sent to the DNA Analysis Facility on Science Hill at Yale University for DNA sequencing on Wednesday, March 18. Our PCR reactions were sequenced before Yale’s DNA Analysis Facility closed at 5 pm on Friday, March 20! These 16S rRNA gene DNA sequences were used in our on-line bioinformatics labs during the week of April 6 for the students to identify the genera of their antibiotic-producing bacteria.

Also, during this frantic time immediately after the transition to remote working was announced by FAU, Amy, Thomas, Satima and Diane preserved ALL of the antibiotic-producing bacteria from the Tiny Earth teaching lab students and team in glycerol stocks at -80^oC. By doing so, these bacteria can be farther studied for their antibiotic properties. This added 368 antibiotic-producing bacteria to our collection, bringing our total number of antibiotic-producing bacteria, since Fall 2016, to 1,392 at FAU.

Since turning to remote instruction, Tiny Earth TAs posted on-line lectures with relevant videos for labs 9, 10 and 11. TAs held their office hours on-line using Canvas conference tools and both TAs and Tiny Earth directed independent research (DIR) students held on-line Canvas conferences during the lab meeting times. The Tiny Earth Team continued to meet by Zoom conferences on-line.

Tiny Earth teaching lab students practiced their final presentations on-line with graduate research consultants (also known as GRCs, which were funded by FAU’s Office for Undergraduate Research and Inquiry) and the teaching lab students presented their data during the last week of lab as usual (except, on-line). As we wait for the COVID-19 pandemic to pass, we continue to consider the next global health crisis, antibiotic-resistant bacteria!

Fall 2019

Team Fall 2019 Pic

Back (Left to Right): Peter Forester, Daniel Golcher-Aguilera, Thomas Mersch, Valentina Goldberg, Nicholas Nifakos, Henry Chen, Brittany Desyr, Sydney Longfellow, Amy Donne. Middle (Left to Right): Ariana Rivera-Smikle, Diane Baronas-Lowell Ph.D., Cesar J. Rivas. Front (Left to Right): Jose Porras, Brittany Dehler, Renata Rigueira, Satima Visitdesotrakul, Cara Busheme, Tasmia Kader. Not Pictured: Brooke Hekker and Melanie Rosa Perez.

Spring 2019

Spring 2019 Pic

Back (Left to Right): Kristen Buchanan, Amy Donne, Valentina Goldberg, Sabrina Lamour, Whitney Blanchat, Sydney Longfellow, Diane Baronas-Lowell, Alexis Martin, Matthew Laborde, Tamara Fakhoury, Mark Dawood, Brooke Hekker & Thomas Mersch.

Front (Left to Right): Brittany Dehler, Renata Rigueria, Maggie Elkin & Jose Porras.

Not Pictured: Henry Chen & Elizabeth May.

Fall 2018

Back (Left to Right): Amy Donne, Henry Chen, Valentina Goldberg, Maggie Elkin, Diane Baronas-Lowell Ph.D., Alexis Martin.

Front (Left to Right): Vilte Butkute, Renata Rigueira, Tamara Fakhoury.

Left to Right: Eugenia Jimenez Alvarez, Valentina Goldberg, Maggie Elkin, Tamara Fakhoury, Vilte Butkute, Alexis Martin, Danny Farmer and Diane Baronas-Lowell Ph.D.

Spring 2018

2018 Pic

Back (Left to Right): Vilte Butkute, Maggie Elkin, Diane Baronas-Lowell Ph.D., Michael Kiken M.S., Tricia Don M.S., Noah Kaplan M.S., Shweta Singh Ph.D., Jayson Burkhardt.

Front (Left to Right): Alex Copeland, Alexis Martin, Shane Rahilly.

Fall 2017

Back (Left to Right): Back: Diane Baronas-Lowell Ph.D., Michael Kiken, Noah Kaplan M.S., Jayson Burkhardt.

Front (Left to Right): Shweta Singh Ph.D., Maggie Elkin, Genevieve Liddle, Tricia Don.