Shelby County Today

December 14, 2017 Nacogdoches — A plant many consider destructive may have just redeemed itself by offering promise in fighting cancer.

A team of researchers at Stephen F. Austin State University’s National Center for Pharmaceutical Crops, located within the Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agricultural, has spent years researching giant salvinia, a noxious plant species known to overtake waterways and kill aquatic life.

The researchers’ work has recently led to a U.S. patent for an anti-cancer compound, Salvinol. Lab trials conducted at the NCPC verify Salvinol can slow and, in some cases, completely inhibit the growth of a wide range of cancer cells, including pancreatic and lung cancer cells.

“People often turn to tropical locations to search for medicinal compounds, but that requires a lot of money and resources,” said Dr. Shiyou Li, research professor and director of the NCPC. “Instead, we turned to a native and invasive species in our own backyard.” 

During the past two decades, Li and SFA research scientists Guangrui Deng, Zushang Su, Ping Wang and Wei Yuan have isolated more than 2,000 chemical compounds from roughly 1,300 species. Many of these compounds are currently undergoing rigorous lab trials to verify their pharmacological potential.

In the quest to isolate potential anti-cancer compounds, Li and his team also made a revolutionary breakthrough in the control of invasive species. Endogenous biocide, or endocide, is a concept developed by Li that refers to the chemical compounds within a species that, when exposed, have biocidal effects on that species. Moreover, these biocidal effects are species specific, meaning surrounding unrelated species are not negatively affected.

While this concept initially focused on giant salvinia, research has shown that the endocide concept can be used to control numerous other plant and animal species, including fire ants.

“This is the most amazing thing I have seen in my career,” said Dr. Steve Bullard, SFA provost and vice president for academic affairs. “The science community is not fully aware of Dr. Li’s work yet, and that is why it is so important to protect this intellectual property through patents.”

The NCPC also is collaborating with the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston to investigate how anti-inflammatory compounds in turmeric, an herbaceous perennial plant, can be used in cancer treatment.

The NCPC, formerly known as the Center for Medicinal Plant Research, was established in 2004 through U.S. congressional appropriations and has received support from former U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and U.S. Congressman Louie Gohmert. Its primary mission is improving human health through the discovery of novel anti-tumor and anti-viral agents from native and invasive species.

Li said that both the offices of Hutchison and Gohmert provided invaluable support during the past 20 years, and as his research moves forward, he hopes to develop new partnerships and investors to further the center’s mission.

Visit forestry.sfasu.edu/ncpc to learn more about the NCPC.

Story by Sarah Fuller, outreach coordinator at Stephen F. Austin State University’s Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture. 

December 7, 2017 - Stephen F. Austin State University senior Brianna Evans of Center received the Olds Family Outstanding Student Teacher Award, which honors an exemplary student teacher from SFA’s Department of Elementary Education each semester.
 
University field supervisor MaryAnn Bentley nominated Evans for this honor, and a committee of six SFA elementary education faculty members, who reviewed teaching videos and additional materials, selected her to receive the award.
 
Evans will graduate SFA this month with a bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary studies. Her specialization is teaching fourth through eighth grade. She completed her student teaching at Center Middle School in the Center Independent School District with eighth-grade teacher Anita Williams serving as her mentor.
 
By Kasi Dickerson, senior marketing communications specialist at Stephen F. Austin State University.

November 30, 2017 Nacogdoches — Although summer has come to a close, it is the perfect time for Stephen F. Austin State University students to begin planning an adventure for the summer 2018 semester.

For students in SFA’s Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture, these summer experiences, more often than not, include collecting valuable data that will inevitably be used to guide future land management practices domestically and abroad.

Perhaps one of the best examples of the college’s ongoing initiative to create meaningful scholastic experiences for students can be found in Dr. Brian Oswald’s work assisting the Netherlands in developing the country’s first quantitatively based wildland fire risk assessment.

Since 2012, Oswald, Joe C. Denman Distinguished Professor of fire ecology at SFA, along with students enrolled in SFA’s Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture, have collaborated with public safety agencies in the Netherlands to collect fire fuel load data that will ultimately be used to develop a wildfire spread model that can predict wildfire behavior.

Will Kruckeberg and Jessica Pruneda, both senior fire management majors at SFA, are the latest students to contribute to this growing body of work.

For 10 weeks, Kruckeberg and Pruneda scoured forested and coastal regions of the Netherlands collecting fuel load data to determine the quantity of fuel classes present.

“We would go through and separate the dead and live grasses and document how many dead grasses were in a given plot,” Kruckeberg said. “It’s a lot of data to collect, but in the end it makes a really good product.”

Kruckeberg and Pruneda worked directly for the Instituut Fysieke Veiligheid, an institute for disaster relief and public crisis management in the Netherlands, and they were independently responsible for every aspect of the fieldwork.

“It was a good professional development situation because we had to be self-driven,” Kruckeberg said. “It was a good opportunity to learn how to keep going, schedule our own research plots and self-motivate.”

In addition to scientific data collection, Pruneda said the opportunity to communicate with Dutch citizens about their work was exciting and meaningful because much of the population is still not aware of the country’s growing wildland fire threat.

“I loved how we got asked a lot about what we were doing,” Pruneda said. “Many of the people we talked to were confused because they don’t think about wildland fires, but we got to explain all of the aspects of the project to them.”

Students will continue to play an integral role in collecting fire fuel load data and conducting related research throughout the country into the foreseeable future. This regional data ultimately will be combined to create a national fire model used by safety agencies.

For more information on this project, contact Dr. Brian Oswald at boswald@sfasu.edu or (936) 468-2275.

Story submitted by Sarah Fuller, outreach coordinator for the Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture at Stephen F. Austin State University.

November 18, 2017 Nacogdoches — The SFA Gardens will host a garden seminar, “Deck the Halls: Using Evergreens to Decorate for the Holidays,” from 9 a.m. to noon, Saturday, Dec. 2, at the Brundrett Conservation Education Building at the SFA Pineywoods Native Plant Center, 2900 Raguet St.

Evergreen branches and garlands once served as symbols of enduring life and a fruitful year to come. Join Dawn Stover, research associate with SFA Gardens, to learn how to create elegant wreaths and garlands using materials from the garden.

Participants will learn principles of wreath, garland and centerpiece construction and make a wreath to enjoy and take home for the holidays.

In addition to the traditional wreaths and garlands, Stover will introduce new crafts using natural items from the garden and forest. All materials will be provided.

Class size is limited, so register in advance by calling (936) 468-1832, or email sfagardens@sfasu.edu. The cost is $25 for SFA Garden members and $30 for non-members.