Press Releases

October 12, 1997
Shumway to Study Deadly Microbe

Contact: Jane Finalborgo
(516) 287 8313
Fax: (516) 283 4081

Pfiesteria piscicida, the so called "cell from hell" that kills fish and causes flu-like symptoms and memory loss in humans, has been responsible for the recent closing of waterways in North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland. Scientists suspect that agricultural run-off is causing the deadly microbe to flourish.

Professor Sandra Shumway will be part of a scientific study to find out more about how toxic the microbe really is. She and two other scientists, Parke A. Rublee of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and JoAnn Burkholder of UNC-State at Raleigh, have been awarded a $512,000 grant from the federal Environmental Protection Agency to study the distribution of Pfiesteria, its response to nutrients and its effect on three shellfish species -- bay scallop, northern quahog and eastern oyster. Burkholder, who was recently profiled in People magazine, was the first to show that Pfiesteria morphs into at least 19 different stages.

In early June Shumway presented a paper with Burkholder and Southampton College alumnus Jeff Springer (`96) on Pfiesteria at the International Conference on Harmful Algal Blooms in Vigo, Spain. Springer did an undergraduate internship in Burkholder’s lab and never left.. Also at the conference, Shumway co-authored a plenary presentation with Dr. Monica Bricelj of the National Research Council of Canada and chaired the session on shellfish/toxic algal interactions.

Shumway also worked with two current Southampton students over the summer. At the Friday Harbor Marine Laboratories at the University of Washington, Michelle Gaston (`97) joined her and colleagues as an undergraduate research student funded by the National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates Program (REU). At the Darling Marine Center at the University of Maine Paul Cancielleri (`98) was an undergraduate research assistant and joined Shumway and colleagues studying a clam that is a potential new species for cold water aquaculture.