HEARD IT THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE: ACADIA STUDENTS GETTING PUBLISHED
Sammy Stockdale (Biology, '25; MSc candidate) and Claire Dinn (Computer Science) never expected to be published authors before finishing their undergrad degrees. But when they enrolled in Dr. Zoë Migicovsky's (Biology) Bioinformatics class in Winter 2025, they set off on a path towards their first publication in a scientific journal.
This winter their names appeared—along with their 14 other classmates as authors on "Genomic structure and ex situ conservation of the North American grapevine Vitis labrusca" published in Plants, People, Planet.
The class is cross listed between Computer Science and Biology. The students worked with real, unpublished genetic data collected from both wild and conserved Vitis labrusca grapevines, a species native to North America. This wild grapevine species contains traits that are important for disease resistance and climate resilience: traits that will be crucial in breeding resilient grapes in the future of our changing world.
Throughout the course, the students learned and applied bioinformatic tools to examine genetic data from over 300 different individual grapevines. Ultimately, they discovered gaps in conservation of the species.
Dr. Migicovsky shared: "The work that the students did has important consequences for plant conservation and will make a real-world impact when prioritizing future sampling for conservation of Vitis labrusca."
Claire says she "loved being able to apply computer science concepts to real world applications through research." Sammy says the experience encouraged her to "explore research areas I can carry with me beyond my master's degree."