University of Waterloo students and researchers packed up a portable lab and fishing gear for a week-long expedition off the coast of Nova Scotia. With only one catch on their minds, the team set out in search of a deep-sea fish known for its bizarre appearance and lobster-like taste: the monkfish.
Among the research team was Maya Jacewicz, a third-year Biology honours co-op student and research assistant in Dr. Brian Dixon’s lab. Thanks to funding from the Faculty of Science’s summer research assistantship program, her role on the trip was part of a larger research project focused on fish immunology.
Specifically, the team is studying parasites that live on monkfish and how they affect the fish’s immune system. By understanding the parasite’s impact on monkfish, the researchers hope to extrapolate their findings to salmon and fill a gap in fish immunology that has not been explored.
“We were worried we weren’t going to be able to catch a monkfish,” Jacewicz says. “We had a very portable lab so that we could easily set up everywhere we went, and we worked with local fishermen throughout the trip to increase our odds of catching one.”
In the end, the team was able to catch 13 monkfish for the lab to establish cell lines that will allow them to grow the parasite in a controlled environment for continued study.
This project is just one of two immunology research projects Jacewicz is contributing to in Dixon’s lab. The second focuses on bat immunology. Currently in its early stages, the project involves analyzing bat cells to gain a deeper understanding of how the immune system functions. Next, Jacewicz will begin infecting the cells with a parasite to observe the immune response. She plans to continue this work through her BIOL 499 senior honours thesis project in the fall term.
For Jacewicz, this research assistantship was more than just an exciting opportunity to visit Canada’s East Coast; it was a pivotal moment in discovering her career interests.
“This opportunity has felt like a stepping stone to the type of research I’d like to be involved with in the future,” she says. “Before this experience, I didn’t know what it was like to work in a real research lab, and now that I have, I know it’s something I want to keep pursuing.”
Over the next few years, you'll find Jacewicz working away in a research lab on campus, contemplating graduate school and possibly returning to Nova Scotia for more field work and adventure.