Susan D Hester

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Courses

Scholarly Contributions

Books

• Hester, S. D., & Bolger, M. S. (2021). Authentic Inquiry through Modeling in Biology: A manual for the Molecular and Cellular Biology 181 Laboratory.. Hayden-McNeil, LLC.

Chapters

• Zaitlen, B. L., Swat, M. H., Hester, S. D., Heiland, R. W., Glazier, J. A., & Balter, A. I. (2009). Multicell simulations of development and disease using the CompuCell3D simulation environment.. In Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.)(pp 361-428). doi:10.1007/978-1-59745-525-1_13
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  Mathematical modeling and computer simulation have become crucial to biological fields from genomics to ecology. However, multicell, tissue-level simulations of development and disease have lagged behind other areas because they are mathematically more complex and lack easy-to-use software tools that allow building and running in silico experiments without requiring in-depth knowledge of programming. This tutorial introduces Glazier-Graner-Hogeweg (GGH) multicell simulations and CompuCell3D, a simulation framework that allows users to build, test, and run GGH simulations.

Journals/Publications

• Hester, S. D., Elliott, J. M., Navis, L. K., Hidalgo, L. V., Kim, Y. A., Elfring, L. K., Blowers, P., Lattimore, K. L., & Talanquer, V. A. (2022). Using an instructional team during pandemic remote teaching enhanced student outcomes in a large STEM course. Journal of College Science Teaching.
• Hester, S. D., Southard, K. M., Kim, Y. A., Cox, J. T., Elfring, L. K., Blowers, P., & Talanquer, V. A. (2021). Benefits and challenges in the implementation of an Instructional-Teams Model for supporting evidence-based instructional practices in large-enrollment STEM courses. College Teaching.
• Southard, K. M., Hester, S. D., Jurkiewicz, J., Curry, J. E., Kim, Y. A., Cox, J. T., Elfring, L. K., Blowers, P., & Talanquer, V. A. (2021). A close look at change: the role of community on an instructor's evolution during instructional reform. Disciplinary and Interdisciplinary Science Education Research.
• Hester, S. D., Elfring, L. K., Rezende, L. F., Dykstra, E. M., Rezende, L. F., Nadler, M., Katcher, J., Hester, S. D., Elfring, L. K., Dykstra, E. M., & Bolger, M. S. (2018). Authentic Inquiry through Modeling in Biology (AIM-Bio): An Introductory Laboratory Curriculum That Increases Undergraduates' Scientific Agency and Skills.. CBE life sciences education, 17(4), ar63. doi:10.1187/cbe.18-06-0090
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  Providing opportunities for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics undergraduates to engage in authentic scientific practices is likely to influence their view of science and may impact their decision to persist through graduation. Laboratory courses provide a natural place to introduce students to scientific practices, but existing curricula often miss this opportunity by focusing on confirming science content rather than exploring authentic questions. Integrating authentic science within laboratory courses is particularly challenging at high-enrollment institutions and community colleges, where access to research-active faculty may be limiting. The Authentic Inquiry through Modeling in Biology (AIM-Bio) curriculum presented here engages students in authentic scientific practices through iterative cycles of model generation, testing, and revision. AIM-Bio university and community college students demonstrated their ability to propose diverse models for biological phenomena, formulate and address hypotheses by designing and conducting experiments, and collaborate with classmates to revise models based on experimental data. Assessments demonstrated that AIM-Bio students had an enhanced sense of project ownership and greater identification as scientists compared with students in existing laboratory courses. AIM-Bio students also experienced measurable gains in their nature of science understanding and skills for doing science. Our results suggest AIM-Bio as a potential alternative to more resource-intensive curricula with similar outcomes.
• Hester, S. D., Williams, T. A., Weiss, A., Vreede, B. M., Nagy, L. M., Hester, S. D., Chipman, A. D., & Auman, T. (2017). Dynamics of growth zone patterning in the milkweed bug Oncopeltus fasciatus.. Development (Cambridge, England), 144(10), 1896-1905. doi:10.1242/dev.142091
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  We describe the dynamic process of abdominal segment generation in the milkweed bug Oncopeltus fasciatus We present detailed morphological measurements of the growing germband throughout segmentation. Our data are complemented by cell division profiles and expression patterns of key genes, including invected and even-skipped as markers for different stages of segment formation. We describe morphological and mechanistic changes in the growth zone and in nascent segments during the generation of individual segments and throughout segmentation, and examine the relative contribution of newly formed versus existing tissue to segment formation. Although abdominal segment addition is primarily generated through the rearrangement of a pool of undifferentiated cells, there is nonetheless proliferation in the posterior. By correlating proliferation with gene expression in the growth zone, we propose a model for growth zone dynamics during segmentation in which the growth zone is functionally subdivided into two distinct regions: a posterior region devoted to a slow rate of growth among undifferentiated cells, and an anterior region in which segmental differentiation is initiated and proliferation inhibited.
• Hester, S. D., Williams, T. A., Tewksbury, A. B., Nakamoto, A., Nagy, L. M., Matei, M. T., Hester, S. D., Constantinou, S. J., & Blaine, W. G. (2015). Changing cell behaviours during beetle embryogenesis correlates with slowing of segmentation.. Nature communications, 6(1), 6635. doi:10.1038/ncomms7635
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  Segmented animals are found in major clades as phylogenetically distant as vertebrates and arthropods. Typically, segments form sequentially in what has been thought to be a regular process, relying on a segmentation clock to pattern budding segments and posterior mitosis to generate axial elongation. Here we show that segmentation in Tribolium has phases of variable periodicity during which segments are added at different rates. Furthermore, elongation during a period of rapid posterior segment addition is driven by high rates of cell rearrangement, demonstrated by differential fates of marked anterior and posterior blastoderm cells. A computational model of this period successfully reproduces elongation through cell rearrangement in the absence of cell division. Unlike current models of steady-state sequential segmentation and elongation from a proliferative growth zone, our results indicate that cell behaviours are dynamic and variable, corresponding to differences in segmentation rate and giving rise to morphologically distinct regions of the embryo.
• Powers, T., Martin, A. P., Leigh, M. B., Hoskinson, A., Hester, S. D., & Conner, L. D. (2014). Coevolution or not? Crossbills, squirrels and pinecones. CourseSource, 1. doi:10.24918/cs.2014.4
• Hester, S. D., Glazier, J. A., Gens, J. S., Clendenon, S. G., & Belmonte, J. M. (2011). A multi-cell, multi-scale model of vertebrate segmentation and somite formation.. PLoS computational biology, 7(10), e1002155. doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002155
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  Somitogenesis, the formation of the body's primary segmental structure common to all vertebrate development, requires coordination between biological mechanisms at several scales. Explaining how these mechanisms interact across scales and how events are coordinated in space and time is necessary for a complete understanding of somitogenesis and its evolutionary flexibility. So far, mechanisms of somitogenesis have been studied independently. To test the consistency, integrability and combined explanatory power of current prevailing hypotheses, we built an integrated clock-and-wavefront model including submodels of the intracellular segmentation clock, intercellular segmentation-clock coupling via Delta/Notch signaling, an FGF8 determination front, delayed differentiation, clock-wavefront readout, and differential-cell-cell-adhesion-driven cell sorting. We identify inconsistencies between existing submodels and gaps in the current understanding of somitogenesis mechanisms, and propose novel submodels and extensions of existing submodels where necessary. For reasonable initial conditions, 2D simulations of our model robustly generate spatially and temporally regular somites, realistic dynamic morphologies and spontaneous emergence of anterior-traveling stripes of Lfng. We show that these traveling stripes are pseudo-waves rather than true propagating waves. Our model is flexible enough to generate interspecies-like variation in somite size in response to changes in the PSM growth rate and segmentation-clock period, and in the number and width of Lfng stripes in response to changes in the PSM growth rate, segmentation-clock period and PSM length.

Presentations

• Hester, S. D., Lattimore, K. L., Rezende, L. F., & Elfring, L. K. (2021). An Instructional-Teams Project for supporting instructional reform. 2021 ASCN Transforming Institutions Conference.
• Hester, S. D., & Bolger, M. S. (2019). Designing your lab course to support students’ authentic scientific engagement. Society for the Advancement of Biology Education Research (SABER) West Regional MeetingSociety for the Advancement of Biology Education Research (SABER).
• Hester, S. D., Thomas, S. A., & Bolger, M. S. (2019). How do students learn complex experimental design skills in rich instructional environments?. Annual Meeting of the Society for the Advancement of Biology Education Research (SABER)Society for the Advancement of Biology Education Research (SABER).
• Hester, S. D., Dykstra, E. M., Elfring, L. K., Katcher, J., Pepic, V., Nadler, M., White, C., & Bolger, M. S. (2017). Model-Based Inquiry in an Undergraduate Biology Laboratory Course. Society for the Advancement of Biology Education Research (SABER) Annual ConferenceSociety for the Advancement of Biology Education Research (SABER).