For the spring 2017 semester, the teacher became the student — and Associate Professor of Biology Nina Theis, Ph.D., couldn’t be happier about it.
Theis spent the spring 2017 semester on sabbatical at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology (ICE) in Jena, Germany, in the biochemistry department. She wanted to learn everything she could from the department, where they study the chemicals that drive the relationship between plants and insects, such as compounds and fragrances that either attract or protect.
Theis’ own research focuses on the ecology of fragrance production from flowers, and strives to understand the invisible forces that drive interactions between plants, pollinators, and herbivores.
“My main goal [on sabbatical] is just to learn techniques that I can bring back,” Theis said. “To do that, I really need to be working with other people who are already working on these systems.”
She was looking forward to gaining additional skills in the lab, as much of her research with students primarily involves field work.
“I was trained in graduate school as a field researcher, doing field ecology. In the summers I have tons of stuff for students to do, but it’s been a lot more challenging for me to get that work going in the lab,” she explained, adding that the work at ICE is almost entirely in the lab, with plants grown in incubators.
As for the specific work she’ll be doing, she thought she’d be studying a group of aphids and the plants they feed on, and how different things — such as microbes in the soil — affect those relationships. The compounds produced through plant-insect interactions represent the new medicines of the world, Theis said. One example: The chemotherapy drug known as taxol is a plant-derived compound now produced in the lab.
Theis was already acquainted with ICE and its biochemistry director, having spent her first summer as a graduate student there in 1999.
“It’s just an amazing place, all the top people in my field are either there or have visited there on a regular basis,” she said. “The research going on in my field is really incredible in Germany.”
Theis was joined by her husband, Karsten Theis, Ph.D., associate professor of chemistry at Westfield State University — who was also on sabbatical — and their two children, ages 8 and 9. Karsten was born and raised in Germany, and his parents still live in Berlin. They chose Jena, a relatively small town (100,000 population compared to Berlin’s more than 3 million), so their children would learn to speak German.
“I’m sure they’ll pick it up faster than me; I’m starting to learn the grammar, and it’s so overwhelming,” Theis said.
Theis will return to campus for the fall 2017 semester.