What pre-med students learned from different fish

Research experience is increasingly becoming important for the success and enrichment of undergraduate education and the student experience, particularly for those interested in pursuing a career in the biomedical sciences, including medicine. Establishing a successful undergraduate research program is also crucial to a faculty member's success at a primary undergraduate institution (PUI). Many PUIs lack the resources to establish and maintain a vivarium, and faculty must find an alternative model system to continue their research programs. Channel catfish selected for faster growth developed behavioral and phenotypic traits associated with human obesity. While working at Fort Hays State University, a PUI located in western Kansas, I trained both undergraduate and graduate students interested in biomedical career paths, using channel catfish as an animal model to study human obesity. Because the molecular endocrinology of mammals is studied extensively compared with that of fish, we used genetic information from mammals as a basis to investigate genes in catfish and other fish species with poorly understood physiology, such as walleye, orangethroat darter, and plains killifish. Students in my lab studied molecular endocrinology and the physiology of reproduction, food intake regulation, and tissue nutrient sensing by characterizing mRNA expression of hormones, receptors, and enzymes involved in reproduction or obesity across various fish tissues. Students studying channel catfish also investigated changes in the expression of various mRNAs in response to changes in food intake and differences in plasma lipid profiles between fish selected for faster growth and control groups. From 2012 to 2022, my students co-authored 26 abstracts and presented their studies at various national and international meetings, including 17 at Experimental Biology or the APS summit. Several of these students also received summer fellowships from APS and NIDDK, and one student was accepted into the NIDDK summer internship. The most significant impact of students participating in this scholarly activity was that the majority pursued terminal degrees in healthcare and now work in underserved areas. This abstract was presented at the American Physiology Summit 2026 and is only available in HTML format. There is no downloadable file or PDF version. The Physiology editorial board was not involved in the peer review process.