University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor Lingjun Li, left, and Ph.D. candidate Lauren Fields show off some of the crabs used in Fields’ research project on how neuropeptides relate to feeding. The NIH, which funded the project, canceled it in April. (Photo courtesy of Lingjun Li)
Lauren Fields was less than four months into a research project funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) when she got an email message from her program officer at the federal agency.
A doctoral candidate in chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Fields has been studying the biochemistry involved in the feeding process of a common crab species. She and her faculty supervisor believe the project can shed new light on problems such as diabetes and obesity in human beings…