The WSU School of Biological Sciences boasts one of the top young investigators in the world in assistant professor Joanna Kelley.

Kelley’s work with species of fish surviving in extreme conditions caught the attention of GenomeWeb, an online scientific news source. Kelley made GenomeWeb’s list of the top 20 scientific investigators in the world with fewer than five years into their faculty appointment.

The crux of her research is investigating rare species of fish that can survive in extreme conditions. She studied these fish at the McMurdo Station, a U.S. Antarctic research center.

“The question we want to answer is what is similar about these? How are they doing this, how are they able to survive in these conditions? Are there similarities between the species?” Kelley said. “Can we use that information to translate that to other systems?”

Kelley is particularly interested in the unique anti-freeze proteins found in Antarctic and Arctic fish and wants to identify genetic changes that allow the fish to survive. For this reason, she chooses extreme climates to conduct her research.

She studied different species of fish living in sulfidic streams in the Western Hemisphere. She said every species is unique to the region it lives in.

“If you take a freshwater fish and place it in a sulfidic stream, it dies,” Kelley said.

Kelley was nominated by professor Carlos Bustamante, who taught her when she was a post-doctorate student at Stanford University. Corey Quackenbush, Kelley’s lab manager, said Kelley is exceptionally driven.

“In the early stages, having a goal and how to get there is important,” Quackenbush said. “She knows what she wants to do and how she plans on doing it.”

Aurora Clark, an associate professor in the department of chemistry, attended a lecture given by Kelley.

Clark said she remembers from the lecture that fish may live in sulfidic streams hundreds of miles away from each other yet share a similar genetic mutation.

“Professor Kelley can tell by analyzing the genes and the rate of genetic mutations that occur how long ago these fish developed their resistance to the sulfur,” Clark said. “And then by looking at the historical geology of the region, found that they could have come from the same aquatic system or stream.”

This research may one day impact the search for life on other planets with harsh environments similar to those sought out by Kelley, Clark said.

Scientists may eventually be able to use information from the fish’s unique survival skills to benefit humans who live in extremely polluted areas around the world, Kelley said.