Rosie Alegado

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Rosie Alegado
Rosie Alegado, 2018
Born1978
Honolulu, HI
NationalityKanaka 'oiwi
Other namesRosanna Alegado
Alma materMIT;
Stanford University Medical School
Known forchoanoflagellates
SpouseRaymond Kong
Children2
Scientific career
FieldsBiology, Microbiology, Oceanography
InstitutionsUniversity of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Websitealegadolab.org

Rosanna "Rosie" ʻAnolani Alegado (born 1978) is a Kanaka ʻōiwi/Native Hawaiian Associate Professor of Oceanography at the Daniel K. Inouye Center for Microbial Oceanography as well as director of the Hawai‘i Sea Grant’s Ulana 'Ike Center of Excellence at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Alegado studies the evolution of host–microbe interactions and the microbial ecology of coastal estuarine systems.

Early life[edit]

Alegado was born in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi in 1978. Her mother is Native Hawaiian scholar and activist Davianna Pōmaika'i McGregor, professor and founding member of the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.[1] Her father is Filipino scholar and activist Dean Alegado, a former professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and leader of the Union of Democratic Filipinos (Katipunan ng Demokratikong Pilipino, KDP) founded in 1973.[2]

She graduated from the Kamehameha Schools in 1996.[3] Alegado earned a BS in Biology and with a Minor in Environmental Health and Toxicology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a PhD in Microbiology and Immunology at Stanford University School of Medicine.[4]

Career[edit]

When Alegado was hired as assistant professor in the Department of Oceanography, she became the first Kanaka ʻŌiwi to be appointed to a tenure-track position in the department as well as the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology at the University of Hawaiʻi.[5] She was hired as part of multi-disciplinary initiative in Coastal Resilience and Sustainability, under Chancellor Prof Virginia Hinshaw.[6][7] This initiative aims to support research that promotes sustainable management of coastal regions of Hawaii.[7] In 2018, Alegado became director of the Sea Grant Ulana 'Ike Center of Excellence, established by Hawai'i Sea Grant a year prior to "implement and perpetuate the cultural knowledge of Hawai‘i and the Pacific Islands to current science and research".[6] She took up the helm after the previous director, Prof Puakea Nogelmeier, retired.[6] Alegado was tenured and promoted to associate professor in 2019.

Research[edit]

Alegado completed her graduate work with Man-Wah Tan where she characterized the bacterial pathogenesis of Salmonella typhimurium in the model organism C. elegans.[8][9][10] She then shifted her focus to evolution of host-microbe interactions during her postdoctoral fellowship with Nicole King at UC Berkeley, researching multicellular development in the closest living relatives of animals, the colonial choanoflagellate Salpingoeca rosetta. She found that exposure to Bacteroidota bacteria triggers choanoflagellate colony formation, and narrowed down the molecular mechanism to a single sulfonolipid, offering a tantalising theory as to how the evolution of animals was influenced by bacteria.[11][12] Alegado also helped to establish the choanoflagellate as a model system by defining its developmental cycle.[13]

Alegado investigates the role of microbial communities in ocean nutrient recycling, and how ocean dynamics have impacted the communities of Hawaii. She continues to study choanoflagellates, predominantly local Hawaiian strains, and aims to identify the role of choanoflagellate community formation in food webs of aquatic ecosystems.[14] Alegado has investigated the oceanic factors which influence fish yield from the traditional Hawaiian fishpond stewarded by Paepae o Heʻeia, concluding that El Niño had a major effect and that this may become more frequent with global climate change.[15][16][17] The state of the local ecosystem also saw improvements in water quality when the introduced mangrove species Rhizophora mangle were removed through biocultural restoration.[18][19] Currently her group is investigating how native people were able to avoid fish casualties due to El Nino in the past by trawling literature from the native language.[15][17] She recently announced a project to investigate how microbial communities have adapted to the introduction of non-native mangrove forests around Hawai'i, comparing newer communities to those which have been more established.[20]

Indigenous culture[edit]

Alegado is committed to the perpetuation of Native Hawaiian cultural practices and to fostering collaboration of scientists working on the islands with the native people.[6] She works with the non-profit organisation Kuaʻāina Ulu ʻAuamo to establish a process, known as 'kūlana noiʻi', which helps "researchers build and sustain equitable partnerships with the community".[6] In her own lab, Alegado mentors her students to embrace the concept of Aloha ʻĀina (love for that which feeds/the land).[21] She works to protect the islands, native people and their well-being from the effects of climate change, described as a further wave of colonisation.[22][23] Alegado has been a member of the Honolulu City and County Climate Change Commission since 2018.

Alegado is also the director of the SOEST Maile Mentoring Bridge Program, which fosters Hawaii community college students to major in the geosciences. To mark the graduation of these students, she implemented workshops with native craftsmen and students to design traditional kīhei to wear during graduation.[24]

Thirty Meter Telescope[edit]

Alegado opposes the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope on Mauna Kea, since it represents a continuing infringement on native lands, and has spoken out about the issue to the media.[25] She has written to counter the idea that the native Hawaiian culture is acting 'anti-science', describing how the local philosophies that hold the mountain sacred are based on concepts of environmental protection, and stating that it is dangerous for science to continue unbounded by ethics, anti-colonialism and respect.[26] Alegado and other Native Hawaiian academics wrote a paper in ArXiv which detailed the local case against the telescope and how to improve relations between indigenous people and astronomy.[27][28]

Personal life[edit]

Alegado is married to attorney Raymond Kong.

References[edit]

Scholia has an author profile for Rosie Alegado.
  1. ^ "Davianna Pōmaika'i McGregor| Universite Laval". Retrieved 2023-03-29.
  2. ^ "In memoriam: Former Ethnic Studies Chair Dean Alegado | University of Hawaiʻi System News". 16 November 2020. Retrieved 2020-11-18.
  3. ^ "Dr. Rosanna Alegado KSK'96 | Kamehameha Schools". www.ksbe.edu. Retrieved 2020-02-16.
  4. ^ "Directory Detail – Hawaii Sea Grant". Retrieved 2020-02-16.
  5. ^ "Most UH Students Are People Of Color But Their Teachers Are Mainly White". Honolulu Civil Beat. 2019-10-24. Retrieved 2020-02-16.
  6. ^ a b c d e "Mānoa: Rosie Alegado named director of Sea Grant Center for Integrated Science, Knowledge and Culture | University of Hawaii News". manoa.hawaii.edu. Retrieved 2020-02-16.
  7. ^ a b "Sustainability Initiative – Hawaii Sea Grant". Retrieved 2020-02-16.
  8. ^ Alegado, Rosanna A.; Campbell, Marianne C.; Chen, Will C.; Slutz, Sandra S.; Tan, Man-Wah (July 2003). "Characterization of mediators of microbial virulence and innate immunity using the Caenorhabditis elegans host-pathogen model". Cellular Microbiology. 5 (7): 435–444. doi:10.1046/j.1462-5822.2003.00287.x. ISSN 1462-5814. PMID 12814434. S2CID 23329868.
  9. ^ Alegado, Rosanna A.; Tan, Man-Wah (June 2008). "Resistance to antimicrobial peptides contributes to persistence of Salmonella typhimurium in the C. elegans intestine". Cellular Microbiology. 10 (6): 1259–1273. doi:10.1111/j.1462-5822.2008.01124.x. ISSN 1462-5814. PMID 18221392. S2CID 41156730.
  10. ^ Alegado, Rosanna A.; Chin, Chui-Yoke; Monack, Denise M.; Tan, Man-Wah (October 2011). "The two-component sensor kinase KdpD is required for Salmonella typhimurium colonization of Caenorhabditis elegans and survival in macrophages: Role of KdpD in C. elegans and macrophages". Cellular Microbiology. 13 (10): 1618–1637. doi:10.1111/j.1462-5822.2011.01645.x. PMID 21790938. S2CID 5782113.
  11. ^ Alegado, Rosanna A; Brown, Laura W; Cao, Shugeng; Dermenjian, Renee K; Zuzow, Richard; Fairclough, Stephen R; Clardy, Jon; King, Nicole (2012-10-15). "A bacterial sulfonolipid triggers multicellular development in the closest living relatives of animals". eLife. 1: e00013. doi:10.7554/eLife.00013. ISSN 2050-084X. PMC 3463246. PMID 23066504.
  12. ^ Yong, Ed (2012-08-06). "Bacteria transform the closest living relatives of animals from single cells into colonies". National Geographic. Archived from the original on February 16, 2020. Retrieved 2020-02-16.
  13. ^ Dayel, Mark J; Alegado, Rosanna A; Fairclough, Stephen R; Levin, Tera C; Nichols, Scott A; McDonald, Kent; King, Nicole (2011-09-01). "Cell differentiation and morphogenesis in the colony-forming choanoflagellate Salpingoeca rosetta". Developmental Biology. 357 (1): 73–82. doi:10.1016/j.ydbio.2011.06.003. ISSN 0012-1606. PMC 3156392. PMID 21699890.
  14. ^ Ravindran, Sandeep (2016-11-15). "Inner Workings: Tiny organisms could reveal how animals evolved". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 113 (46): 12889–12890. doi:10.1073/pnas.1615928113. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 5135328. PMID 27856926.
  15. ^ a b "Mānoa: Research reveals how climate change may affect Hawaiian fishpond aquaculture | University of Hawaii News". www.hawaii.edu. Retrieved 2020-02-16.
  16. ^ McCoy, Daniel; McManus, Margaret A.; Kotubetey, Keliʻiahonui; Kawelo, Angela Hiʻilei; Young, Charles; D’Andrea, Brandon; Ruttenberg, Kathleen C.; Alegado, Rosanna ʻAnolani (2017-11-16). "Large-scale climatic effects on traditional Hawaiian fishpond aquaculture". PLOS ONE. 12 (11): e0187951. Bibcode:2017PLoSO..1287951M. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0187951. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 5690667. PMID 29145446.
  17. ^ a b Hiraishi, Ku`uwehi (29 January 2018). "Researchers Turn to Hawaiian Language Newspapers For Help With Climate Change". www.hawaiipublicradio.org. Retrieved 2020-02-16.
  18. ^ Möhlenkamp, Paula; Beebe, Charles Kaiaka; McManus, Margaret A.; Kawelo, Angela Hiʻilei; Kotubetey, Keliʻiahonui; Lopez-Guzman, Mirielle; Nelson, Craig E.; Alegado, Rosanna ʻAnolani (January 2019). "Kū Hou Kuapā: Cultural Restoration Improves Water Budget and Water Quality Dynamics in Heʻeia Fishpond". Sustainability. 11 (1): 161. doi:10.3390/su11010161.
  19. ^ Knapman, Cindy (6 August 2019). "Fishpond sees dramatic turn after removal of invasive plants". University of Hawaiʻi System News. Retrieved 2020-02-16.
  20. ^ "Microbial biogeochemical cycling across a chronosequence of mangrove introductions across Hawaiʻi – Hawaii Sea Grant". Retrieved 2020-02-16.
  21. ^ "Native Hawaiian Culture is Science". Hawaii Business Magazine. 2018-04-04. Retrieved 2020-02-16.
  22. ^ "'We're Not Scared': Hawaii Confronts Next Wave Of Climate Change". Honolulu Civil Beat. 2019-07-10. Retrieved 2020-02-16.
  23. ^ "The Cost of Climate Change in Hawaii". Hawaii Business Magazine. 2018-09-06. Retrieved 2020-02-16.
  24. ^ Grabowski, Marcie (6 July 2018). "Traditional Hawaiian kihei adorn UH Manoa graduates | University of Hawaiʻi System News". Retrieved 2020-02-16.
  25. ^ Witze, Alexandra (2020-01-14). "How the fight over a Hawaii mega-telescope could change astronomy". Nature. 577 (7791): 457–458. Bibcode:2020Natur.577..457W. doi:10.1038/d41586-020-00076-7. PMID 31965092.
  26. ^ Alegado, Rosie (2019-07-26). "Opponents of the Thirty Meter Telescope fight the process, not science". Nature. 572 (7767): 7. Bibcode:2019Natur.572....7A. doi:10.1038/d41586-019-02304-1. PMID 31350535.
  27. ^ Kahanamoku, Sara; Alegado, Rosie 'Anolani; Kagawa-Viviani, Aurora; Kamelamela, Katie Leimomi; Kamai, Brittany; Walkowicz, Lucianne M.; Prescod-Weinstein, Chanda; Reyes, Mithi Alexa de los; Neilson, Hilding (2020-01-03). "A Native Hawaiian-led summary of the current impact of constructing the Thirty Meter Telescope on Maunakea". arXiv:2001.00970. doi:10.6084/m9.figshare.c.4805619. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  28. ^ "Native Hawaiian scientists release paper on indigenous perspectives on Maunakea | University of Hawaiʻi System News". 6 January 2020. Retrieved 2020-02-16.

External links[edit]

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