Department: Biology (School of Humanities and Sciences)

Basic understanding of the mechanisms underlying autophagy, chaperones, and protein quality control in the nervous system as a route to more effective therapies for neurodegenerative diseases (Alzheimer's, Frontotemporal Dementia, Huntington's, etc.).

We use genetic, genomic and cell biological approaches to study cell fate acquisition, focusing on cases where cell fate is correlated with asymmetric cell division.

I am interested in how environmental variation affects life history traits, population structure and dynamics, and species interactions in ecological and evolutionary time, using Lepidoptera.

My research focuses on analyzing genome wide patterns of variation within and between species to address fundamental questions in biology, anthropology, and medicine. My group works on a variety of organisms and model systems ranging from humans and other primates to domesticated plant and animals. Much of our research is at the interface of computational biology, mathematical genetics, and evolutionary genomics.

Cells respond to extracellular changes by activating signal transduction pathways, many of which are highly conserved. We study Ca2+-mediated signaling in a simple eukaryote, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Using genetic, genomic, biochemical and cell biological approaches, we are examining how the Ca2+/calmodulin-regulated phosphatase, calcineurin, regulates gene expression and other cellular processes in response to environmental stress.

Ecological and evolutionary aspects of plant-animal interactions, largely but not exclusively, in tropical forest ecosystems. Conservation biology in tropical ecosystems. Studies on biodiversity. Education, at all levels, on biodiversity conservation.

Organization and Assembly of Olfactory Circuits in Drosophila Melanogaster.

In the course of evolution,two of the strongest selective forces in nature,light and sex, have left their mark on living organisms. I am interested in how the development and function of the nervous system reflects these events. In the visual system, we are studying the cellular basis of retinal development. In the reproductive system, we have indentified a collection of cells in the brain containing gonodotropin releasing hormone(GnRH)

Watching cells at work Focus: Transport / signaling across the plasma membrane (sugars, amino acids). Tools: FRET-based nanosensors for metabolite imaging (with subcellular resolution) in living organisms using confocal fluorescence microscopy and HTS; Sensor optimization by computational design; RNAi to modify cellular functions. Goals: Identify unknown sugar effluxers from liver/plant cells; study regulatory networks. Model systems: liver, neuronal, plant cell cultures, Arabidopsis, yeast

The long term goal of our research is to understand how proteins fold in living cells. My lab uses a multidisciplinary approach to address fundamental questions about molecular chaperones, protein folding and degradation. In addition to basic mechanistic principles, we aim to define how impairment of cellular folding and quality control are linked to disease, including cancer and neurodegenerative diseases and examine whether reengineering chaperone networks can provide therapeutic strategies.

Ecological and evolutionary community assembly, with emphasis on historical contingency in community structure, ecosystem functioning, biological invasion and ecological restoration, using experimental, theoretical and comparative methods involving bacteria, protists, fungi, plants and animals.

We study the molecular mechanisms by which chromatin-signaling networks effect nuclear and epigenetic programs, and how dysregulation of these pathways leads to disease. Our work centers on the biology of lysine methylation, a principal chromatin-regulatory mechanism that directs epigenetic processes. We study how lysine methylation events are generated, sensed, and transduced, and how these chemical marks integrate with other nuclear signaling systems to govern diverse cellular functions.

1. Genome integrity at the single molecule level in single cells. 2. Systems biology with multiplex live cell imaging. 3. Next generation DNA sequencing on a chip. 4. mRNA monitoring in live cells.

The research of Elizabeth Hadly probes how perturbations such as climatic change influence the evolution and ecology of Neogene vertebrates.

Our current research focuses in two principal areas: 1. The molecular basis for diseases in which the pathway of transcription-coupled DNA repair is defective, including Cockyne syndrome (CS) and UV-sensitive syndrome (UVSS). Patients are severely sensitive to sunlight but get no cancers. See Hanawalt & Spivak, 2008, for review. 2. Transcription arrest by guanine-rich DNA sequences and non-canonical secondary structures. Transcription collisions with replication forks.

Neurobiology of sleep, circadian rhythms, regulation of body temperature, mammalian hibernation, and human exercise physiology. Currently applying background in sleep and circadian neurobiology the understanding and correcting the learning disability of Down Syndrome.

The impacts of Land Use Land Cover (LULC) change of indigenous communities on biodiversity and carbon storage in Guyana

Dr. Jones' research has focused on genetic, molecular, and cellular mechanisms that regulate immune responses. Current work focuses on innate immune responses, triggered by conserved microbial components. As these responses can be harmful they are highly regulated in their occurrence, magnitude, and duration. Her lab has discovered a novel mechanism that negatively regulates innate responses, mediated by the phosphatase calcineurin.

Our research is concerned with elucidating the basic cellular molecular mechanisms that underly the recognition and destruction of misfolded or mis-assembled proteins in eukaryotic cells. We study dominatly inherited human neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer's, Huntington's or Parkinson's diseases that are caused by the failure of this system to effectively recognize and destroy such proteins.

Function and evolution of the Myb oncogene family; function and evolution of E2F transcriptional regulators and RB tumor suppressors; epigenetic regulation of chromatin and chromosomes; cancer genetics.

protein quality control ubiquitin-proteasome system protein misfolding in cancer

We are studying how neural circuits are assembled during development, and how they contribute to sensory perception. We are addressing these questions at different levels from molecular, cellular, circuit to animal behavior. We are primarily using Drosophila as a model organism for our studies. Most recently, we are also developing novel genetic tools in the mouse to extend our studies to the mammalian brain.

The McConnell Lab studies the cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie the development of the mammalian cerebral cortex. Our work focuses on the earliest events that pattern the developing forebrain, enable neural progenitors to divide asymmetrically to generate young neurons, propel the migration of postmitotic neurons outward into their final positions, and sculpt the fates and phenotypes of the neurons as they differentiate.

Our research interests are to elucidate the contribution of chromatin to mechanisms that promote genomic integrity.

My laboratory investigates how bacterial pathogens employ proteins secreted by the type III secretion system (TTSS) to manipulate eukaryotic signaling to promote disease. We study TTSS effectors in the plant pathogen Xanthomonas campestris, the causal agent of bacterial spot disease of pepper and tomato. For these studies, we apply biochemical, cell biological, and genetic approaches using the natural hosts and two model pathosystems.

Our research objectives are to understand the cellular mechanisms involved in the development and maintenance of epithelial cell polarity. Polarized epithelial cells play fundamental roles in the ontogeny and function of a variety of tissues and organs.

My research focuses on the effect of environmental variation on the life-history, population dynamics and evolution of butterflies. I have specialized in studying butterfly metabolic rate, particularly flight metabolic rate. I'm interested in how energy is allocated among different life-history traits and variation among individuals.

Research in the lab addresses problems in evolutionary biology and human genetics through a combination of mathematical modeling, computer simulations, development of statistical methods, and inference from population-genetic data. Our current work covers topics such as human genetic variation, inference of human evolutionary history, the role of population genetics in the search for disease-susceptibility genes, the relationship of gene trees and species trees, and mathematical pr..

My laboratory has three major research efforts: 1) In vivo fluorescence imaging and behavioral studies of cerebellar-dependent motor control and motor learning. 2) Development and application of fiber-optic fluorescence microendoscopy imaging techniques for studies of learning and memory in behaving mice and for clinical uses in humans. 3) Development of high-throughput, massively parallel imaging techniques for studying brain function in large numbers of Drosophila concurrently.

Our research is focused on the genetic regulation of animal development and its relation to birth defects, cancer, and neurodegeneration. We study mechanisms and functions of Hedgehog (Hh) signaling, which controls cell fates and growth, in the context of normal development and brain cancer. We study a neurodegenerative disease, Niemann-Pick C syndrome, that affects intracellular organelle movements and sterol homeostasis.

The goal of research in the Shatz Laboratory is to discover how brain circuits are tuned up by experience during critical periods of development both before and after birth by elucidating cellular and molecular mechanisms that transform early fetal and neonatal brain circuits into mature connections. To discover mechanistic underpinnings of circuit tuning, the lab has conducted functional screens for genes regulated by neural activity and studied their function for vision, learning and memory.

The connectivity of a neuron (its unique constellation of synaptic inputs and outputs) is essential for its function. Neuronal connections are made with exquisite accuracy between specific types of neurons. How each neuron finds its synaptic partners has been a central question in developmental neurobiology. We utilize the relatively simple nervous system of nematode C. elegans, to search for molecules that can specify synaptic connections and understand the molecular mechanisms of synaptic as

A central aim of the burgeoning field of systems biology is to understand the principles governing genetic control networks. I believe finding the principles underlying genetic circuits will occur through detailed studies and then comparisons of several natural systems. Due to its extensive development as an experimental system, our favorite model, the budding yeast cell cycle, is poised to become central to this enterprise.

We use the tools of genetics, microscopy, and biochemistry to understand fundamental questions of cell biology: How are cells organized by the cytoskeleton? How do the centrosome and cilium control cell control cell signaling? How is cell division coordinated with duplication of the centrosome, and what goes wrong in cancer cells defective in this coordination?

Our current focus is on maize anther development to understand how cell fate is specified. Ultimately we want to understand how MuDR/Mu transposons of maize switch from a "cut and paste" biochemistry to a net replicative outcome during the life cycle. We have discovered that frameshift translation is required to produce one form of the transposase.

Stem cell and cancer stem cell biology; development of T and B lymphocytes; cell-surface receptors for oncornaviruses in leukemia. Hematopoietic stem cells; Lymphocyte homing, lymphoma invasiveness and metastasis.

Current interest centers on the application of statistics to problems arsing from biology. We are particularly interested in questions concerning gene regulation and signal transduction.