Bruce Baker (Active Emeritus)

Sex determination, sexual behavior, dosage compensation and imaginal disc development in Drosophila melanogaster, with the goal of understanding at a molecular level how these processes are brought about.

Dominique Bergmann

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. Our current research is focused on three areas. (1) regulation of stomatal identity by MAP kinase signaling (2)Pattern formation and its reliance on cell communication to regulate division polarity (3) Identification of positive regulators of stomatal formation

Steven Block

Properties of proteins or nucleic acids at the level of single macromolecules and molecular complexes. Experimental tools include laser-based optical traps ("optical tweezers") and a variety of state-of-the-art fluorescence techniques, in conjunction with custom-built instrumentation for the nanometer-level detection of displacements and piconewton-level detection of forces.

Bill Burkholder

Our lab is interested in how bacteria monitor and coordinate cell cycle events. We are focused on identifying and characterizing signal transduction pathways used by the bacterium Bacillus subtilis to regulate cell cycle progression and development in response to chromosome status. Our goal is to understand how these pathways work mechanistically and how they contribute to normal growth, development, and genome stability.

Allan Campbell

Comparative molecular biology of DNA insertion by bacteriophage lambda and its relatives, analyzing the organization of the biotin operon in Escherichia coli, and the genetic control of related pathways. Phage integration is a model system for the catalysis and regulation of specific DNA rearrangements.

Martha Cyert

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.

Russell Fernald

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) that respond to changes in the social conditions by changing size.

Hunter Fraser

We study the regulation and evolution of gene expression using a combination of experimental and computational approaches. Our work brings together quantitative genetics, genomics, epigenetics, and evolutionary biology to achieve a deeper understanding of how genetic variation within and between species affects genome-wide gene expression and ultimately shapes the phenotypic diversity of life.

Judith Frydman

The mechanism of protein folding has become a central problem in biology. We wish to understand the pathways and regulation of protein folding in eukaryotic cells. Knowledge of how proteins actually fold in the cell should eventually provide the basis for controlling protein function under normal conditions and during abnormal conditions of environmental stress and disease.

Or Gozani

Chromatin dynamics regulate fundamental nuclear processes that influence diverse physiologic and pathologic processes. Our research focuses on chromatin modulation by the ING (Inhibitor of Growth) family of tumor suppressor proteins. The goal of our research is to elucidate the molecular mechanism by which ING proteins regulate chromatin under normal conditions and in response to genotoxic insults, and to understand the relationship between these activities and tumor suppressor pathways.

Philip Hanawalt

Philip C. Hanawalt discovered repair replication of DNA, the major process by which all living cells deal with damage to their genetic material. His research group studies the mechanisms by which living cells maintain their genomes in the face of endogenous DNA damage and environmental radiations and chemical carcinogens.

H. Craig Heller

Neurobiology of sleep, circadian rhythms, regulation of body temperature, mammalian hibernation, and human exercise physiology. Dr. Heller is co-director of the Center for Sleep and Circadian Neurobiology. The Center fosters multidisciplinary approaches and collaborations that will help us understand the neural mechanisms controlling arousal states and arousal state transitions, the function of sleep, and the neural mechanisms of circadian rhythms. Research on human exercise physiology focuses on the effects of body temperature on physical conditioning and performance.

Patricia Jones

Genetic, cellular, and molecular mechanisms that regulate adaptive immune responses (the antigen-specific responses carried out by B and T lymphocytes, unique to vertebrates), and innate immune responses (responses present in both invertebrates and vertebrates triggered by microbial components).

Ron Kopito

Cellular mechanisms which monitor protein biogenesis and ensure that only properly folded and assembled proteins are deployed within the cell. Genetic biochemical and cell biological approaches are used to identify the machinery involved in recognizing and destroying misfolded proteins.

Sharon Long

Molecular, genetic, and biochemical techniques are used to study how Rhizobium cells recognize and form nodules on their plant hosts. The association is highly specific: individual species of Rhizobium are classified according to the particular legumes they are able to nodulate.

Chris Lowe

My research interests are in the field of evolution and development, and more specifically the evolution of the deuterostomes. My lab is currently investigating three major areas: The origin and evolution of the vertebrate brain and head. The early evolution of the deuterostome endoderm and mesoderm. The evolution of posterior growth in bilaterians.

Liqun Luo

Molecular genetics are used to understand the logic of neural circuit assembly. The human brain is composed of ~10ˆ12 neurons with complex morphologies and intricate connections. We use primarily the simpler brain of the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, composed of ~10ˆ5 neurons, to uncover fundamental mechanisms that are likely to be used in our own brain.

Susan McConnell

How individual neurons know where they should sit in the brain and with which neurons they should form specific axonal connections. Identify and characterize the progenitor cells that give rise to neuron and the processes by which young neurons locate their correct targets among hundreds of thousands of other neurons in the brain.

Ashby J. Morrison

Our research interests are to elucidate the contribution of chromatin to mechanisms that promote genomic integrity. The regulation of chromatin is a crucial component of DNA metabolism and processing in eukaryotic organisms. Chromatin-remodeling complexes, modified histones, and higher order chromatin structure are all factors influencing genome stability. We utilize an integrated approach of genetic, biochemical, and molecular techniques, in both yeast and mammalian systems, to examine the involvement of chromatin in processes that prevent genome instability and the pathogenesis of disease.

Mary Beth Mudgett

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.

W. James Nelson

Our research objectives are to understand cellular mechanisms involved in development and maintenance of cell polarity. Recent studies indicate that development of epithelial cell polarity is a multistage process requiring instructive extracellular cues (eg. cell-cell and cell-substratum contact) and reorganization of proteins in the cytoplasm and on the plasma membrane. Once established, polarity is maintained by targeting and retention of proteins to functionally distinct apical and basal-lateral plasma membrane domains.

Robert Sapolsky

How a neuron dies during aging or following various neurological insults; How such neuron death can be accelerated by stress; The design of gene therapy strategies to protect endangered neurons from neurological disease.

Mark Schnitzer

The Schnitzer lab develops and uses fluorescence endoscopy and microscopy imaging methods to study biophysical events underlying various forms of learning and memory. A major goal is to accomplish studies of these cellular and molecular events in alert animals. Using fluorescence imaging of neuroanl populations,individual neurons and neuronal dendrites, the Schnitzer lab aims to monitor cellular dynamics and simple behaviors concurrently in alert rodents.

Carla Shatz

The major goal of research in the Shatz Laboratory is to discover cellular and molecular mechanisms that transform early fetal and neonatal brain circuits into mature connections, and in particular to determine the extent to which neural function during critical periods of development is needed for these circuits to tune up into adult patterns of connectivity.

Kang Shen

We are interested in understanding how synapses are formed, the final step in wiring a nervous system. In particular, the molecular mechanisms underlying synaptic specificity: how neurons recognize each other and how they make decisions about forming synapses between contacting neurites during development. We use molecular, genetic and cell biological tools to study this question in the nematode, C. elegans, which has a very simple nervous system containing only 302 neurons and approximately 6000 synapses.

Michael Simon

We use genetic and biochemical approaches to study three areas of developmental biology; Planar cell polarity (PCP) in epithelial cells, control of cell shape, motility and the actin cytoskeleton by Src family protein tyrosine kinases, and control of cell fate specification by receptor tyrosine kinases.

Robert Simoni

The nature of cellular membranes using a broad range of techniques, from molecular biology and biochemistry to cell biology. We continue to analyze the role of cholesterol in biological membranes, as well as the genetic mechanisms by which cholesterol production is regulated. This study has direct clinical relevance to the problems of atherosclerosis and heart disease.

Jan Skotheim

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. A systematic understanding of biological control circuits should allow us to more readily discern the function of natural systems and aid us in engineering synthetic systems.

Tim Stearns

The central question in our work is how cells accurately segregate their genome at each cell division. The work is focused on the centrosome, a unique organelle at the center of the cell that organizes the cytoskeleton and serves as a site for integration of cellular signals. We use the tools of cell biology, genetics, and biochemistry in systems ranging from yeast to human cells to understand how the centrosome duplicates once per cell cycle, and how centrosome defects are involved in the genome instability that is observed in many types of cancer. .

Virginia Walbot

Our laboratory studies the behavior of MuDR/Mu transposons of maize to answer fundamental questions about transposon regulation and plant development. Without a fixed body size, how do plant cells cease division and how are Mu element excisions restricted to the final cell divisions? Plants lack a germ line, but a few floral cells differentiate to undergo meiosis - why does Mu transposition outcome change in pre-meiotic cells?.

Charles Yanofsky (Active Emeritus)

Studies are focused on two major problems: 1) Determining the features of the attenuation regulatory mechanism used by E. coli to control transcription of the degradative tryptophanase operon; 2) Determining the features of the transcriptional and translational regulatory mechanisms controlling expression of operons concerned with tryptophan biosynthesis in B. subtilis. Both studies are revealing novel features of gene regulation.