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By Angela Grant
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Dr. Alan Lambowitz |
Intense competition among molecular biology programs across the country makes recruiting the top faculty members and graduate students a real challenge, said Alan Lambowitz, Director of UT’s Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology.
"My main job is to ensure that there’s a good environment for research and education in molecular biology,” Lambowitz said. He is responsible for the tough recruitment job, but still makes plenty of time to conduct his own research.
The nature of that research makes entrance into Lambowitz’s lab especially competitive, said Jamie Vernon, a 4th-year graduate student who has worked in the lab for three years.
“He’s really working on some things that can revolutionize” the field of
genetics, Vernon said.
The lab, composed of about 20 students, postdoctoral fellows, and technicians, studies “gene expression, RNA splicing, catalytic RNAs, and retroviral-like genetic elements, including possible ancestors of HIV-1 and leukemia viruses,” according to a research summary.
Lambowitz said he’s interested in studying basic processes of catalytic introns, or pieces of DNA that can splice themselves in and out of proteins within DNA. When the lab discovered the basic mechanism that group II introns use for insertion into DNA, they began looking into practical uses of the technology.“Nature is pretty good at designing things that work effectively,” Lambowitz said. The lab has since discovered a way to use introns for genetic manipulation of bacterial cells. A computer program can target a protein sequence within a piece of DNA, and then effectively insert the intron into the targeted area, Lambowitz said.
Scientists can use the technique in genetic engineering and gene therapy. It’s been commercialized under the name “TargeTron Gene Knockout System” by the Sigma-Aldrich Corporation (SIAL), a life science and high technology company.
Now that the lab has perfected the technique on bacteria, researchers are attempting to replicate it in cells of frogs, mice, zebra fish and some human cells, Lambowitz said.
The discovery that introns could be used this way caught the attention of the National Institutes of Health; the agency highlighted the finding while requesting funding from the federal government.
It’s not the first time Lambowitz has caught the attention of the scientific community. Last year he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, an organization that advises the federal government on scientific issues.
Lambowitz’s election reflects well on the whole lab staff, and may help students when applying for jobs, Vernon said. However, the training researchers receive in the lab helps even more.
Lambowitz describes his teaching style as “anything that works.” He talks to his students on a routine basis and is always available for questions.
Vernon said that Lambowitz has unique insights on the experiments that students design. He suggests ways to modify the experiments that makes the students more successful, Vernon said.
“I just think he’s genius material,” he said.
Lambowitz said he’s proud of the students who go through his lab because they end up becoming successful scientists. About half of them enter fields of academic research, and half take jobs in the industry, he said.
“Nobody is driving a taxi,” Lambowitz said with a smile.
