We invite sophomores and juniors interested in continuing their education into graduate school to take part in our Summer Research Program.
It is a great opportunity to get to know our faculty, and their research, and to explore our campus and great city! Students will conduct supervised research, meet graduate students and attend special meetings designed to help with their graduate school plans.
Each student will be awarded a summer stipend ($3,000), funds to travel to UT Austin (up to $500) and on-campus housing for a visit of approximately 10 weeks.
Ours is a uniquely multidisciplinary graduate program with faculty from many areas of study, including our seven tracks: Bioinformatics & Computational Biology, Biomolecular Structure & Function, Cell & Developmental Biology, Chemical Biology & Drug Discovery, Molecular Genetics, Neurobiology, and Plant Biology.
Below are some of the faculty participating from the Cell and Molecular Biology Graduate Program, as well as samples of projects students would work on during the summer.
FACULTY & PROJECTS
Hal Alper
Students will employ metabolic engineering, synthetic biology, and biotechnology to enhance the production of advanced biofuels in both yeast and E. coli systems.
Dean Appling
The human MTHFD2L gene encodes a mitochondrial enzyme involved in folic acid metabolism. Students will construct and purify mutant forms of the enzyme, which will be analyzed for enzyme activity and stability.
Nigel Atkinson
We study alcohol and drug tolerance in the fruit fly model system. Tolerance to these drugs speeds users down the path of addiction because it causes them to increase the amount consumed. The genes involved are epigenetically regulated. A student in my laboratory would screen for mutants with altered tolerance or could examine epigenetic modifications caused by alcohol or drug exposure.
Shawn Bratton
We study how caspases (cysteine proteases) are activated during
programmed cell death (apoptosis) and how they are regulated by "inhibitor of apoptosis" (IAP) proteins.
Karen S. Browning
Role of initiation factors in the regulation of mRNA selection.
Z. Jeffrey Chen
(1) Roles of microRNAs in gene expression changes and growth vigor in plant hybrids (2) Genetic and epigenetic mechanisms for gene expression changes in plant hybrids (3) Computational and evolutionary analysis for the fate of duplicate genes
Andy Ellington
Biotechnology applications of RNA and proteins, including selecting therapeutic biopolymers and crafting sythetic genetic circuits that can mediate decision-making for siRNA knockdown of gene expression.
Janice Fischer
Using Drosophila genetics and molecular biology to study how Notch signaling is regulated by endocytosis.
Jeffrey Gross
Genetic analysis of eye development and disease using zebrafish as a model system.
Rasika Harshey
DNA-protein interactions in Mu transposition. Many cancer-causing retroviruses, including HIV, recombine with their host genomes in a manner simalar to that used by transposable phage Mu. Our current research goal is to understand the architecture of transpososomes, why the enhancer remains associated with them until completion of transposition, how target DNA is delivered, and what the similarities and differences are between the Mu and HIV integration systems.
Christine Hawkes
Global change effects on central Texas grasslands: understanding community and ecosystem responses to shifts in rainfall
Hans Hoffman
Molecular basis of social decision making in female mate choice. This project will examine female cichlid fish while deciding whether to mate with and attractive or unattractive male and analyze the expression patterns of one or more hormone receptor genes in the forebrain.
Enamul Huq
The project aims to identify and characterize factors necessary for the light-induced degradation of PIF1, a bHLH protein regulating photomorphogenic development in plants. An EMS mutagenized population of Luciferase-PIF1 fusion will be screened using a NightOWL camera to identify stable PIF1, and the putative mutants will be cloned and characterized.
Sean Kerwin
(1) Study the possible roles of G-quadruplex DNA helicases in DNA
replication using biochemical and chemical-genetics approaches. (2)
Study a new class of substrate-specific irreversible kinase
inhibitors in vitro and in cell culture.
Alan Lloyd
Student will work on a project to genetically engineer plants to understand and alter developmental or pigment production pathways.
Mia K. Markey
The mission of the Biomedical Informatics Lab (BMIL) is to design cost-effective, computer-based decision aids. The BMIL develops decision support systems for clinical decision making and scientific discovery using artificial intelligence and signal processing technologies. The BMIL's research portfolio also includes projects in biometrics. Examples of recent BMIL projects include computational decision aids for interpreting biomedical spectra (e.g., polarized reflectance spectroscopy, enhanced polarization-sensitive OCT) and images (e.g., mammography, 3D surface scans), biometrics for 3D face recognition, and computational methods for identifying biomarkers from genomic and proteomic analyses.
Mona Mehdy
We are interested in plant defense mechanisms to pathogens and
herbivores. Specifically, we study genes which are repressed during
defense and also seek to understand their roles during development in
the healthy plant, using biochemical, genetic and transgenic approaches.
Jennifer Morgan
The ultimate goal is to understand the molecular, cellular, physiological, and behavioral mechanisms of spinal cord regeneration by using a lower vertebrate in which regeneration is successful and robust.
Jon Pierce-Shimomura
Screen for mutant C.elegans that are resistant to intoxication by alcohol.
John Richburg
Mono-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (MEHP) is the active toxic metabolite of a chemical found widely dispersed in the environment due to its use in the production of plastics and PVC products. This toxicant has been shown to induce the premature detachment of testicular germ cells from the seminiferous epithelium in peripubertal rodents; perhaps resulting in male infertility. Our previous observations revealed that soluble TNF alpha released by germ cells after MEHP exposure consequently resulted in a robust induction of FasL by Sertoli cells and plays an role in triggering germ cell death by apoptosis after toxicant treatment. Metalloproteinases (MPs) are essential for processing the TNF alpha precursor to its soluble form and its ability to bind to TNFR1. The activity of MPs is regulated by tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase (TIMPs) protein family. We have previously shown that TIMP2 is predominately expressed in Sertoli cells and that protein levels decrease in a time-dependent manner after MEHP exposure. Decreases in TIMP-2 appear to allow for the inappropriate activation of MPs and may explain the underlying mechanism for the loss of germ cells after MEHP exposure. Interestingly, it has been shown that TIMP1 and TIMP2 levels are up-regulated by follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) through a cAMP-dependent signaling pathway. This signaling pathway previously had been shown to be inhibited in the rodent testis after MEHP exposure. FSH influences Sertoli cell proliferation and the synthesis of Sertoli cell-derived products that are essential for germ cell survival. A decrease in FSH corresponds to a increase in germ cell apoptosis in rats, and therefore, MEHP-decreased Sertoli cell FSH signaling may be responsible, in part, for changes in Sertoli cell TIMP2. This research project will rigorously explore if MEHP exposure can inhibit FSH-stimulated expression of TIMP2 in primary cultures of rodent testicular cells. This research has implications for the finding that human male sperm counts have been declining over the past 50 years and may provide a mechanistic rationale for this trend.
Rick Russell
Students will use biochemical and biophysical approaches to understand
how DEAD-box proteins (RNA helicases) function as general RNA
chaperones. Current projects are centered on understanding how
self-splicing group I intron RNAs are accelerated by DEAD-box proteins
for initial folding and for refolding from misfolded conformations.
Wesley Thompson
We prepare transgenic mice to study neuromuscular synapses. Student would be involved in genotyping and characterizing new transgenic models.
Lauren Webb
Our group investigates electrostatic fields at protein-protein
interfaces in order to understand the molecular-level details that
drive and stabilize the interactions between biomacromolecules. To do
this, we incorporate artificial functional groups into proteins to use
as sensitive probes of the electrostatic environment at interfacial
sites. Students will express and purify model proteins, introduce
probe molecules site-specifically into these proteins, and use
spectroscopic techniques to characterize electrostatic fields in the
immediate vicinity of the probe once a functional protein-protein
interface is formed.
Casey Wright
Students will use molecular and biochemical techniques to study
inflammatory signaling (NF-kappaB) in blood cell cancers (i.e.,
Hodgkin's lymphoma, multiple myeloma, etc.).
John X.J. Zhang
Nano-screening chip for circulating tumor cells detection in blood.
APPLYING
There are two ways to apply:
- If you are a current University of Texas student from a branch outside of Austin, you should apply to the UT LSAMP program here:
http://research.utep.edu/lsamp/
The deadline for applications to be submitted for the UT LSAMP program is February 15th. Be sure to list UT Austin as your number 1 preference! UT San Antonio will forward applications on to us after completing their review.
- For all other applicants - Please complete the application form and request the necessary materials to be sent no later than February 20th:
2010 Summer Research Application
The CMB Graduate Program is committed to providing educational opportunities to students from diverse backgrounds underrepresented in the biological sciences. We strongly encourage students of all backgrounds to apply.
Questions may be directed to the program administrator:
Brooke Graham
Graduate Recruitment Coordinator
brooke.graham@mail.utexas.edu
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