Research interests??
Chris Vockley
Wednesday, 20 August 2008 13:15 UTC
Hi All,
In an effort to get to know the groups members, I was wondering if you could all post your primary research interests in this thread.
My primary field is genomics and i a m most interested in epigenomic mechanisms of transcription repression. My current research focused on the epigenomic changes that occur at the onset of ovarian cancer.
What do the rest of you study??
-chris
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Replies
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Great idea – I’ll play!
I’m a virologist, and am currently working on how influenza viruses regulate the innate immune response and how it might affect viral evolution and species-to-species transmission. My postdoc research could not be more different than my graduate work (which was on HIV envelope-receptor interactions) and so I’ve spent my first year as a fellow essentially making reagents and learning a new field. But it’s been interesting so far!
Look forward to hearing about others’ interests…
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I am interested in gene regulation, specifically the structure of enhancers. I have collaborated in creating two programs to analyze enhancers, EvoPrinter and cis-Decoder. I have also built a cyberspace guide to Drosophila development, The Interactive Fly.
I am currently carrying out a functional dissection of Drosophila nerfin-1, deadpan and Pdm-1 enhancers.
I am creating a new version of cis-Decoder that will provide a way of ‘BLASTing’ enhancers.
A recent article of mine details evidence for horizontal gene transfer from a Staph aureus that causes bovine mastitis into a epidemic form of hospital acquired methicillin resistant Staph aureus
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I study just about everything! My PhD is in elementary particle physics, but I long ago went into science journalism. I’ve worked as a reporter at Chemical & Engineering News and Science, as a media officer at the National Science Foundation, and as a freelance magazine writer and book author.
I’m currently the editorial page editor at Nature, working out of the DC office, and I also edit news feature stories.
Mitch
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Rebecca: Cool that you’re doing viral evolution stuff! i used to study divergence and recombination in HIV-1 myself…How do you like life as an NIH postdoc?
Thomas: I am currently working on the other side f the coin. A major goal in our lab is the identification of novel repressive cis regulatory elements. We do a fair bit of computational work in our group but my main efforts on the negative regulatory element front has been focused on the development and evaluation of a quasi-high throughput functional assay for NREs…
Thanks for your posts!
Chris
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My PhD is in Biochemistry and Cell and Molecular Biology. I just finished it in May and my thesis studied the role of adenosine receptors in the cardiovascular system. In my postdoctoral studies I am exploring the link between the metabolism, immune response and cancer – our lab focuses on peptidases that break off proline and hydroxyproline from proteins (thus, mostly off collagen, which is heavily degraded in cancers) and enzymes that metabolize proline. This proline can be used as an extra energy source for a cell lacking nutrients (such as a cancer cell in the center of a tumor) via the pentose shunt. My project involves the role of these enzymes in immune cells that infiltrate tumor stroma and contribute to tumor progression. If we block the activity of these enzymes in tumors can we cut of an energy supply thus slow or block tumor growth . . . in a couple years we should find out :-)
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Chris: Being an NIH postdoc is great in many ways – great community of scientists, encouragement to do some risky research, more money to play with than I’m used to and no grant writing! Of course there are drawbacks – there’s the government red tape to deal with, and there’s no grant writing (a skill that might prove useful in my career).
Cynthia: Your current research sounds awesome!
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I am electrophysiologist and I study synaptic physiology. My thesis was on cytoskeletal control of NMDA receptor activity and morphological plasticity of dendritic spines regulated by actin-binding domains. The other part was on neuronal-astrocyte interactions.
I primarily work in the hippocampus because I am interested in learning and memory.
At NIH, I am developing in vivo recording techniques for studying small local circuits in the prefornal cortex that may be responsible for symptoms of schizoprenia. I am looking at how changes in gene expression lead to changes in intrinsic network activity.
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I am trained as a Biochemist. I did my PhD in membrane protein integration into the endoplasmic reticulum and continued the theme of protein trafficking when I came to NIH. I am now a staff scientist that is applying cell biology to questions of angiogenesis and cancer.
-Peter
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