Functional Genomics and the Analysis of Development

9:00 - 11:00 a.m. - Benjamin Banneker Room

Dr. Joanne Chory, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Plant Biology Laboratory,The Salk Institute, Title: "Molecular mechanisms of steroid hormone signaling in plants?

Dr. Harold Smith, Center for Advanced Research in BiotechnologyUniversity of Maryland Biotechnology Institute, "Functional Genomics of Stem Cell Differentiation"

Dr. Allan C. Spradling, Department of Embryology, HHMI/Carnegie Institute, "Anatomical genomics and stem cells"

Organized and moderated by Dr. Eric Baehrecke, UMBI, and Dr. Eric Haag, University of Maryland

JOANNE CHORY, PH.D. Professor, Plant Biology Laboratory, Salk Institute for Biological Studies; Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute; Adjunct Professor of Biology, University of California, San Diego. Dr. Chory earned her B.A. degree in Biology from Oberlin College and her Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of Illinois.   She was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Chory is interested in identifying the mechanisms by which plants respond to changes in their light environment. She and her colleagues use genetic, genomic, and biochemical approaches in Arabidopsis , an intensely studied model plant, to identify components of the phototransduction pathways.   Her recent research emphasizes the events mediated through a family of red/far-red-light-absorbing receptors. Her laboratory has identified mutants in these photoreceptors and in nuclear-localized signal transduction components. Work in Dr. Chory's lab has also led to the discovery of a steroid hormone, brassinolide, that controls plant development in response to light, and has identified the plant steroid receptor and signaling pathway.   Dr. Chory is a member   of the National Academy of Sciences.

HAROLD SMITH, PH.D. Assistant Professor, Center for Advanced Research in Biotechnology, University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute. Dr. Smith received his Ph.D. in Microbiology from Columbia University.   His research uses the nematode C. elegans to investigate the mechanisms that govern the development of specialized cells from undifferentiated progenitors. A goal is to combine data from gene expression studies, bioinformatics, and transgenic experiments to identify the transcription factors that directly control expression of distinct subsets of sperm genes, and to determine the specific stage or process in sperm cell development that is dependent on those genes. With colleagues he hopes to determine the developmental program that controls sperm cell differentiation in C. elegans. Dr. Smith is also investigating the unique and peculiar cytoskeleton of nematode sperm, which may provide a highly specific anti-helminthic drug target.

ALLAN C. SPRADLING, PH.D. Director, Department of Embryology, Carnegie Institution of Washington; Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute; Adjunct Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Dr. Spradling earned his B.A. degree in physics from the University of Chicago and his Ph.D. degree in cell biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His postdoctoral study was done at Indiana University with Anthony Mahowald. Dr. Spradling is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and has received many honors for his work. He is interested in stem cells, egg development, and new technology for understanding how genes control tissue development and function.

 

 

 

For more information about the Bioscience Research & Technology Review Day, please contact Gene Ferrick at (301) 405-7016, or gene@umd.edu.