Since their divergence from a common ancestor some 200 million years ago, mammals have undergone significant diversification in physiology, morphology, habitat, size, and longevity. The maximum lifespan of mammalian species ...

Genetics is an incredibly powerful tool for interrogating human biology, as it allows us to identify genes influencing biological processes and diseases in a hypothesis-free manner and in the context of the human body. The ...

Tendons transmit force from muscle to bone, enabling movement; ligaments connect bone to bone, maintaining stability. Despite their importance, tendon and ligament development is relatively uncharacterized. In this ...

Animals switch between periods of behavioral quiescence and arousal in response to environmental, circadian, or developmental cues. C. elegans exhibit periods of behavioral quiescence during larval molts (termed lethargus) ...

The comprehensive identification of genetic alterations is critical to understanding the pathophysiology of cancer. Recent advances in sequencing technology have enabled the detailed description of cancer genomes. However, ...

A complex interplay of genetic and environmental factors underlies the development of common human diseases such as cardiovascular disease. Despite widespread use of existing medications, coronary heart disease (CHD), ...

Primate lentiviruses (PLVs), including human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), HIV type 2 (HIV-2), and the simian immunodeficiency viruses (SIVs), cause persistent lifelong infections despite the presence of virus-specific ...

The epigenetic regulation of gene transcription underlies the diversity between species and within organisms. Novel implementation of existing methods and the development of original technologies continue to contribute ...

The bacterial cell wall exoskeleton (or peptidoglycan) protects cells from osmotic lysis, specifies their shape, and its biosynthetic pathway is a widely-exploited antibiotic target. My thesis research focused on defining ...

The organization of interphase nuclei has numerous consequences for gene expression and genome stability in eukaryotes. Here, we present studies of chromosome organization in Drosophila melanogaster over the course of the ...