As a graduate student in the Integrated Program in Biochemistry (IPiB), Tina Lynch studied germline stem cells, the cells that ultimately produce sperm and eggs, in roundworms. Lynch, a member of the Kimble Lab, was particularly interested in how these cells cluster: too many or too few germline stem cells in a cluster, and tissues …
Thesis Reviews
IPiB Thesis Defense Oct. 28: Jessica Cardenas
Plants go through different stages of development that are modulated by different types of signals. Some signals come from within the plants themselves, while others, such as environmental stressors, a plant can only respond to. Phytohormones, “plant hormones” that arise from a plant’s metabolic activities, help integrate external signals into a plant’s growth and development. …
IPiB Thesis Defense Nov 4: Katarzyna Dubiel
The lab of Professor Jim Keck is broadly interested in bacterial genome maintenance, and IPiB student Katarzyna (Kasia) Dubiel focused her Ph.D. research on single-stranded DNA-binding proteins (SSBs), which play a major role in this process. In order for DNA replication and repair to occur, double-stranded DNA must be separated into single strands. Single-stranded DNA …
IPiB Thesis Defense Oct. 18: Samantha Anderson
Membrane proteins are notoriously difficult to study. It’s why scientists have turned to computational methods to try to predict their characteristics. For her thesis research, Samantha Anderson of the Senes Lab investigated a specific motif — a short sequence common among membrane proteins — and how it impacts the way membrane proteins interact with each …
IPiB Thesis Defense Oct. 4: Thao Nguyen
One project in the lab of IPiB faculty member Michael R. Sussman investigates a proton pump present in plant and fungal cells. The pump converts the chemical energy of ATP into an electrical and chemical gradient of protons known as a proton motive force as it moves protons to the outside of the cell. This …
IPiB Thesis Defense Oct. 4: Hugo Medina-Munoz
The lab of biochemistry professor Marvin Wickens studies how RNA molecules are controlled and interact with proteins. While RNA is the intermediary between DNA and proteins, it is not just a simple default: instead, RNA stability, translation and location all are regulated. Being able to define where RNAs are in a cell, across all the …