HHMI Fellows 1995-1996

Stuart Amateau worked with Drs. William Hall and Steven Brauth, Department of Psychology, on communication between parrots. Parrots are used to study commincation because, like humans, parrots learn to communicate by imitating familiar conspecifics like cagemates or siblings. Stuart studied the afferent connections to the nucleus Basalis (Bas). Using fluorescent beads he defined the extent of the auditory parts of the Bas.

Lopa Basu is working with Dr. Catherine Carr in the Department of Zoology. She is studying the role of calcium in the development of the avian auditory system. By determining the celllar locations of a calcium binding protein called calbindin, Lopa will corelate the distribution of calbindin with devleopmental patterns observed by histological examination. Her work should shed new light onthe importance of calcium in the development of important neural connections in the brain.

Ashwin Dharmadhikari studied the effects of neuropeptides on parental behavior with Dr. Sue Carter-Porges in the Department of Zoology. Ashwin determined how hormone levels in the prairie vole are associated with differences in parental care of young pups. Voles from Kansas are less likely to provide pup care if they have not given birth or had previous pup exposure while voles from Illinois provided significant amounts of care without previous experience or birth. The differences are thought to be hormonally based.

Sachin Dheer is working in Dr. Spencer Benson's laboratory in the Microbiology Department. He intends to characterize mehcanisms of adaptive mutation in E coli by studying plasmid physiology. He will use Lac- cells with plasmids present or absent within them to deterine how quickly mutations revert back to the wild-type Lac+ form. In this way, Sachin will be able to observe whether plasmid and chromosomal genes mutate at different rates.

Shahab Khan is studying interferon Tau in Dr. Carol Pontzer's lab in the Department of Microbiology. Interferon tau is a nontoxic, antiviral, antiproliferative agent which binds to the type I interferon receptor. Shahab has proposed to compare the binding of interferon alpha with that of interferon tau. He will use ELISA to determine the binding abilities of the two different interferons with the Type I receptor.

Cheng-Yu Lee is studying with Dr. Soichi Tanda in the Department of Zoology. Cheng-Yu will study eye morphogenesis in Drosophila. Cheg-Yu is interested in developmental biology and Dr. Tanda studies the relationship of cells during development. Specifically, Cheng-Yu will try to determine what signals are necessary for cells to develop into eye cells. He hopes to differentiate whether mother-daughter cell communication determines cellular fate or perhaps if information from neighboring cells determines cell fate.

Peter Loezos, worked in Dr. Philip DeShong's lab in the Department of Chemistry studying chemical techniques used in fluorinating various biological compounds. He hopes to identify new compounds which will be used in the future as potent fluorinating compounds in medicine and other biological sciences. For instance, one compound developed in Dr. DeShong's laboratory is being used by Hoffman LaRoche to produce promising compounds in the treatment of AIDS. Peter received valuable experience in synthetic chemistry through his fellowship.

Kathleen McGuinness is studying RNA tertiary structure in Dr. Sarah Woodson's laboratory in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. RNA stacks in very specific ways inside the cell to form specific and precise tertiary structures. Using ligation reactions and chemical modifications, Kathleen will study how alteration of the RNA alters the RNAs ability to stack and interact at the tertiary level.

Ogechukwu Nwosu is working with Dr. Wolfgang Stephan in the Zoology Department. Oge hopes to add to our understanding of the population genetics of diseases such as Sickle Cell Anemia, which is of great concern in her native Nigeria, by studying population dynamics in Drosophila as a model system. She will clone and sequence the white gene in Drosophila and use that information to ask questions about the rates of mutation in that gene within and between populations.

Valerie Pate worked with Dr. Avise Cohen in the Zoology Department. She studied the traveling waves of motor activity in the isolated lamprey spinal cord. Lampreys are capable of regenerating spinal cord tissue and function. Valerie characterized the traveling wave of motor activity before and after injury (transection) in a swimming lamprey. The importance of her research project is clear to Valerie. She is very excited about learning things that may lead ultimately to the development of techniques to repair spinal cord injuries in humans and restore movement to people with severe head, neck and back trauma. Valerie will attend the University of Maryland at Baltimore Medical School next year.

Leor Weinberger is working with Dr. Marco Columbini on ion channels in mitochondrial membranes . Specifically, Leor is studying how proteins which are produced in the cytoplasm from nuclear genes are inserted into organelles such as the mitochcondrion. Working with a protein called the Voltage Dependent Anion Channel (VDAC), Leor will test whether or not the VDAC protein is inseterted into the mitochondrial membrane randomly or whether it is "directed" into the membrane.

Ghazaleh Zardoost worked first with Dr. Neile Edens in the Department of Nutrition and Food Science with whom she studied triglyceride synthesis in rats. She hopes to learn more about the control of triglyceride synthesis in mammals and ultimately about fat production. She will remove the adrenal glands of rats and measure the effects of adrenalectomy on triglyceride synthesis. Her work will prepare her for the medical career she hopes to pursue after her undergraduate education is finished.