IU STARS Mentors - Biology
Justen Andrews: Gene regulatory networks controlling sex in arthropods.
Carl Bauer: Molecular biology and gene regulation in photosynthetic bacteria.
Jim Bever: Ecology and evolution of plants and fungi.
Yves Brun: Mechanisms and regulation of bacterial development; cell division; gene regulation; cell biology; genetic engineering; microscopy.
Lingling Chen: Biochemistry studies of microbial communication, microbe-host interaction, and molecular chaperon-assisted protein folding.
Peter Cherbas: Studies of how hormones regulate genes during development using biochemistry, genetics, and cell culture.
Keith Clay: Ecological and genetic processes in natural plant populations.
Pranav Danthi
Studies to elucidate the molecular basis of viral disease
Gregory Demas: The primary goal of our laboratory is the study of neuroendocine-immune-behavior interactions in an ecologically relevant context. Specifically, we study the environmental, social and neuroendocrine factors that contribute to seasonal changes in immune function and disease in seasonally breeding rodent species (e.g., deer mice, Siberian hamsters).
Lynda Delph: Evolutionary ecology, plant reproductive biology.
Viola Ellison
Human chromosome duplication and maintenance of genome integrity.
Wayne Forrester: Studies of nervous system development, using C. elegans as a model organism.
Patricia L. Foster: Mutagenesis, DNA Replication and Recombination. Mutations, heritable changes in an organism’s genome, are crucial for evolution but also impact human health. Using the bacterium Escherichia coli as a model system, we employ genetic and molecular techniques to investigate the mechanisms by which mutations arise.
Clay Fuqua
Studies of how and why microorganisms communicate with each other when they do important things, such as cause disease.
Spencer Hall: In our lab, we are tackling questions about the ecology of disease (host-parasite interestions). More specifically, we are studying how food (amounts, nutrition), competititors, and predators of hosts can accentuate, dampen, or otherwise alter prevalence of disease in wildlife populations. To explore these ideas, we use a crustacean zooplankton (Daphnia)-fungal parasite system and a combination of laboratory experiments, observations of nature (lakes), and mathematical modeling.
Laura Hurley: Ever wonder how we can focus on some events in our environment and screen out others? In our lab we study how sensory systems can change the way that they process external events to fit the circumstances. In particular, we look at how serotonin, a neuromodulator that is also involved in depression and regulating appetite, can change the way that the auditory system processes sound.
Dan Kearns
Bacterial motility and multicellular behavior.
Ellen Ketterson: Animal behavior, biology of birds, evolutionary biology, behavioral endocrinology, behavioral ecology, and the biology of sex differences.
Curtis Lively: Research in my lab is primarily focused on theoretical and empirical studies of parasite-host interactions. We are interested in answering questions such as: Why do some parasites make their hosts very sick, while other parasites have minor effects? Does sexual reproduction generate genetically variable offspring that are more likely to escape infection? What are the population genetic effects of coevolution between parasites and hosts? We presently use snails, nematodes and crustaceans as model systems to study these questions.
Michael Lynch: We work with a variety of issues, mostly concerned with the genetic mechanisms of evolution, at the levels of individual genes, entire genomes, and complex morphological and life-history traits. Aquatic microcrustaceans, nematodes, and zebrafish are our current model systems.
Emilia P. Martins: We study the genetic, physiological, and developmental mechanisms underlying the evolution of communication and social behavior. We study zebrafish and lizards, and use a variety of techniques including natural observation, molecular genetics/genomics, hormone assays, bioinformatics, computer simulation and robotics.
Tai Min: Molecular mechanisms of Down syndrome, neurological disorders, and aging.
Armin Moczek: We are interested in how new animal parts, forms and shapes originate and diversify. In particular, we work with insects and use genetic, developmental, and ecological techniques to study causes, mechanisms, and consequences of novel traits.
Kristi Montooth
Evolutionary physiological genetics; population genetics; biochemical adaptation.
Leonie Moyle
Genetics of speciation and adaptation, comparative genomics, evolutionary ecology, plant reproduction.
Rudolph Raff: Role of development in evolution; gene expression sea urchin development.
Sid Shaw
Microtubule dynamics and cellular morphogenesis in Arabidopsis.
Troy Smith: Research in our laboratory focuses on how the nervous system controls behavior (particularly rhythmic behavior), and how hormones modify the function of the nervous system to produce sex differences in behavior. Our study organisms are South American weakly electric knifefish, which produce electrical discharges that the fish use to “electrolocate” (i.e. detect objects using methods that are similar to RADAR) and to communicate with each other. The neural circuit that controls the electrical discharges of these fish is relatively easy to study and is also affected by hormones. By studying how this circuit functions, we are learning about the cellular mechanisms by which the nervous system controls rhythmic behaviors.
Stefan Surzycki: Physical mapping of chloroplast DNA of Chlamydomonas reinhardi and its expression.
Gregory Velicer: Ecology and evolution of bacterial social behavior.
Michael Wade: We are using population, molecular, and experimental genetic methods to investigate the ways in which genes interact. Gene interactions cause inbreeding depression when there are matings between close genetic relatives; they cause new species to form when populations become so genetically different from one another that hybrids between them fail to reproduce successfully; and, they cause complex diseases in the human population, like autism, diabetes, asthma, etc.
Andy Zelhof
Metamorphosis of Drosophila photoreceptor cells.
Miriam Zolan: Meiosis and DNA repair.
