people

Erik Ragsdale | Principal investigator Contact ragsdale@indiana.edu Background Posdoctoral fellow, Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology (2010-2014) Ph.D., University of California, Riverside (2009) Teaching L111 Foundations in Biology: Diversity, Evolution, and Ecology (lecture, Fall) Z620 Systematics (graduate seminar, Spring) Z620 Evolution of Development (graduate seminar, Spring)

 

Linh Bui | Postdoctoral researcher Transcriptional regulation by a polyphenism switch I am a molecular biologist and geneticist with a keen interest in the molecular mechanisms that underpin the evolution of developmental traits. I have used diverse model systems to study these mechanisms: Arabidopsis thaliana, the fern Ceratopteris richardii, and two species of green algae (Chlamydomonas reinhartii and Volvox carteri). My research has included studies of the evolution of asexual reproduction in land plants, the evolution of multicellularity in green algae, and now developmental plasticity in nematodes. In the Ragsdale Lab I focus on the mechanistic consequences of a polyphenism switch in the predatory nematode Pristionchus pacificus using both forward genetics and genomics approaches.

 

Joana Projecto Garcia | Postdoctoral researcher Novel protein interactions making up a polyphenism switch [website] I am a molecular biologist with a special interest in adaptation mechanisms of organisms facing extreme environmental conditions. Until now my research has focused on the evolutionary history and comparative function of respiratory adaptation mechanisms in invertebrates and vertebrates living in hypoxic environments (low oxygen availability). Following this interest in evolutionary solutions to stress conditions, my research in the Ragsdale Lab focuses on the molecular evolution and comparative function of a polyphenism switch in predatory nematodes.

 

Joe Biddle | Graduate student Comparative function and evolutionary analysis of polyphenism genes My research interests are fueled by the diversity of life. I have a particular interest in how developmental/molecular/genetic programs have been differentially deployed for novel traits. Previously, I worked to understand the functionality of signaling pathways during both embryonic and post-embryonic animal development. In context I examined the role that these events have during morphogenesis in the marine annelid, Chaetopterus variopedatus and during development of the butterfly eyespot (a novel trait) in Vanessa cardui. In the Ragsdale lab, I study the comparative function of polyphenism genes among predatory nematodes.

 

Meagan Pritchard | Research assistant Lab guru

 

Marc Allison | X490 research undergraduate Molecular characterization of polyphenism switch genes

Susan Feldt | Honors undergraduate Hormonal and enzymatic control of polyphenism

Joseph Kim | X490 research undergraduate Gene expression in polyphenism variants

Ryan Mueller | X490 research undergraduate Mapping and phenotypic characterization of polyphenism mutants

 

Interested in joining the lab? Please contact Erik Ragsdale for more information.

Department of Biology
Indiana University
915 E. 3rd Street, Myers Hall 100
Bloomington, IN 47405, USA