Graduate students enter our lab through the Molecular Biology arm of the Bioscience Program. One of the strengths of the MB program are the cross-departmental interest groups, which facilitate collaboration and offer opportunities for students to become more engaged in specific research topics. This link will provide a description of the required curriculum as well as information for prospective students.
Research opportunities within the Eccles Institute of Human Genetics include a wide range of labs pursuing genetic studies in humans as well as in model organisms, including zebrafish, C. elegans, Drosophila, and mice. Human Genetics faculty and students collaborate actively with medical faculty in the Departments of Internal Medicine, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Pediatrics, and the Division of Medical Genetics.
The Training Program provides an opportunity to bring together faculty and students from around campus and who are studying questions in developmental biology. The bulk of these interactions are initiated by activities supported by the Training Program. In addition, the Training Program ensures a standardized curriculum for trainees that involves their participation in interdepartmental and interlab journal clubs and courses. This cross-disciplinary training provides means for students to significantly expand their circle of colleagues to include the broader community of developmental biologists on campus.
A methods paper describing the Tol2kit has been published in Developmental Dynamics. The Tol2kit system uses site-specific recombination-based cloning (multisite Gateway technology) to allow quick, modular assembly of [promoter]–[coding sequence]–[3′ tag] constructs in a Tol2 transposon backbone. It includes a variety of widely-useful entry clones, including hsp70 and beta-actin promoters; cytoplasmic, nuclear, and membrane-localized fluorescent proteins; and IRES-driven GFP cassettes for bicistronic expression. It includes two Tol2-based destination vectors, one with a cmlc2:egfp transgenesis marker. This wiki provides the documentation for the Tol2kit.