Neurodegenerative disease is one of the greatest yet poorest understood medical challenges facing humanity today. A fundamental hurdle that continues to frustrate therapeutic development is …
Studying the biological mechanisms of the aging process in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster has been crucial to the advancement of the field. In particular, …
The research outlined in this dissertation investigates the role of the miR-181 family of miRNAs in two different contexts: Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) and in the …
Sleep is critical for recovery from stress, optimal learning, and viability. However, many genetic pathways involved in sleep regulation are poorly defined. The nematode Caenorhabditis …
The conformation of a protein is directly linked to its function. While protein misfolding can perturb that activity, it can also lead to toxic aggregation, …
CaV2.2 calcium channels are critical regulators of cellular calcium entry in neurons and couple electrical stimulation to neurotransmitter release. These channels are responsible for mediating …
For most eukaryotic organisms, protein coding sequences are only a small portion of the genome. Much of the genome is made up of transposable elements, …
Far from being solely a passive messenger between DNA and protein, RNA is a complex molecule involved in regulation at many levels. While the best-known …
Abstract of “The chromatin and transcriptional landscape of senescent cells”, by Steven W. Criscione, Ph.D., Brown University, May 2017 Senescent cells are recognized as one …
Neural stem cells (NSCs) are multipotent cells that have the potential to differentiate into multiple lineages that ultimately populate the brain with a mosaic of …
Abstract of The role of plastin in motor neuron disease and identifying genetic modifiers of spinal muscular atrophy, by Melissa B. Walsh, Ph. D., Brown …
Genetically determined, fixed action pattern behaviors offer a useful model for studying how developmental gene expression programs lay down a neuroanatomical architecture that underlies these …
mRNA localization is a powerful post-transcriptional mechanism of gene expression that allows for protein expression in distinct cellular locations. This process is exploited in a …
Transposable elements (TEs) are parasitic mobile sequences of DNA that make up large percentages of their host genomes. Because of their ability to move about …
