Undergraduates are actively encouraged
to participate in laboratory research as an integral part of their
undergraduate science education. Students
are advised to begin as early as they feel comfortable and able to commit
the necessary time and effort to their
projects; many students begin as early as their freshmen year! In
general, new
students will begin their labwork
by working closely with another senior student in the laboratory, assisting the
more
senior student with specific aspects of
his or her project while developing lab skills and learning a variety of
molecular-cellular techniques. In subsequent
semesters, students will be given independent projects that will entail
not only conducting experiments but developing an “intellectual ownership” of the project through reading
the pertinent
literature and discussing ideas with others in
the lab. The project often forms the basis for Honors thesis research
conducted and presented during the senior
year. Masters students are encouraged to begin their thesis work as
soon as possible given that the MA program at
W&M is a two year program. Masters students will begin work on
an independent research
project as soon as feasible.
All students are expected to participate in weekly lab meetings where they will
obtain experience in presenting
their research and in discussing the work of
other students. All students will also be encouraged to develop their
projects to the point where they will be able
to present their findings at regional and national conferences and become
co-authors on publications.
Natasha Golub
(Undergraduate Honors project): Using a combination of primary Xenopus cell culture and embryo dissections to
determine the temporal and spatial patterns of GABAergic and glutamatergic
fate specification with the goal of manipulating the in vitro system
with various growth factors to determine their specific effects on neurotransmitter
phenotype specification.
Stephanie
Byers (Undergraduate Honors project):
Investigating the mechanisms underlying developmental plasticity in
neurotransmitter phenotype specification in Xenopus.
Negin Daneshpayeh
(Undergraduate): Investigating the role of retinoic acid in
neurotransmitter phenotype determination.
Daniel Teasley (Undergraduate): Performing a functional characterization of
the GAD67 gene during early neural development in Xenopus using transgenesis.
Brittany Johnson (Undergraduate): Examining the role of the neurotoxin veratridine on early neural development and
neurotransmitter specification.
Kellyn CarrierFenster
(Undergraduate): Using a combination of techniques (tissue dissociation
and cell culture, morpholino
and dominant negative injections) to determine if there is a neurotransmitter
phenotype "default" state adopted by the earliest presumptive
neural cells.
Drew Hughes (Undergraduate): In a collaborative project with Dr. Del Negro
(App. Sci.), examining the role of calcium transients
in early neural development.
Patrick McGarey
(Undergraduate): Investigating the role of the cell cycle in GABAergic and glutamatergic cell
type determination using cell cycle inhibitors and assaying the outcomes using in situ hybridization.
Jenny Dorand
(Undergraduate): Attempting to use
quantum dots to identify GABAeric and glutamatergic neurons in vivo; using MS to quantify neurotransmitters in
early embryos.
Chelsea Osborne (Undergraduate): Using primary cell culture to examine
neurotransmitter specification in the eye.
Rebecca Lowdon
(Undergraduate): Investigating the
specification of serotonergic neurons in early
development.
Ben Fontana (Undergraduate): Examining neurotransmitter specification in
the eye.
Mike Harper (Undergraduate): Attempting to work out new a transgenesis
procedure with the GAD 67 gene.