NEWS & EVENTS 2007
November 2007
Feschotte Lab research published in ScienceCollaborative research by biologists at UT Arlington and Cornell University Boyce Thompson Institute leads to unexpected function of selfish "jumping genes" in modulating plant's response to light. The results of their research was just been published in the November 23 issue of Science. The report entitled “Transposase-Derived Transcription Factors Regulate Light Signaling in Arabidopsis” shows that two transcription factors that modulate light responses in plants have been co-opted from an ancestral transposable element or “jumping gene”. The results bring further support to the notion that selfish genetic elements have played critical roles in evolution, as first hypothesized by Barbara McClintock, who received the Nobel Prize in 1983 for her discovery of transposable elements in maize.
The research at UT Arlington involved postdoctoral associate Claudio Casola and Cedric Feschotte, while research at Cornell was conducted primarily by postdoctoral associate Rongcheng Lin and was headed by assistant professor of plant biology Haiyang Wang.
October 2007
Pritham LabCongratulations to undergraduates Nam Nguyen and John Pham, they both just learned that they were selected as Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation Scholars (LSAMP) for Fall 2007! Way to go Nam and John!
NIH GrantsAssistant Professor Mike roner awarded $222,000 from NIH- National Center For Complementary & Alternative Medicine. Title: In Vivo Antiviral Activity of Saponins.
Assistant Professor Esther Betrán has been
invited to join the Editorial Board of The Open Evolution Journal Research Day 2007. October 19th.September 2007
SACNAS FellowshipClaudia Marquez (PRITHAM LAB) has just learned that she is one of five recipients of the SACNAS genome graduate student fellowship ($25,000). Claudia will start her graduate work in our program in January! Congratulations Claudia!
August 2007
Undergradute ResearchA poster abstract submitted by undergraduate researcher, Claudia Marquez was selected to be presented at the 2007 SACNAS national conference to be held in Kansas City, Missouri. Her abstract received positive reviews from two panel reviewers. Way to go Claudia!
July 2007
GBG on the moveThree Pritham lab undergraduate students-- Assiatu Barrie, Claudia Marquez and John Pham attended the American Genetics Association meeting "Mechanisms of Genome Evolution". Each student presented a poster of their work and received a travel award from the conference. Ellen gave an invited talk entitled "Transposable elements and the dynamic genome".
March 2007
HonorsPritham lab:
Student Assiatu Barrie was awarded two honors: the Undergraduate Research Award and the Allied Health Award.
Undergraduate student Omid Zare-mehrjerdi was selected as a McNair fellow.
Undergraduate student John Pham was selected as an Honor's College summer research fellow.
GRANTS FOR COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH - A Joint Venture between UT Southwestern and UT ArlingtonAssistant Professor Pavel Michalak awarded $100,000
February 2007
GBG researchers Dr. Ellen Pritham and Dr. Cedric
Feschotte awarded $200,000 from NIH for a collaborative project with Dr.
Jessica Kissinger at UGA on TEs and other repeats in apicomplexan genomes. UT Arlington GBG researcher awarded grant from
National Institutes of HealthAssistant Professor of Biology and member of the Genome Biology Group Dr. Cedric Feschotte has been awarded a research grant by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) of the National Institute of Health (NIH) The title of the project is: "Human DNA transposons: evolutionary history and genomic impact" and the total amount of this five-year award is $811,000. Feschotte is the principal investigator.
Assistant Professor Michael Roner publication on the Antiviral activity obtained from aqueous extracts of the Chilean soapbark
tree (Quillaja saponaria Molina featured in Microbiology TodayJanuary 2007
Assistant Professor Pawel Michalak has been invited to join the editorial board of PLoS One.