This is an application for a Career Advancement Award to support the applicant while she learns modern molecular biological techniques in the laboratory of another investigator. The objective is to enable the applicant, who has considerable experience with neuroanatomical and experimental embryological approaches to developmental neurobiology, to expand the range of techniques available to her for continued research on fundamental problems in nervous system development. The proposed project will teach her a variety of molecular biological methods including in situ hybridization and some associated recombinant DNA techniques, including PCR, subcloning, gel electrophoresis, plasmid preparation, restriction mapping, sequencing, and transcription of labelled RNAs. In the future, the applicant expects to use these methods in her own laboratory in combination with other traditional approaches for continued studies of patter formation in the central nervous system.
