My career goal is to become an independent researcher in the field of metals in biology. A successful career will be contingent upon understanding the concepts, skills, and techniques of many fields including microbiology, chemistry, biochemistry and genetics. My graduate work provided a rich environment for integrating inorganic chemistry and microbiology. I now hope to tie those experiences with ones in genetics and biochemistry. Dr. Andrew Dancis is a well-respected researcher who has made significant contributions to understanding iron trafficking in yeast. I will learn from Dr. Dancis how to use genetics to create mutant libraries, and how to screen them for selected phenotypes. Learning yeast genetics will also enable me to switch from prokaryotic models of metallobiology to a eukaryotic one. Through the intensive collaborations between the labs of Dr. Dancis and Dr. Debkumar Pain, an expert in mitochondrial biogenesis, I will also be acquiring the biochemical tools needed to study mitochondrial processes, such as in mitochondrial import and in vitro Fe-S loading assays. This fellowship is important for providing me the opportunity to develop these multidisciplinary skills while remaining on a path of metallobiology research.
| Fiumera, Heather L; Broadley, Sarah A; Fox, Thomas D (2007) Translocation of mitochondrially synthesized Cox2 domains from the matrix to the intermembrane space. Mol Cell Biol 27:4664-73 |
| Sutak, Robert; Dolezal, Pavel; Fiumera, Heather L et al. (2004) Mitochondrial-type assembly of FeS centers in the hydrogenosomes of the amitochondriate eukaryote Trichomonas vaginalis. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 101:10368-73 |
