The Harvard University Faculty of Arts and Sciences Training Grant in Genetics, directed by Professor Nancy Kleckner, currently supports 20 predoctoral students in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology (MCB) and Organismic and Evolutionary Biology (OEB). The 422,000 net sq.ft. training facilities are located in Cambridge, MA in the Fairchild Biochemistry Building, the Biological Laboratories, the Museum of Comparative Zoology and the Herbarium. Graduate programs in the participating Departments involve both course work and research and lead to the Ph.D. degree. These programs provide the promising young scientists who matriculate in these Departments an opportunity to learn and develop in an exciting and challenging scientific environment. The current positions of former trainees attest to the strength and success of the Genetics Training Program in previous years. The specific goal of the Genetics Training Program is to provide predoctoral students with a sophisticated and rigorous training in genetics that enables them to appreciate and to practice genetics as a primary experimental approach to important biological problems. Graduate students in the program are required to take an advanced course in genetics during their first year and to serve for at least one semester as a teaching fellow in a course with a strong genetic component, in addition to fulfilling other graduate training requirements. Students trained in the Program are also expected to integrate genetic approaches with approaches provided by other disciplines. The training faculty for the Genetics Program now numbers 23. Scientific areas of interest represented among these faculty include neurobiology, development, DNA and chromosome behavior, gene expression, cell motility, cellular organization and compartmentalization, sexual differentiation, population biology, ecology and evolution. The core of the training faculty comprises the 14 members of the Genetics Consortium, a newly self- appointed group charged with overseeing the discipline of genetics on the Cambridge campus of Harvard University. Faculty of the Genetics Consortium are responsible for most of the formal course work in genetics on this campus at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. The remaining 9 training faculty are members whose current work has a significant genetic component. All faculty of the Genetics Training Program participate as research supervisors for predoctoral trainees. The Genetics Training Program supported by this grant began in 1978. The Program has been drastically restructured within the past year, for the first time since its inception. A series of changes provides greater focus on genetics as a discipline, a strong didactic component in genetics and a number of initiatives that not only enhance the Program specifically but also keep genetics in a position of prominence within the local scientific community as a whole. Support is requested for 16 trainees in each of the next five years.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS)
Type
Institutional National Research Service Award (T32)
Project #
5T32GM007620-22
Application #
2872485
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZGM1-GBD-2)
Project Start
1978-07-01
Project End
2001-06-30
Budget Start
1999-07-01
Budget End
2000-06-30
Support Year
22
Fiscal Year
1999
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Harvard University
Department
Microbiology/Immun/Virology
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
071723621
City
Cambridge
State
MA
Country
United States
Zip Code
02138
Holway, Antonia H; Kim, Seung-Hwan; La Volpe, Adriana et al. (2006) Checkpoint silencing during the DNA damage response in Caenorhabditis elegans embryos. J Cell Biol 172:999-1008
Matsui, Jonathan I; Egana, Ana L; Sponholtz, Todd R et al. (2006) Effects of ethanol on photoreceptors and visual function in developing zebrafish. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 47:4589-97
Van Hatten, Ruth A; Tutter, Antonin V; Holway, Antonia H et al. (2002) The Xenopus Xmus101 protein is required for the recruitment of Cdc45 to origins of DNA replication. J Cell Biol 159:541-7
Kim, R Y; Robertson, E J; Solloway, M J (2001) Bmp6 and Bmp7 are required for cushion formation and septation in the developing mouse heart. Dev Biol 235:449-66
Dassule, H R; Lewis, P; Bei, M et al. (2000) Sonic hedgehog regulates growth and morphogenesis of the tooth. Development 127:4775-85
Coury, L A; McGeoch, J E; Guidotti, G et al. (1999) The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae does not sequester chloride but can express a functional mammalian chloride channel. FEMS Microbiol Lett 179:327-32
Marden, J H; Wolf, M R; Weber, K E (1997) Aerial performance of Drosophila melanogaster from populations selected for upwind flight ability. J Exp Biol 200:2747-55
Weber, K E (1996) Large genetic change at small fitness cost in large populations of Drosophila melanogaster selected for wind tunnel flight: rethinking fitness surfaces. Genetics 144:205-13
Weber, K E; Diggins, L T (1990) Increased selection response in larger populations. II. Selection for ethanol vapor resistance in Drosophila melanogaster at two population sizes. Genetics 125:585-97
Weber, K E (1990) Increased selection response in larger populations. I. Selection for wing-tip height in Drosophila melanogaster at three population sizes. Genetics 125:579-84