This application is to renew funding of a Developmental Biology graduate training program. Funds are requested for 9 predoctoral positions, within a developmental biology research program that includes approximately 66 graduate students and 47 postdoctoral trainees. Over the past year we have added three new faculty working on developmental biology of the mouse ~ a new research area for our program -- as well as adding three faculty trainers in the area of evolution/development. These changes add new strengths and breadth to our core developmental biology training program. Our training program emphasizes individualized graduate research training within a group of interactive faculty that provides each student with diverse training input, and a number of students have co-advisors allowing them to integrate research training from two laboratories. Each predoctoral student is advised by a faculty committee that guides the student through a highly individualized training program;the committee meets at least once every year, in addition to many informal meetings (e.g. journal clubs and research seminars), resulting in excellent monitoring of the student's progress and the creation of a supportive environment. Twenty training faculty directly participate in the program. Faculty are all members in the Institute of Molecular Biology (10), the Institute of Neuroscience (7), or the Department of Biology (3). The University of Oregon's research Institutes provide an interactive research environment;they bring together labs with common interests, run graduate programs, provide space and funding support, and have annual retreats. Institutes also support shared research facilities - such as the Genomics and Proteomics Center, Transgenic Mouse Facility, Monoclonal Antibody Facility, and Bio-Optic Center - all staffed with expert personnel who are available to the students for training and assistance in experimental design. The Institute of Molecular Biology and Institute of Neuroscience together provide an interdisciplinary approach to developmental biology that includes computational biology, structural biology, cell biology, neuroscience, and evolutionary biology. This breadth of training combines well with the highly focused project-oriented research training the students receive in their host laboratories, producing creative scientists who will be able to develop their own first-rate research programs, thereby strengthening the national resource in developmental biology.

Public Health Relevance

Training in Developmental Biology is essential to understand the mechanisms that go awry in many diseases, including a number of devastating birth defects} such as lissencephaly. Many adult onset diseases, such as numerous cancers, appear to be due to developmental programs that are inappropriately expressed in the adult. The best way to understand, and thus design treatments, for these diseases is to train basic and clinical scientists in developmental biology.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD)
Type
Institutional National Research Service Award (T32)
Project #
5T32HD007348-25
Application #
8477057
Study Section
Pediatrics Subcommittee (CHHD)
Program Officer
Henken, Deborah B
Project Start
1989-05-13
Project End
2014-04-30
Budget Start
2013-05-01
Budget End
2014-04-30
Support Year
25
Fiscal Year
2013
Total Cost
$301,508
Indirect Cost
$14,970
Name
University of Oregon
Department
Neurosciences
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
948117312
City
Eugene
State
OR
Country
United States
Zip Code
97403
Carreira-Rosario, Arnaldo; Zarin, Aref Arzan; Clark, Matthew Q et al. (2018) MDN brain descending neurons coordinately activate backward and inhibit forward locomotion. Elife 7:
Jamieson, Kirsty; McNaught, Kevin J; Ormsby, Tereza et al. (2018) Telomere repeats induce domains of H3K27 methylation in Neurospora. Elife 7:
Fowler, Daniel K; Peters, James H; Williams, Carly et al. (2017) Redundant Postsynaptic Functions of SynCAMs 1-3 during Synapse Formation. Front Mol Neurosci 10:24
Akerberg, Alexander A; Henner, Astra; Stewart, Scott et al. (2017) Histone demethylases Kdm6ba and Kdm6bb redundantly promote cardiomyocyte proliferation during zebrafish heart ventricle maturation. Dev Biol 426:84-96
Tomorsky, Johanna; DeBlander, Leah; Kentros, Clifford G et al. (2017) TU-Tagging: A Method for Identifying Layer-Enriched Neuronal Genes in Developing Mouse Visual Cortex. eNeuro 4:
Syed, Mubarak Hussain; Mark, Brandon; Doe, Chris Q (2017) Playing Well with Others: Extrinsic Cues Regulate Neural Progenitor Temporal Identity to Generate Neuronal Diversity. Trends Genet 33:933-942
Hirono, Keiko; Kohwi, Minoree; Clark, Matt Q et al. (2017) The Hunchback temporal transcription factor establishes, but is not required to maintain, early-born neuronal identity. Neural Dev 12:1
Yan, Yi-Lin; Desvignes, Thomas; Bremiller, Ruth et al. (2017) Gonadal soma controls ovarian follicle proliferation through Gsdf in zebrafish. Dev Dyn 246:925-945
Syed, Mubarak Hussain; Mark, Brandon; Doe, Chris Q (2017) Steroid hormone induction of temporal gene expression in Drosophila brain neuroblasts generates neuronal and glial diversity. Elife 6:
Fowler, Daniel K; Williams, Carly; Gerritsen, Alida T et al. (2016) Improved knockdown from artificial microRNAs in an enhanced miR-155 backbone: a designer's guide to potent multi-target RNAi. Nucleic Acids Res 44:e48

Showing the most recent 10 out of 55 publications