Undergraduate

Biological Sciences

Louisiana State University (Baton Rouge, LA)

Researcher - Molecular Biology

Biological Sciences

Cellular, Developmental, and Integrative Biology

Louisiana State University (Baton Rouge, LA)

Steven Hand, Michael Menze

Identification of mechanisms that permit animals to enter, survive and exit states of hypometabolism and dormancy

Research on apoptosis has been largely limited to work done on mammalian systems. While this has led to exciting revelations regarding molecular mechanisms, there still exist a number of intriguing behaviors outside of the class mammalia that could reveal a new set of nature’s recipes for programmed cell death. An area of investigation in my current lab is to identify mechanisms that permit animals to enter, survive and exit states of hypometabolism and dormancy. Survival in these states presumably requires the down regulation of processes that would initiate apoptosis. Embryos of the brine shrimp, Artemia franciscana, survive extended periods of anoxia and diapause with no evidence of apoptotic (or necrotic) cell death. This raises the question of how initiation of apoptotic pathways is avoided under such conditions. Characterizing the cell death mechanisms of this relatively mysterious organism is the cornerstone of my research.

2009 Visiting Scientist, University of Michigan Medical School

2006 Walter Reed Army Institute of Science Research Fellow

2005 Academy of Applied Science Research and Engineering Apprentice