First name,Last name,Preferred title,Overview,Position,Department,Individual
Karl,Aufderheide,Emeritus Associate Professor,"Cell/Developmental Biology. Developmental Genetics. Intracellular differentiation of eukaryotes, especially ciliates. General interests in: intracellular pattern formation and morphogenesis; molecular aspects of gene expression in ciliate protozoa; development of organelles, including intracellular motility and organelle localization. Specific interests in: signal transduction, regulation of cytoskeletal organization, and motility in the social amoeba Dictyostelium; organization, patterning and morphogenesis of surface-related cytoskeletal and membranous structures of ciliates, especially Paramecium; applications of laser optical force trap technology to developmental problems in Paramecium tetraurelia and Tetrahymena thermophila; 2 molecular aspects of serotype gene expression in P. tetraurelia; development of exocytotic organelles (the trichocysts) in P. tetraurelia. General approach involves use of classical and modern light and electron microscopic techniques, integrated with genetic, molecular, mechanical or physiological manipulations of the cells.",Associate Professor,Biology,https://scholars.library.tamu.edu/vivo/display/n3ed65e09
Jeffrey,Jones,Assistant Professor,,Assistant Professor,Biology,https://scholars.library.tamu.edu/vivo/display/n4332506c
Matthias,Koch,Assistant Professor,,Assistant Professor,Biology,https://scholars.library.tamu.edu/vivo/display/ncb08e15a
Michael,Manson,Professor,"Bacteria have a limited behavioral repertoire. Their most conspicuous behavior is chemotaxis - the pursuit of molecules that are favorable to acquire and the avoidance of chemicals that are best to avoid. The simplicity of bacterial motility and chemotaxis and the amenability of the model species Escherichia coli to genetic, biochemical and physiological manipulation have facilitated rapid advances in understanding the molecular mechanisms of biological energy conversion and signal transduction.
Our laboratory studies the inputs and outputs of chemotaxis. Ligands interact with the periplasmic receptor domain of a chemotactic signal transducer that spans the cell membrane. This interaction is converted into an intracellular signal that is communicated to the flagella. Molecules can be sensed either by binding directly to a receptor or by first interacting with a periplasmic binding protein, which then interacts with a receptor.",Professor||Professor,Biology||Biochemistry and Biophysics,https://scholars.library.tamu.edu/vivo/display/ne190242a
Deborah,Siegele,Associate Professor,"Phenotypes are observable characteristics of an organism that result from the expression of a particular genotype in a particular environment. Examples of phenotypic traits in microbes are motility, sporulation, ability to perform anaerobic respiration, and resistance/sensitivity to an antibiotic.
Until recently, phenotypic information has been captured as free text descriptions in research papers. Ambiguities in natural language confound attempts to retrieve information across sources. For example, ""serotype"" and ""serovar"" both refer to the same phenotype, but a simple text-based query with either word alone would miss the other. Or a single term, such as ""sporulation"" is used to refer to multiple, distinct processes in different organisms. Issues such as these hamper the ability to integrate different phenotypic data sets for the same organism or to use phenotypic information in one organism to predict possible phenotypes in another organism. Ideally, phenotype information should be stored in a consistent, computable format for ease of data integration and mining.
Controlled vocabularies are used to provide both consistent terminology and a structured data format for the capture of biological information. Ontologies are controlled vocabularies of defined terms with unique identifiers and precise relationships to each other. There are phenotype ontologies available for many eukaryotic organisms, including fungi. However, when the OMP project was initiated, none of the existing ontologies was appropriate to comprehensively capture phenotypes for Bacteria or Archaea or to enable comparisons across microbial taxa.
The Siegele lab and our collaborators at TAMU and the Univ. of Maryland (IGS) are developing a formal Ontology of Microbial Phenotypes (OMP). Our lab is focused on term development and annotating microbial phenotypes. OMP can be accessed at microbialphenotypes.org. Releases of OMP are available at github.com/microbialphenotypes.",Associate Professor,Biology,https://scholars.library.tamu.edu/vivo/display/ne333d587
Darrell,Pilling,Research Assistant Professor,,Research Assistant Professor,Biology,https://scholars.library.tamu.edu/vivo/display/ne8a9ecc1
Paul,Hardin,Distinguished Professor,"A diverse array of organisms including prokaryotic and eukaryotic microbes, plants, and animals display daily rhythms in physiology, metabolism and/or behavior. These rhythms are not passively driven by environmental cycles of light and temperature, but are actively controlled by endogenous circadian clocks that are set by environmental cycles, keep time in the absence of environmental cues, and activate overt physiological, metabolic and behavioral rhythms at the appropriate time of day. This remarkable conservation of circadian clock function through evolution suggests that maintaining synchrony with the environment is of fundamental importance. Our understanding of the circadian clock is particularly important for human health and well-being. The clearest examples of circadian clock dysfunction are those that result in abnormal sleep-wake cycles, but clock disturbances are also associated with other ailments including epilepsy, cerebrovascular disease, depression, and seasonal affective disorder. The realization that disorders of the sleep-wake cycle such as Familial Advanced Sleep Phase Syndrome can result from alterations in clock gene function underscores the clinical importance of understanding the molecular organization of the circadian system.
Work in my laboratory focuses on defining the molecular mechanisms that drive circadian clock function in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. We previously found that the core timekeeping mechanism is based on core and interlocked transcriptional feedback loops. Our studies currently focus on (1) defining post-translational regulatory mechanisms that operate in the core loop to set the 24 hour period, (2) determining whether interlocked loops are important for circadian timekeeping and/or output, (3) understanding how circadian oscillator cells are determined during development, and (4) defining mechanisms that control rhythms in olfactory and gustatory physiology and behavior.",Distinguished Professor,Biology,https://scholars.library.tamu.edu/vivo/display/nf27056c4
Richard,Gomer,Distinguished Professor,"Our laboratory is working on three areas of biomedicine, trying to move observations from basic research into the clinic. First, we are studying how the sizes of tissues and tumors are regulated, and how this can be manipulated for therapeutic purposes. As a model system, we are using the simple eukaryote Dictyostelium discoideum, which allows us to combine techniques such as biochemistry, genetics, computer modeling, and cell biology to study tissue size regulation. We have found that a secreted protein as well as the unusual molecule polyphosphate are signals in negative feedback loops that inhibit Dictyostelium cell proliferation, and we are studying the signal transduction pathway to understand similar mechanisms in humans.
Second, we are studying how some secreted proteins can make cells move away from the source of the signal. We found such a signal (called a chemorepellent) in Dictyostelium, and then found a similar signal in humans. We are working to understand the signal transduction pathway for both. The human signal repels neutrophils, and we found that this can be used therapeutically in mouse models of neutrophil-driven diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and acute respiratory distress syndrome.
Third, we have found that a human blood protein called Serum Amyloid P (SAP) regulates a key step in the formation of scar tissue as well as the formation of the scar-like lesions in fibrosing diseases such as congestive heart failure and pulmonary fibrosis. We are studying this mechanism, and a biotech company (Promedior, now sold to Roche) we co-founded is testing SAP as a therapy for fibrosis in patients in a Phase 3 trials.",Distinguished Professor,Biology,https://scholars.library.tamu.edu/vivo/display/nf41f3898