Plants rely on light not just for photosynthesis but also for information.  Many plants have a sophisticated suite of photoreceptors and responses that allow them to sense and respond to competition for light from their neighbors. Known as the shade avoidance response, the response to neighbor shade can include increased stem elongation, altered branching, and early flowering. Plants undergoing shade avoidance prioritize growth over defense and reduce allocation to fruit and seed, reducing agronomic yield.

10% of global child mortality is due to diarrheal disease. We now understand the protozoan parasite Cryptosporidium to be a leading cause of this burden with a particular grave impact on malnourished infants and toddlers. Boris Striepen’s laboratory has pioneered molecular genetics for this previously intractable pathogen. The lab uses genetics and genomics to understand fundamental parasite cell and molecular biology.

Name: Jack Cerchiara, PhD

Title: Telomere maintenance and corticosterone in Magellanic penguins

Metamorphosis of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster is regulated by two hormones, ecdysone and juvenile hormone (JH). The developing eye and optic lobe (OL) present a unique challenge to this hormonal control because the eye forms progressively over a two day period and the resulting wave of photoreceptor ingrowth directs a corresponding wave of neural organization to the underlying OL. These waves of development occur during phasic pulses of both ecdysone and JH.

In dominating most terrestrial, marine and aerial environments, insects and crustaceans have evolved complex behaviors controlled by a sophisticated, versatile nervous system.  Our work on the segmental nervous system of Drosophila over the past 10 years has shown that the insect CNS is built from a set of functional modules.  Each module is comprised of a cardinal class of interneurons that arises from a specific stem cell and that typically forms a particular component of the circuitry controlling either walking or flight.  The set of stem cells that make a segmental g