Soil-transmitted parasitic worms infect over a billion people, primarily in the world’s most socioeconomically disadvantaged communities, causing devastating and sometimes fatal illness. Despite this massive health burden, we lack basic knowledge about the neural adaptations that enable parasitic worms to locate and infect human hosts. Although they exhibit unique host-seeking behaviors, including robust attraction to mammalian body heat, the nervous systems of parasitic worms are quite similar to those of the non-parasitic nematode C. elegans.

Alphaviruses are globally distributed +ssRNA viruses which are transmitted by mosquito vectors. Viral determinants which impact the transmission and pathogenesis of numerous alphaviruses have been identified, including amino acid coding changes in the viral attachment protein (E2). However, the role of viral RNA secondary structure in viral emergence is still poorly defined. We have developed a computational approach to compare RNA structures across the alphavirus genus in order to identify RNA structure signatures associated with specific viral properties (e.g.

Embryonic development is a genomically encoded construction process in which cells acquire their identities and build organs within a three-dimensional embryonic environment. A central question in developmental biology is: once cells know who they are, how do they construct the organs they are set to form? We address this question by studying the relatively simple system of sea urchin skeletogenesis, focusing on the interplay between gene regulatory networks (GRNs) that specify cell identity and cytoskeletal and adhesion protein networks that drive cell behavior and morphogenesis.