my two rotations after Pat Hunt were John Nilson and Mike Griswold... both respected people in the reproductive biology.
John Nilson is the current president of the Society for the Study of Reproduction as well as the director of the School of Molecular Biosciences. Obviously, a busy person. His research lies mostly in the pituitary hormone, LH and its effect in the ovary. However, the project I worked on with Travis, his postdoc, was much more at the gonad level. Estrogen at high levels has been shown to cause DNA damage, specifically double stranded breaks. Since follicles in the ovary produce estrogen, they hypothesize that it must have some way of repairing its DNA efficiently and rapidly. At the bench, I learned cell culture and was doing Western blot after Western blot.
Figure 1. My western blot probing for the DNA repair protein, ATM. I did TONS of these.Mike Griswold is also very respected for being the forerunner in spermatogenesis research. He currently has a couple huge grants on basic mechanisms of spermatogenesis as well as a grant for male contraception. Yes, I never thought I'd take such a liking to male reproductive studies i already realize how funny that sounds but this lab really charmed me. They have an incredibly organized lab manager, a SUPER knowledgeable postdoc from Australia, a senior grad student, Beth, who is super friendly and helpful, and 2 techs that are also very friendly and easy-going. 2 weeks ago, it really was a toss up whether I was going to join the Hunt lab or unexpectedly go Griswold. The fact that Griswold is also researching BPA, but in the male was also a big attention-getter to me. During my rotation I worked on the EGR4 knockout mouse, which is infertile in the male, but not in the female, with no extensive work so far on why this occurs. Check out these slides of testes I cross sectioned. These knockout EGR4 male mice have many more regressed seminiferous tubules (where sperm develop) compared to normal mice, causing their infertility. But what role EGR4 actually plays in the seminiferous tubule hasn't been determined... and won't be by me at least since my rotation ended friday.
Figure 2. Cross section of day 150 male mouse testes from a normal mouse (has EGR4). Orange arrow indicates normal tubule with developing sperm in the middle.
Figure 3. Cross section of day 150 male mouse testes from a knockout mouse (lacks EGR4). Orange arrow indicates normal tubul with developing sperm in the middle. Pink arrows indicate regressed tubules, lacking the cells that develop into mature sperm. These knockouts had up to 30% regression compared to normal mice. I know. I counted.In the end I chose Pat Hunt. She and her husband Terry have huge resources as well as notoriety in the genetics world. Their work on meiosis, and Pat's work on BPA's effect on meiosis is really what draws me to the lab. I've done the, if you will, 'gonadal' level of research in my undergrad, and felt that studying meiosis leaves me a bit more flexible in choosing what to do after my PhD. It's better to learn different things, more than what you already know. Pat is also known for her attention in forming presentation and writing skill, and overall I think I will be most challenged in her lab--equaling the best possible training. I can't say I don't have some apprehensions-- she's tough. If she doesn't like you, it's bad news. REAL bad. But I hope to use this as extra motivation to do well, and do it quickly. If I want to be out quickly, which is definitely a high priority, I need to produce.
Finals are Tuesday (molecular biology) and Thursday (biochemistry). There's a departmental party Monday night, which is supposedly drunken faculty bonanza so I can't miss it for the world. Friday night us first years are having a little soiree of our own.
Then home!
Oh and yeah, it snowed a TON today. Well, not a ton, but more than 6 in. for sure.
