Genetic Models of Disease Research Program

Meet the scientists in this program

Research in this program focuses on using model organisms to address complex molecular and cell biological questions; such questions are often impossible to investigate directly using human cell lines or mammalian animal models. Each investigator in this program specializes in using a model organism, such as E. coli (bacteria), Dictyostelium (a slime mold), and C. elegans (a roundworm), to address important questions applicable to human biology and disease. Rather than being focused on a single disease, the laboratories in this program are united by a common way of thinking about biological problems and a shared interest in using model organisms.

Although Genetic Models of Disease is not a clinically-oriented program, its researchers understand that basic research has proven over and over again to be critically important for practical advances in medicine. In recent years, research in this program has yielded important insights related to human biology and disease. Work in the Silverman Lab has increased our understanding of the complex processes by which bacteria become resistant to antibiotics. The Clarke Lab’s studies of membrane trafficking in Dictyostelium have provided insights into the mechanisms by which pathogenic organisms invade cells. The Barstead Lab has systematically knocked out thousands of genes in C. elegans, and the resulting mutants have been used by researchers world-wide to study the functions of many human disease-related genes. The Miller Lab has discovered a network of signaling proteins that regulates communication at nerve cell synapses in C. elegans and that has relevance to human neurological disorders. And the Rand Lab has pioneered the study of proteins that regulate neurotransmitter release and has recently developed a C. elegans model of autism.