Academic Background

Ph. D. (1980) Pennsylvania State University

Molecular Mechanisms of Chromosome Segregation

For over 20 years, my lab studied centromere function and chromosome segregation using the model organism S. cerevisiae. In collaboration with Dr. Molly Fitzgerald-Hayes (UMass Amherst), we carried out groundbreaking work on the structure and function of the yeast centromeric H3 variant Cse4 and discovered the key CenH3 chaperone Scm3/HJURP. The research took full advantage of the combined genetic and biochemical methods available with this model organism and its sequenced genome, and the research increasingly included genomic and computational components. Currently I devote most of my time to bioinformatics and computational biology while pursuing my interest in yeast centromeres via ongoing collaborations. Presently, I serve as the de facto departmental bioinformatician, assisting our "wet lab" scientists to assemble and analyze data, and navigate the numerous assets of the Institution's Bioinformatics Core. I am actively engaged in several collaborative projects, including genome-wide analysis of double-strand breaks in activated B cells, high density transposon mutagenesis studies in both Yersinia and M. tuberculosis, ribosome profiling in yeast, and combined RNA-seq/ChIP-seq analysis of developmental gene regulation in the mouse cerebellum.