The Impact of Ancient Polyploidisations on Eukaryotic Genome Evolution

Ken Wolfe, Trinity College Dublin (Ireland)

Ken Wolfe is Professor of Genome Evolution at the Smurfit Institute of Genetics, Trinity College Dublin (Ireland). His current research interests are on the evolution of eukaryotic genome organization, particularly relating to how new genes are formed and how the order of genes along chromosomes can evolve. His laboratory formed part of the international consortia that sequenced and analyzed the Saccharomyces cerevisiae genome (1996) and the human genome (2001), and with Denis Shields in 1997 he discovered an ancient whole-genome duplication during the evolutuion of S. cerevisiae. Prof. Wolfe is an Associate Editor of Molecular Biology and Evolution and an Academic Editor of PLOS Biology, and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The Wolfe laboratory runs the "PubCrawler" literature alerting internet service which has over 30,000 users worldwide (www.pubcrawler.ie).

Food, Sex, Drugs and Death in Fungi: Identification of Genes Involved in Nutrient Sensing and Programmed Cell Death

Margaret Katz, University of New England

Margaret Katz received a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from the University of California at Santa Barbara for research in microbial genetics. As a post-graduate student she studied genes involved in cell division control and mating in yeast and mating type switching in the ciliate Tetrahymena thermophila. She was introduced to the study of gene regulation in Aspergillus nidulans (so far, a continuing life-long interest!) as a post-doctoral research fellow in the laboratory of Professor Michael Hynes at the University of Melbourne. During a second post-doctoral fellowship at Monash University in the laboratory of Professor Julian Rood she identified genes which could be used to discriminate between virulent and benign isolates of the bacterial pathogen which causes footrot in sheep. In 1991, she accepted a position as Lecturer in Molecular Genetics at the University of New England in Armidale, NSW. Her research is currently focussed on gene regulation in filamentous fungi, diagnosis of bacterial and fungal diseases, and bacterial and fungal genes involved in virulence. She is currently an Associate Professor at the University of New England.

The Developmental Regulation and Evolution of Body size: Studies with Manduca sexta

Frederik Nijhout, Duke University

Professor Nijhout has been at Duke University since 1977, where from 1991 to 1995 he served as chairman of the Zoology Department. His research has focused on the control of postembryonic development in insects, in particular the control of metamorphosis and of polyphenism, the development of alternative phenotypes from a single genotype. He has been particularly interested in the developmental and genetic mechanisms that control body size and the proportional sizes of body parts. He has also used theoretical and mathematical modeling to examine how non-linear processes in development, coupled with gene-environment interactions, affect our understanding of genotype-phenotype relationships.

Catalyzing Changes in Undergraduate Science Education

Patricia Pukkila, University of North Carolina

Professor Pukkila has been at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill since 1979. In 1999, she became the founding Director of the University's Office for Undergraduate Research. Her research has focused on meiotic chromosome behavior and fungal genomics. She has been particularly interested in recombination "hot spots" and their role in meiotic chromosome pairing, and she heads the Coprinus cinereus genome project. She has been recognized for her contributions to science education at the local, state and national levels. In 1996, Pukkila established the "Genetics Education" section of the journal Genetics, which has provided a scholarly showcase for innovations in teaching and learning genetics. And in 2001 she initiated biannual, multi-campus undergraduate research symposia for the North Carolina state legislature. These ongoing symposia enable students to convey the excitement and importance of their original work to their elected officials. She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Weird Animal Genomes and Sex

Jenny Graves, Australian National University

Professor Jennifer Marshall Graves was born and educated in Adelaide. She received a BSc (Hons) and MSc from Adelaide University, then a PhD in Molecular Biology at the University of California at Berkeley in 1971. She lectured at La Trobe University for nearly thirty years then moved to ANU in 2001. Jenny now heads the Comparative Genomics Research group in the Research School of Biological Sciences at ANU, and directs the ARC Centre of Excellence for Kangaroo Genomics. She has produced three books and 350 research articles. She is a Fellow (and Foreign Secretary) of the Australian Academy of Science and 2006 L'Oreal-UNESCO Laureate. She has received a number of honours and awards, including the Macfarlane Burnet medal in 2006.

Jenny works on animal genetics and genomics. Her group uses the distant relationship of Australian mammals and other vertebrates from humans to understand how genes and chromosomes evolved and how they work in all animals including humans. Her laboratory uses this unique perspective to explore the origin, function and (dismal) fate of human sex chromosomes.