University of Pennsylvania

Comparative Biology Elucidation of Environmental Pathways and Susceptibility

Samuel T. Lamitina, Ph.D.
lamitina@mail.med.upenn.edu

Project Description

The project will utilize functional genomic approaches in a C. elegans model to study environmental stress sensing and signaling mechanisms. The effects of knockdowns of protein homeostasis genes on the activation of heat, oxidative and osmotic stress signaling pathways will be examined and quantified by in vivo high throughput fluorescence measurements of animals expressing stress-specific GFP reporters. The study will also use epistasis analysis using stress sensing transcription factor mutants and whole animal survival assays in protein homeostasis knockdown animals. The work, currently being funded by National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), is relevant to the mission of both NIAAA and NIEHS.