We discovered that the excision rate of transposons depends on orientation of the element, spatial location of the cell, and some heritable factors. As part of this collaboration I developed the software for image analysis of the cells and analyzed the resulting statistics of events. Transposons, also known as jumping genes, are found in all organisms and have activity that can cause mutations and drive evolution. In collaboration with experimentalists at UIUC, we have observed how evolution acts on variation in time, space, and genome locus by imaging live cells with fluorescent reporters that allow us to track transposons dynamics. Surprisingly we can show theoretically that these fluctuations increase the range of experimental conditions in which patterns can form. Normally one would think that noise destroys patterns but we found that fluctuations in the copy number of signaling molecules acting as activator and inhibitors of gene expression leads to pattern formation. In collaboration with experimentalists at MIT and UIUC I have shown how noise can stabilize emergent behaviors such as Turing patterns in biofilms. My research uses computational and analytic techniques from statistical physics to examine spatial patterns and dynamics in complex biological systems. In the past two years, I have also been mentoring two undergraduates to successful completion of research projects in Nigel Goldenfeld's group. In the fall of 2012, I was a mentor TA for physics 101 and in this capacity helped advise other graduate students on how to best teach based on my previous experience. At University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign I acted as a teaching assistant for physics 101, 102, 211, and 435 and was ranked as an excellent teacher all 8 semesters I taught. Previously, in my doctoral work, I worked with Nigel Goldenfeld, studying phenomena as diverse as stochastic Turing patterns, image analysis of roots, transposon and retro-element dynamics, and colony growth of E-coli. I am also working in a collaboration with Nic Vega examining bacterial communities in C. At Emory I am studying how and how fast an organism can reach an optimal growth rate in a fluctuating environment, using either one of two strategies: individual adaptation (Lamarckian) or population level adaptation through selection (Darwinian). Currently, I am conducting research with Ilya Nemenman. Now, if you're good at understanding what the professor is trying to say and you're good at matching formulas (because, until they revamp the course, it actually wasn't that good at teaching critical thinking and reasoning like it's supposed to, it's just match formula to situation and profit), this class should be VERY easy.I am a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the department of physics at Emory University. This is a class a lot of people put off because they feel it's so hard. Then there's the homework, which, if it's going to be helpful at all, is going to require quite a bit of time and attending office hours. Three hours of lecture each week, two hours of discussion each weak, three hours labs which are at least every other weak. More so than any other class I've been in.īe prepared to put in a lot of time time in. I don't want to scare you away from taking it, but there are so many students that struggle and end up dropping. If physics isn't your thing, you're going to struggle. And the unfortunate thing is, you really can't make the tests any easier. So you have to really know your stuff when going into these exams. If you're just off by a negative sign, six points gone. Sounds great, right? Well, on the opposite side, if you are pretty sure of an answer, you're only going to mark one bubble. If you don't know the answer on specific questions, you can fill in multiple bubbles and if one of them is right, you get 1/3-1/2 the points for the question. It's unique in that it's a multiple choice test which gives partial credit. The thing about it is, you either know all the material, or you need to learn how to take the test. Normally the averages are a tad bit higher, but not by much. However, the year I taught had a REALLY bad guest lecturer who went back to whatever college he came from. The average's before curves are usually around a 60%. As far as people who take it go, most people think it's hard.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |