Nancy
Hopkins , Ph.D. |
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| Speaking at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, May 12, 2004, at the North Lecture Hall of Med Sci II: "MIT's Response to a 'Study on the Status of Women Faculty in Science in Science'" and... Speaking at 3 p.m. on Thursday, May 13, 2004, in the Palmer Commons : "The Genes Essential for Early Zebrafish Development and their Evolutionary Conservation" |
Nancy Hopkins has worked in three research areas. She first studied regulation of gene expression using bacteriophage l. Later, after joining the MIT faculty, she worked on mouse retroviruses for 17 years. She used molecular genetics to identify viral genes that specify host range and the type of leukemia a virus induces. She identified the viral capsid protein as a determinant of NB tropism, and the viral transcriptional enhancer as a determinant of disease specificity. Just over ten years ago Hopkins switched fields to study the genetic basis of early vertebrate development using the zebrafish. Her lab developed a method of insertional mutagenesis for the fish using retroviral vectors, and generated several hundred thousand proviral insertions in the fish germ line. The lab then carried out a large screen for mutations that result in a morphological defect in the embryo or early larva. They identified mutations in 25% of the genes essential for the development of the fish embryo and cloned the majority of the mutated genes. They estimate that only about 1400 genes are essential for early zebrafish development. Almost all the genes have human homologs, and 20% are novel in that they have no known biochemical function. The lab is re-screening the mutant collection to identify 25% of the genes essential for the normal development of many specific embryonic organs and structures. Analysis of adult fish heterozygous for mutations in embryonic lethal genes has identified a novel class of genes that predispose to cancer in zebrafish. Click here if you are interested in meeting with Dr. Hopkins. |
