How extremotolerant cells and organisms survive stress
Dengke Ma, Professor
UC San Francisco
Closed. This professor is continuing with Spring 2024 apprentices on this project; no new apprentices needed for Fall 2024.
Genome evolution has enabled organisms to live in and adapt to nearly every ecological niche on Earth. Humans live in an oxygen-rich ecosystem and human tissues are susceptible to deprivation of oxygen (hypoxia) under pathological conditions, including ischemic stroke and heart attack. Many organisms, from anaerobic bacteria to hibernating ground squirrels, have evolved mechanisms to tolerate varying degrees of hypoxia. In particular, Arctic ground squirrels (AGS) have been shown to be highly resilient to ischemic insults and reperfusion injuries, which helps them survive stress during hibernation as a natural part of their life. This project will use computational genomics, CRISPR gene editing and cell biological approaches to investigate mechanisms by which extremotolerant nematodes and AGS cells survive metabolic stress including hypothermia, hypoxia and mitochondrial toxicity.
Role: The undergraduate student will be learning experimental techniques and scientific methods in this project with postdocs, under the supervision of PI.
Qualifications: Curious mind, ideally with some Python coding skills.
Hours: 12 or more hours
Off-Campus Research Site: UCSF Cardiovascular Research Institute 555 Mission Bay South Blvd, SCVRB Room 214 San Francisco
Related website: http://malab.ucsf.edu
Biological & Health Sciences