Claire Pearson - Graduate student
I work with the fungus Aspergillus nidulans and the yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe to study mechanisms of polarized growth using molecular biology, genetics, and microscopy. Through a screen to identify A. nidulans mutants that enhance the defects caused by the loss of SepA, the mes genes (morphological enhancer of sepA) were isolated. The mesA gene causes a tight colonial phenotype and shows sequence homology only to an uncharacterized ORF in Schizosaccharomyces pombe. To better understand the role that mesA plays in fungal cells, I am using both organisms to characterize and localize MesA and it's homologue.

Scott Gygax - Graduate student
My research involves the characterization of the SepB protein in the filamentous fungus Aspergillus nidulans. SepB functions to maintain genome stability and is a member of an expanding family of proteins that includes potential animal and plant homologues.