For More Information About What Nicole Is Doing Now, Please See:
Education and Research Positions:
September 1997- 2003
University of Chicago Research Technician, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
November 1995- May 1996
Northern Illinois University
Co-Op Research, Mitchell Aultschuler
B.S. received May 1996
Northern Illinois University
Dept. of Biological Sciences
Research Interests:
I have cloned an interesting orthologue of a Drosophila developmental gene from grasshoppers. This gene is regulated differently in grasshoppers than in Drosophila. I am looking at how and why it is regulated differently.
Together with a graduate student in the lab, Courtney Babbitt, I have constructed a modified genomic library for the easy cloning of amphipod genes. We also have a genomic grasshopper library made the same way.
I have also improved our lab's in situ methodology. We now have a procedure that we feel will move easily from one species to another.
Publications/Presentations:
Duman-Scheel, M., N. Pirkl, and N. H. Patel (2002) Analysis of the expression pattern of Mysidium columbiae wingless provides evidence for conserved mesodermal and retinal patterning processes among insects and crustaceans. Dev. Genes Evol. 212:14-123.
Patel, N. H., D.C. Hayward, S. Lall, N. Pirkl, D. DiPietro and E.E. Ball (2001) Grasshopper hunchback expression reveals conserved and novel aspects of axis formation and segmentation. Development, 128,3459-3472.
Oct. 1999
Presented a poster at the University of Chicago Molecular Biosciences Retreat entitled "Analysis of the hunchback gene in Schistocerca americana."
Lab duties:
Along with working on my own research projects I do all of the ordering for the lab, help take care of our grasshopper colonies and try to keep the lab in an organized state.
