Steven A. Williams, PhD-Smith College and The University of Massachusetts, Massachusetts
Dr. Williams received his Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of California, Davis in 1982. His doctoral dissertation research focused on gene expression in the Yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Dr. Williams has been at Smith College and the University of Massachusetts since 1982. In 1986, he founded (with Dr. Barton Slatko) the New England Biolabs Molecular Biology Summer Workshops. These two week workshops are the longest running and largest molecular biology courses for professionals in the world. In 1994, Dr. Williams was named the director of the Filarial Genome Project by the World Health Organization. In 1995, the Clark Foundation named Dr. Williams the director of the River Blindness Genome Project. In 2005, he was named Director of the new Center for Molecular Biosciences at Smith College. Dr. Williams research accomplishments and interests include the discovery and characterization of the first repetitive DNA sequences in several species of parasitic nematodes, the development of sensitive PCR diagnostic tests for these parasites and the sequencing of over 5000 filarial parasite genes. His laboratory research focuses on the application of genomics, bioinformatics, RNAi, and microarrays to the study of gene expression in the parasites that cause Lymphatic Filariasis, Elephantiasis, and African River Blindness.
Barton E. Slatko, PhD-New England Biolabs, Inc.
Dr. Slatko received his Ph.D. degree in Zoology Genetics from the University of Texas, Austin in 1977. His doctoral dissertation research was conducted in the laboratory of Dr. Yuichiro Hiraizumi and was focused on the genetics and cytogenetics of the male recombination/mutator strains of Drosphila melanogaster, now known to be due to transposable P elements and their associated cytotypes. He then did a postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Dr. Mel Green at The University of California, Davis. Dr. Slatko was as Assistant Professor at Williams College (Williamstown, MA) before joining New England Biolabs, Inc. (NEB) in 1983. Dr. Slatko was part of the restriction endonuclease group and molecularly cloned the first thermophilic restriction endonuclease and cognate methylase (TaqI), before forming the DNA sequencing core facility at NEB. Since that time, he has been part of the Parasitology Division involved in the Filarial Genome Project, which involves the goal of eradication filarial diseases from worldwide human populations. Under his direction, his laboratory recently completed and published the DNA sequence and annotation of an obligate endosymbiont (Wolbachia) from a filarial parasite, a potential therapeutic and preventative drug target. He has served on both NSF and NIH grant review panels and is a science editor for BioTechniques. While maintaining his research laboratory, he now heads the new product acquisition and development group for NEB. He is actively involved in science education and has been involved with the NEB Molecular Biology Courses, with the other co-authors, since 1986.
John R. McCarrey, PhD-University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antionio, Texas
Dr. McCarrey received his Ph.D. degree in Genetics from the University of California, Davis in 1981. His doctoral dissertation research was conducted in the laboratory of Dr. Ursula Abbott and was focused on sex determination and germ cell development in the chick embryo. He then did a postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Dr. Susumu Ohno at the City of Hope Research Institute in Duarte, California, where he worked on the molecular biology of the mammalian sex determination process. Dr. McCarrey's first faculty position was in the Division of Reproductive Biology in the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health. He then moved to the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research in San Antonio, Texas. In 2001, he assumed his current position as Professor of Cell and Molecular Biology at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Dr. McCarrey's research accomplishments and interests include the discovery of the first functional retroposon in the human genome, elucidation of mechanisms that regulate tissue-specific transcription in mammalian spermatogenic cells, studying the spermatogenesis in mammals, describing the kinetics of reprogramming of epigenetic mechanisms during mammalian gametogenesis, and current studies to investigate the status of epigenetic and genetic mechanisms in cloned mice and in mouse embryos produced by assisted reproductive technologies, as well as in embryonic stem cells derived from mice and nonhuman primates.
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