Maine INBRE supports the interrelated research projects of between six to nine INBRE faculty each year, enabling these more junior scientists to seek independent funding during the grant period. The INBRE program also supports pilot research projects for teaching-focused faculty and their students. Each project applies the strategies of comparative functional genomics—where scientists study the role and function of genes in a variety of different organisms—to biomedical issues in physiology, toxicology, and molecular and cellular developmental biology. Current project leaders are listed below.
Maine INBRE also participates in the NorthEast Cyberinfrastructure Consortium, which is a regional effort to facilitate cyber-enabled collaborative research among the Northeast Regional IDeA States: Delaware, New Hampshire, Maine, Rhode Island, and Vermont. The NEBC has worked collaboratively to characterize the genome of the little skate, Leucoraja erinacea, in the Skate Genome Project.
Current Investigator Research
Lori Banks, Ph.D., Bates College
Sequence Requirements of viroporin ion channel activity
Larry Feinstein, Ph.D., University of Maine Presque Isle
Utilizing temporal and biogeographical comparative functional genomics to inform screening for novel antimicrobial targets
Andrew Kennedy, Ph.D., Bates College
Epigenetic mechanisms of memory formation and maintenance
Martin Kruse, Ph.D., Bates College
Regulation of neuronal excitability by phosphoinositide metabolism
Sally Molloy, Ph.D., University of Maine
Investigating the role of prophage on mycobacterial host fitness and virulence
Colleen O’Loughlin, Ph.D., Bates College
Identification, elucidation, and characterization of small molecules produced by common skin commensals and their role in microbe: microbe interactions and host health
Ron Peck, Ph.D., Colby College
Using halophilic Archaea as model systems to explore responses to environmental stressors
Current Teaching Faculty Research
Timothy Breton, Ph.D., University of Maine at Farmington
Identification of brain and gonadal gene expression patterns involved in sex change in a protogynous teleost fish, the black sea bass (Centropristis striata)
Donald Dearborn, Ph.D., Bates College
Genomic Diversity of the Vertebrate Immune System: the Neglected Half of the MHC Class II Heterodimer
Michael Palopoli, Ph.D., Bowdoin College
Evolution of gene regulation within and between species of Drosophila