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
Martin Kruse, Ph.D., Bates College
Regulation of neuronal excitability by phosphoinositide metabolism
Sally Molloy, Ph.D., University of Maine
Investigating the mechanism by which prophage alter mycobacterial antibiotic resistance
Suegene Noh, Ph.D., Colby College
Identification of genes involved in the crosstalk between a social host and facultative symbionts that can form long-term persistent association
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
Madeleine Romain, Ph.D., MDI Biological Laboratory
Endogenous neural stem cell reprograming for neuronal regeneration
Jennifer Honeycutt, Ph.D., Bowdoin College
Identification of neural and epigenetic biomarkers for affective dysfunction following early adversity
Current Teaching Faculty Research
Timothy Breton, Ph.D., University of Maine at Farmington
The effects of phoenixin-14 on the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis and spring in green-spotted puffer (Dichotomyctere nigroviridis)
Julie Millard, Ph.D., Colby College
Genomic Variation in the Equilibrative nucleoside transporter ENT1 in relationship to the human absorption of caffeine
Michael Palopoli, Ph.D., Bowdoin College
Evolution of gene regulation within and between species of Drosophila
Donelle Schwalm, Ph.D., University of Maine at Farmington
Influence of colonization regime, time since establishment, and site-specific variation on patterns of selection, genes under selection, and rapid evolution in distinct swift fox (Vulpes velox) populations