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
Tariq Ahmad, Ph.D., Colby College
Effect of expression of human mutant CHMP2B, an ESCRT-III component involved in frontotemporal dementia, on circadian rhythms in Drosophila
Travis Gould, Ph.D., Bates College
Investigating the Nanoscale Organization of Chromatin by Super-Resolution STED Microscopy
Andrew Kennedy, Ph.D., Bates College
Epigenetic mechanisms of memory formation and maintenance
Melissa Maginnis, Ph.D., University of Maine
Functional Genomic Dissection of Viral and Cellular Factors that Regulate JC Polyomavirus Infection
Sally Molloy, Ph.D., University of Maine
Investigating the role of prophage on mycobacterial host fitness and virulence
Ron Peck, Ph.D., Colby College
Using halophilic Archaea as model systems to explore responses to environmental stressors
Con Sullivan, Ph.D., The University of Maine
A role for the Tnfaip8 gene family in tumorigenesis
Larissa Williams, Ph.D., Bates College
Role of nuclear factor, erythroid 2 (Nfe2) in the oxidative stress response during development
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)
Anne McBride, Ph.D., Bowdoin College
RNA-binding proteins and hyphal mRNA transport in the pathogenic fungus Candida albicans
Donald Dearborn, Ph.D., Bates College
Genomic Diversity of the Vertebrate Immune System: the Neglected Half of the MHC Class II Heterodimer