Re: Biological Science 2nd Edition Freeman 2005 Ram
Matt Dreher
My research interests center on the impact of active learning strategies and high-structure course designs on student performance in college science courses and phylogenetic analyses of change in blackbird morphology.
I am currently working with colleagues in the University of Washington's Department of Biology to determine whether certain types of course designs have a positive impact on achievement by underrepresented minority and economically disadvantaged students. This study is part of a broader effort to evaluate the role of active learning in improving the quality of science education. I also have projects underway to:
I am also interested in the evolution of body size, body shape, beak characteristics, coloration, sexual dichromatism, and sexual dimorphism in the blackbirds native to North and South America. The 80+ species in this lineage vary in size from 7 gr to over 200 gr, occupy habitats from boreal marshes to tropical rainforests, and exhibit breeding systems ranging from coloniality to polygyny to obligate nest parasitism.
Scott Freeman grew up in Wisconsin and received a B.A. in Biology from Carleton College in 1978. After working in environmental education and international conservation for six years, he did graduate work at the University of Washington on the molecular systematics and morphological evolution of blackbirds and received a PhD in zoology in 1991. He had a Sloan Fellowship to support a post-doctoral fellowship in molecular evolution at Princeton University, then returned to the University of Washington as Director of Public Programs at the Burke Museum. Since the mid-1990s his focus has been on textbook writing and teaching. He co-authored Evolutionary Analysis and was sole author of Biological Science, each through four editions; both texts are in their 5th edition. He is currently Principal Lecturer in Biology at the UW, where he teaches introductory and upper-division courses and conducts research on how active learning techniques impact student performance. He is a recipient of a UW Distinguished Teaching Award.
Lizabeth A. Allison is Chancellor Professor of Biology at the College of William & Mary. She received her Ph.D. in Zoology from the University of Washington, specializing in molecular and cellular biology. Before coming to William & Mary, she spent eight years as a faculty member at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. Liz teaches introductory biology for majors and upper-division molecular biology courses. She has mentored graduate students and more than 100 undergraduate research students, many of them coauthoring papers with her on intracellular trafficking of the thyroid hormone receptor in normal and cancer cells. The recipient of numerous awards, including a State Council for Higher Education in Virginia (SCHEV) Outstanding Faculty Award in 2009, Liz received one of the three inaugural Arts & Sciences Faculty Awards for Teaching Excellence in 2011, and a Plumeri Award for Faculty Excellence in 2012. In addition to her work on this text, she is author of Fundamental Molecular Biology, now in its second edition, with a third edition underway.
Michael Black received his Ph.D. in Microbiology & Immunology from Stanford University School of Medicine as a Howard Hughes Predoctoral Fellow. After graduation, he studied cell biology as a Burroughs Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellow at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England. His current research focuses on the use of molecules to identify and track the transmission of microbes in the environment. Michael is a professor of Cell & Molecular Biology at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, where he teaches introductory and advanced classes for majors in cell biology and microbiology. In addition to his teaching and research activities, Michael serves as the director of the Undergraduate Biotechnology Lab, where he works alongside undergraduate technicians to integrate research projects and inquiry-based activities into undergraduate classes.
Jeff Carmichael received his B.S. in Biology from Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania and his Ph.D. in Plant Biology from the University of Georgia. As an undergraduate student, he spent some time studying enzyme kinetics through a fellowship at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. His graduate work focused on sexual reproduction in an intriguing group of seed plants. He has been teaching and coordinating Introductory Biology at the University of North Dakota for more than 20 years. He also serves in the Office of Instructional Development where he helps other faculty members incorporate evidence-based best teaching practices in their courses. He has received excellence in teaching awards at UND and as a graduate student in Georgia. His revision of Unit 6 and part of Unit 5 of the Sixth Edition is his first foray into textbook writing.
Kim Quillin received her B.A. in Biology at Oberlin College summa cum laude and her Ph.D. in Integrative Biology from the University of California, Berkeley as a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow. Kim has worked in the trenches with Scott Freeman on every edition of Biological Science, starting with the ground-up development of the illustrations in the first edition in 1999 and expanding her role in each edition, always with the focus of helping students to think like biologists. Kim currently teaches introductory biology at Salisbury University, a member of the University System of Maryland, where she is actively involved in the ongoing student- centered reform of the concepts-and-methods course for biology majors. Her current research focuses on the scholarship of teaching and learning with an emphasis on visual model-based reasoning as a science process skill.
Osteoarthritis (OA) is a common musculoskeletal disease of aging with multiple etiologies. Factors known to increase susceptibility for this disease include: previous injury, genetics, female gender and increased age and weight. Using microCT technology, our lab investigated differences in trabecular bone remodeling and found the patient samples could be divided into two distinct populations based on subchondral bone characteristics. We hypothesize these differences represent distinct OA subpopulations exhibiting different molecular pathologies.
To investigate this hypothesis, we created a tissue microarray from knee joint tissue samples retrieved from total knee arthroplasty (TKA) surgery of post-menopausal women. We divided these samples into two groups based on subchondral bone characteristics. The results showed the presence and quantity of each protein in each tissue type, creating a quantitative protein localization profile for the tissues of the osteoarthritic joint. Our results show significantly different protein localization and quantity between each tissue type and between the two groups. Additionally, this analysis identifies a specific protein profile which may have implications for differentially identifying proteins involved in early and late OA and differences between the two subchondral trabecular bone remodeling subgroups. Our hope is that this data will lead to the identification of biomarkers and potential drug targets for OA.
In cartilage, ROS signaling plays significant role in regulating chondrocyte proliferation, differentiation and maturation. To assure proper cellular function ROS is balanced by production of antioxidants; as unregulated ROS can cause dysfunction in gene expression, transcription factor signaling, and cell cycle. In aging, systemic disease, environmental toxin exposure, injury and inflammation, ROS production can overwhelm the antioxidant capacity triggering aberrant signaling leading to cell death, matrix degradation and pathological damage in both forming and permanent cartilages. Apoptosis signal-regulating kinase 1 (ASK1) a MAP kinase kinase kinase, is a well characterized protein implicated in pathological ROS signaling and ASk1 is present in growth plate and articular chondrocytes. In cartilage the oxidative status of the cell is controlled by activation of Ask1 by ROS versus the expression of antioxidants. By manipulating the activation of ASK1 we can explore the normal and pathological role of ROS in chondrocyte differentiation. Our hope is that these studies will have an enormous impact on understanding molecular mechanisms of oxidative stress in chondrocytes thereby providing important information for developing novel targets for therapeutic intervention.
Non-thermal dielectric barrier discharge plasma is a relatively new physics-based technology. Currently, the application of this technology to biological sciences is almost non-existent. The main focus of the few published reports there are, is that NT-plasma effects cell function through the activation of ROS and RNS signaling pathways. In collaboration with the A. J. Drexel Plasma Institute, our goal is to create an NT-Plasma system to specifically manipulate cellular redox and thereby enhance the commitment and differentiation of MSCs along osteogenic and chrondrogenic lineages. A strong literature base supports the role of oxidative signaling as a mechanism to initiate transitions during stem cell differentiation in vivo. If we are successful, the potential benefit of this investigation is twofold; the development of NT-Plasma as a new biotechnology and the control of MSC function in differentiation and commitment. As such, our hope is that NT-Plasma can be developed to provide a new mechanism by which alterations in cellular metabolism can initiate a signal transduction cascade in pluripotent cells to promote their proliferation, commitment and differentiation.
Jefferson holds itself accountable, at every level of the organization, to nurture an environment of inclusion and respect, by valuing the uniqueness of every individual, celebrating and reflecting the rich diversity of its communities, and taking meaningful action to cultivate an environment of fairness, belonging & opportunity.
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