{"id":11267,"date":"2013-07-19T14:09:04","date_gmt":"2013-07-19T20:09:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=11267"},"modified":"2018-06-01T10:26:42","modified_gmt":"2018-06-01T16:26:42","slug":"uccs-cc-biologists-to-collaborate-in-gene-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=11267","title":{"rendered":"UCCS, CC biologists to collaborate in gene research"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IMG_9766\"<\/a>A chance dinnertime conversation turned into a $677,091 National Science Foundation grant for two professors of biology, one at UCCS and one at Colorado College.<\/p>\n

Eugenia Olesnicky Killian, assistant professor, Department of Biology, and Darrell Killian, assistant professor of biology at Colorado College, recently received a $677,091 National Science Foundation grant to support their research on how genes regulate the nervous system.<\/p>\n

The two departments will divide the grant and use it to support summer student stipends, a research technician, and outreach efforts including working with the UCCS Center for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Education to develop genetic and nervous system-specific examples to share with middle and high school students.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_9735\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Married for six years, the couple discovered over a dinnertime conversation a common interest in genes, though each works with a different life form \u2013 Darrell with worms and Eugenia with flies.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe both happened at some point in our careers to have worked on the same gene,\u201d Eugenia said. \u201cTo put that in perspective, while the worm has 19,000 genes total and the fruit fly has 16,000, we have only focused in depth on a handful of genes each.\u201d<\/p>\n

During a postdoctoral fellowship, Eugenia identified 90 genes in fruit flies that are important to the development of pain-sensing nerve cells. The NSF grant will allow the Killians to test if the same genes, almost all of which are present in flies, worms and humans, have a similar role in worms. If they find the genes have the same function in flies and worms, they believe it likely they play a similar role in humans.<\/p>\n

The Killians\u2019 research will involve analyzing more than 50 genes for their involvement in dendrite development. Dendrites affect the function of neurons and are associated with disorders such as Alzheimer\u2019s disease, Down syndrome and anxiety.<\/p>\n

Three of Eugenia Olesnicky Killian\u2019s students, both undergraduate and master\u2019s students in biology, are already spending time in Darrell\u2019s laboratory at CC as well as hers at UCCS. The students and the Killians will meet every week or so to talk about research papers and other work that will help them think about their research.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_9682\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are trying to create a dynamic research culture,\u201d Eugenia said. \u201cWe\u2019re not just training them to do research, which is the most important, but also to introduce them to the scientific culture that you\u2019d see in graduate school.\u201d<\/p>\n

Students will use a new confocal microscope at UCCS, purchased with funds from the CU BioFrontiers Institute, which produces high-resolution images.<\/p>\n

They suspect that these genes work the same in the worms and the fruit flies, and their grant will support their research to investigate this question. And they\u2019re wondering whether the same core set of genes is involved in the same process in humans.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis could contribute to our understanding of how neurological disorders occur in humans,\u201d Eugenia said.<\/p>\n

Both Killians hope to integrate the research into student projects with the work expected to promote critical thinking and sophisticated laboratory skills.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis collaborative research project will greatly benefit students and biology departments on both campuses by promoting the sharing of ideas, experiences, reagents, and lab equipment,\u201d the Killians wrote in their grant application.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re hoping to work together more,\u201d Eugenia said of the two departments. \u201cThis is the first collaboration to my knowledge between the two departments.\u201d<\/p>\n

— Diane Alters of Colorado College contributed to this article
\n— Photos by Jeff Foster, University Advancement<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A chance dinnertime conversation turned into a $677,091 National Science Foundation grant for two professors of biology, one at UCCS and one at Colorado College. Eugenia Olesnicky Killian, assistant professor, Department of Biology, and Darrell (More)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":20123,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1,13],"tags":[197],"class_list":["post-11267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all","category-photo-features","tag-photo-feature"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/IMG_9766-300x200.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1mBpJ-2VJ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11267"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32199,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11267\/revisions\/32199"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}