Wilder, whose work looks to understand the forces that shape patterns of genetic variability in nature, received his B.A. from Williams in 1997 and his Ph.D. in ecology and evolutionary biology from Princeton University in 2002. He did his postdoctoral work at the University of Arizona.
DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is a large molecule considered the "building block of life." It contains all the information necessary for living things to function. It also codes for a creature's physical composition everything from a person's eye color to his hair loss is the result of, or at least highly influenced by, his DNA.
While much is known about the general nature of DNA, many of its precise mechanisms remain a mystery. Until recently, technological constraints severely limited researchers' ability to analyze and understand the complex molecule. With contemporary innovations in technology making more advanced investigation possible, DNA analysis is having an enormous impact on the scientific community.
The project will establish a laboratory at Williams for the collection of DNA sequence and genotype data. The lab will include a capillary-based DNA analyzer, equipment for template amplification and purification, and computer workstations equipped with software for data analysis.
The new technology will be of particular support to the research of biology professors Jason Wilder, Lara Hutson, David C. Smith, and Robert Savage. Wilder is currently studying human DNA variants that confer resistance to severe malarial parasitism. Hutson's laboratory is working to characterize the role of heat shock proteins in the neural development of zebrafish. In a study
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Contact: Jo Procter
Jo.Procter@williams.edu
413-597-4279
Williams College
17-Nov-2005