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Research in the Department of Developmental Biology is focused upon molecular mechanisms of development and regeneration. This is the newest department at Stanford Medical School, and was formed several years ago in recognition of the explosive increase in knowledge in this area. The rapid discovery of new genes, proteins and mechanisms that are directly applicable to medicine, including our understanding of inborn genetic syndromes, the development of new classes of pharmaceuticals, and the bases of many diseases, such as cancer and autoimmune diseases, has surpassed even our most optimistic expectations.
The Department of Developmental Biology has 13 faculty members, approximately 25 graduate students and 65 postdoctoral fellows. Membership in Spectrum allows access to the faculty, fellows, and students in the department and their ongoing research projects. Specific benefits and activities include:
Spectrum members are invitied to the annual department retreat, held in Monterey, California every November for three days. Every laboratory has a full hour to present the latest and most exciting research findings. Students and postdoctoral fellows who do not present a talk display posters explaining their current work. With intense scientific interchange as a hallmark, the retreat is designed to place industry participants in close contact with students, fellows and faculty. We provide plenty of time for questions and one-on-one discussion at breaks, evening events and during mealtime. The retreat is a wonderful recruitment opportunity, as members of Spectrum can meet with our superb postdoctoral fellows and graduate students. This year, graduate students in the Human Genetics Interdepartmental Program will be presenting their results.
Representatives of industry can attend either of two courses in developmental biology, one designed for graduate students and one for medical students. The latter course may be of particular interest as it is aimed at areas where clinical applications of the new understanding of developmental mechanisms are coming into view. Spectrum members may audit the entire quarter or pick from the syllabus those lectures that fit their particular interests. To review the current academic year syllabus for either of these courses, please contact the departmental liaison.
Discovering unifying themes in how organismic complexity is generated during embryonic and post-embryonic development. Genetic hierarchies, induction events, cell lineage, maternal inheritance, cell-cell communication, and hormonal control in well-studied organisms are explored. This course is team-taught by Departmental faculty.
Designed to stimulate ideas about novel aplications of basic research in molecular, cellular, and developmental biology to clinical medicine. Topics include: cell type determination, genetic control of sex determination and master regulatory genes in embryology. Also featured are mini-symposia on gene therapy, teratology, and regeneration and healing.
The corporate workshops occur twice a year and are for Spectrum members only. Department faculty and postdoctoral fellows present workshops in industrially related areas of developmental biology. Their purpose is to update corporate scientists in the areas of immunosuppresive drugs, programmed cell death, mitochondrial diseases, male contraceptives and infertility, bone morphogenetic factors, steroid hormones and drug delivery. Call the departmental liaison for the next workshop date and topic.
Companies may send scientists to receive training in department laboratories. As a result of reviewing research through any departmental activity, members of Spectrum may learn a new technique or enter into a short-term collaboration with a faculty laboratory. The time of the residency is flexible and depends on the scope of the project. Visiting scientists are invited to participate in the weekly laboratory meetings, journal clubs and other departmental activities.
Spectrum members will receive special invitations to the year-long seminar series Frontiers in Developmental Biology, which features outstanding national and international figures in developmental biology and related fields. Following each (bimonthly) lecture, corporate members are invited to attend receptions to meet and speak with the lecturer. We also provide members with the opportunity to meet with any of the speakers individually.
Spectrum members will receive reprints and preprints of relevant publications on a quarterly basis.
How protein signals direct when and where bones form, including the identification and isolation of bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs), is carried out by David Kingsley. BMPs have the remarkable ability to induce the formation of new bone and cartilage when implanted in animals and are under active study as possible treatment for bone fractures, periodontal disease, and osteoporosis in humans.
What proteins are needed to build functional sperm? How do they work? Due to the extraordinary conservation of genetic pathways and control mechanisms, the understanding of spermatogenesis gained from studies in Drosophila will allow the design of new strategies for male contraceptives. Recently, Margaret Fuller's lab has identified a control point in Drosophila sperm maturation that is the same as defects in spermatogenesis in infertile human males with spermatocyte I maturation arrest form of azoospermia.
Oncogenes responsible for mouse mammary tumors (Wnt) were initially shown to be activated by the insertion of viral DNA. It was shown by Roel Nusse that one class of these oncogenes has counterparts in many other organisms, including mouse, man and Drosophila, where they are normally essential genes that function during early embryogenesis. How do mutations convert genes to cancer genes, and how are potential cancer genes kept in check as they carry out their normal roles in development? Several types of oncogenes are being studied, including Wnt, by Nusse, and ras by Stuart Kim.
These workhorse organelles, which have their own chromosomes, provide energy to every cell. Loss of mitochondrial function is associated with specific human diseases and aging in general. Analysis of mitochondrial DNA has shown that a ribonucleoprotein involved in the replication process is one of the targets of autoimmune diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and scleroderma. In addition, a single point-mutation in a tRNA gene encoded by mitochondrial DNA causes the fatal syndrome, MELAS (Mitochondrial Encephalomyopathy, Lactic Acidosis and Stroke-like episodes) disorder. The molecular basis of both of these syndromes is being studied in the lab of David Clayton.
How are steroid hormones used to control the timing of developmental events? The study of steroid response in humans and other vertebrates have focused on the hormone receptors. However, the full genetic analysis of the ecdysone steroid hormone in Drosophila has opened up studies of the responder genes, which encode proteins that effect the development of different tissues. Given the extraordinary evolutionary conservation of the genetic systems controlling development, there is a high probability that the genes and proteins discovered in the steroid hormone regulating pathway in Drosophila will continue to yield lessons about those in humans. In addition, the insect hormones and receptors that are being studied by David Hogness are promising both as mammalian vector systems and as insect control systems.
Dale Kaiser is studying how bacteria use proteins and other molecules to signal between cells. Bacteria send signals to host cells as part of the pathogenic process. How these signals are used and how they can be adapted to engineering bacteria to control infections or to carry out agriculturally important functions is of wide-spread importance.