Erin Dolan

Last updated
Erin L. Dolan
Born
Erin L. Peckol

1971
Alma mater University of California, San Francisco
Scientific career
Thesis Developmental plasticity in the C. elegans nervous system  (1999)

Erin Dolan is the Georgia Athletic Association Professor of Innovative Science Education at the University of Georgia. Dolan is a biochemist known for her research on engaging students in science research.

Contents

Education and career

Dolan has a B.A. in biology from Wellesley College (1993) where she did an honors thesis on SCPb, a neurotransmitter in the American lobster. [1] She earned a Ph.D. in neuroscience from the University of California, San Francisco where she worked on developmental plasticity in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Following her Ph.D., she worked at the University of Arizona for two years before moving to Virginia Tech in 2002. In 2011, Dolan moved to the University of Georgia where she was named the Georgia Athletic Association Professor of Innovative Science Education in 2016. [2] From 2014 until 2016 she was the executive director of the Texas Institute for Discovery Education in Science at the University of Texas at Austin. [2]

In 2010 Dolan was named Editor-in-chief of the journal CBE: Life Sciences Education. [3]

Research

As a neuroscientist, Dolan worked on sensory signalling, [4] gene expression, [5] and nerve development [6] in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Following her graduate work, Dolan started researching science education where she focuses on the development of programs to increase retention of students in science disciplines [7] and how social and cultural phenomena impact student learning and development, particularly in course-based undergraduate research experiences called CUREs. [8] [9]

Selected publications

Awards and honors

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Insulin-like growth factor</span> Proteins similar to insulin that stimulate cell proliferation

The insulin-like growth factors (IGFs) are proteins with high sequence similarity to insulin. IGFs are part of a complex system that cells use to communicate with their physiologic environment. This complex system consists of two cell-surface receptors, two ligands, a family of seven high-affinity IGF-binding proteins, as well as associated IGFBP degrading enzymes, referred to collectively as proteases.

Nociception is the sensory nervous system's process of encoding noxious stimuli. It deals with a series of events and processes required for an organism to receive a painful stimulus, convert it to a molecular signal, and recognize and characterize the signal to trigger an appropriate defensive response.

<i>Caenorhabditis elegans</i> Free-living species of nematode

Caenorhabditis elegans is a free-living transparent nematode about 1 mm in length that lives in temperate soil environments. It is the type species of its genus. The name is a blend of the Greek caeno- (recent), rhabditis (rod-like) and Latin elegans (elegant). In 1900, Maupas initially named it Rhabditides elegans. Osche placed it in the subgenus Caenorhabditis in 1952, and in 1955, Dougherty raised Caenorhabditis to the status of genus.

The DAF-2 gene encodes for the insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) receptor in the worm Caenorhabditis elegans. DAF-2 is part of the first metabolic pathway discovered to regulate the rate of aging. DAF-2 is also known to regulate reproductive development, resistance to oxidative stress, thermotolerance, resistance to hypoxia, and resistance to bacterial pathogens. Mutations in DAF-2 have been shown by Cynthia Kenyon to double the lifespan of the worms. In a 2007 episode of WNYC’s Radiolab, Kenyon called DAF-2 "the grim reaper gene.”

Dauer describes an alternative developmental stage of nematode worms, particularly rhabditids including Caenorhabditis elegans, whereby the larva goes into a type of stasis and can survive harsh conditions. Since the entrance of the dauer stage is dependent on environmental cues, it represents a classic and well studied example of polyphenism. The dauer state is given other names in the various types of nematodes such as ‘diapause’ or ‘hypobiosis’, but since the C. elegans nematode has become the most studied nematode, the term ‘dauer stage’ or 'dauer larvae' is becoming universally recognised when referring to this state in other free-living nematodes. The dauer stage is also considered to be equivalent to the infective stage of parasitic nematode larvae.

John Graham White is an Emeritus Professor of Anatomy and Molecular Biology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His research interests are in the biology of the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans and laser microscopy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">POU4F1</span> Protein-coding gene in the species Homo sapiens

POU domain, class 4, transcription factor 1 (POU4F1) also known as brain-specific homeobox/POU domain protein 3A (BRN3A), homeobox/POU domain protein RDC-1 or Oct-T1 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the POU4F1 gene.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cornelia Bargmann</span> American neurobiologist

Cornelia Isabella "Cori" Bargmann is an American neurobiologist. She is known for her work on the genetic and neural circuit mechanisms of behavior using C. elegans, particularly the mechanisms of olfaction in the worm. She has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences and had been a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at UCSF and then Rockefeller University from 1995 to 2016. She was the Head of Science at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative from 2016 to 2022. In 2012 she was awarded the $1 million Kavli Prize, and in 2013 the $3 million Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">KIF17</span> Protein-coding gene in the species Homo sapiens

Kinesin-like protein KIF17 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the KIF17 gene. KIF17 and its close relative, C. elegans OSM-3, are members of the kinesin-2 family of plus-end directed microtubule-based motor proteins. In contrast to heterotrimeric kinesin-2 motors, however, KIF17 and OSM-3 form distinct homodimeric complexes. Homodimeric kinesin-2 has been implicated in the transport of NMDA receptors along dendrites for delivery to the dendritic membrane, whereas both heterotrimeric and homodimeric kinesin-2 motors function cooperatively in anterograde intraflagellar transport (IFT) and cilium biogenesis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MCOLN3</span> Protein-coding gene in the species Homo sapiens

Mucolipin-3 also known as TRPML3 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the MCOLN3 gene. It is a member of the small family of the TRPML channels, a subgroup of the large protein family of TRP ion channels.

Nematode chemoreceptors are chemoreceptors of nematodes. Animals recognise a wide variety of chemicals using their senses of taste and smell. The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans has only 14 types of chemosensory neuron, yet is able to respond to dozens of chemicals because each neuron detects several stimuli. More than 40 highly divergent transmembrane proteins that could contribute to this functional diversity have been described. Most of the candidate receptor genes are in clusters of similar genes; 11 of these appear to be expressed in small subsets of chemosensory neurons. A single type of neuron can potentially express at least 4 different receptor genes. Some of these might encode receptors for water-soluble attractants, repellents and pheromones, which are divergent members of the G-protein-coupled receptor family. Sequences of the Sra family of C. elegans receptor-like proteins contain 6-7 hydrophobic, putative transmembrane, regions. These can be distinguished from other 7TM proteins by their own characteristic TM signatures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daf-16</span> Ortholog

DAF-16 is the sole ortholog of the FOXO family of transcription factors in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. It is responsible for activating genes involved in longevity, lipogenesis, heat shock survival and oxidative stress responses. It also protects C.elegans during food deprivation, causing it to transform into a hibernation - like state, known as a Dauer. DAF-16 is notable for being the primary transcription factor required for the profound lifespan extension observed upon mutation of the insulin-like receptor DAF-2. The gene has played a large role in research into longevity and the insulin signalling pathway as it is located in C. elegans, a successful ageing model organism.

CBE: Life Sciences Education is an online, quarterly journal owned and published by the American Society for Cell Biology, with funding from Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The journal publishes peer-reviewed articles on life sciences education research and evidence-based practice at the K-12, undergraduate, and graduate levels. One goal of the journal is to encourage teachers and instructors to view teaching and learning the way scientists view their research, as an intellectual undertaking that is informed by systematic collection, analysis, and interpretation of data related to student learning. Target audiences include those involved in education in K-12 schools, two-year colleges, four-year colleges, science centers and museums, universities, and professional schools, including graduate students and postdoctoral researchers. All published articles are available freely online without subscription. In addition, published articles are indexed in PubMed and available through PubMed Central. The journal's 2018 impact factor was 2.380.

In molecular biology mir-71 microRNA is a short RNA molecule. MicroRNAs function to regulate the expression levels of other genes by several mechanisms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julie Ahringer</span> American geneticist

Julie Ann Ahringer is an American/British Professor of Genetics and Genomics, Director of the Gurdon Institute and a member of the Department of Genetics at the University of Cambridge. She leads a research lab investigating the control of gene expression.

Host microbe interactions in <i>Caenorhabditis elegans</i>

Caenorhabditis elegans- microbe interactions are defined as any interaction that encompasses the association with microbes that temporarily or permanently live in or on the nematode C. elegans. The microbes can engage in a commensal, mutualistic or pathogenic interaction with the host. These include bacterial, viral, unicellular eukaryotic, and fungal interactions. In nature C. elegans harbours a diverse set of microbes. In contrast, C. elegans strains that are cultivated in laboratories for research purposes have lost the natural associated microbial communities and are commonly maintained on a single bacterial strain, Escherichia coli OP50. However, E. coli OP50 does not allow for reverse genetic screens because RNAi libraries have only been generated in strain HT115. This limits the ability to study bacterial effects on host phenotypes. The host microbe interactions of C. elegans are closely studied because of their orthologs in humans. Therefore, the better we understand the host interactions of C. elegans the better we can understand the host interactions within the human body.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Schafer</span> American geneticist

William Ronald Schafer is a neuroscientist and geneticist who has made important contributions to understanding the molecular and neural basis of behaviour. His work, principally in the nematode C. elegans, has used an interdisciplinary approach to investigate how small groups of neurons generate behavior, and he has pioneered methodological approaches, including optogenetic neuroimaging and automated behavioural phenotyping, that have been widely influential in the broader neuroscience field. He has made significant discoveries on the functional properties of ionotropic receptors in sensory transduction and on the roles of gap junctions and extrasynaptic modulation in neuronal microcircuits. More recently, he has applied theoretical ideas from network science and control theory to investigate the structure and function of simple neuronal connectomes, with the goal of understanding conserved computational principles in larger brains. He is an EMBO member, Welcome Investigator and Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences.

Susan Strome is a Distinguished Professor of Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology at the University of California Santa Cruz. Strome received a B.A. degree in chemistry from University of New Mexico and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Washington, as well as post-graduate work at the University of Colorado Boulder. Strome is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences.

The DAF-1 gene encodes for a cell surface Enzyme-linked receptor of TGF-beta signaling pathway in the worm Caenorhabditis elegans. DAF-1 is one of the type I receptor of TGF-beta pathway. DAF-1 acts as a receptor protein serine/threonine kinase, is activated by type II receptor Daf-4 phosphorylation after the ligand Daf-7 binds to the receptor heterotetramer, and then phosphorylates Daf-8 or Daf-14, the SMAD proteins in C. elegans.

The DAF-4 gene encodes for the only type II receptor of TGF-beta signaling pathway in the worm Caenorhabditis elegans, with the ligands Daf-7 or Dbl-1. When binds to the ligand Daf-7, Daf-4 complexed with the type I receptor Daf-1, and activated the Smad Protein Daf-8/14. By contrast, when binds to Dbl-1, Daf-4 complexed with the Sma-6 type I receptor, and activated the Sma-2/3/4.

References

  1. OCLC   371007743(Developmental appearance of SCPb, a peptide neurotransmitter, and octopamine, a biogenic amine, in the central nervous system of the American lobster (Homarus americanus))
  2. 1 2 "Dolan CV" (PDF).
  3. Dolan, Erin L. (December 2010). "The Next Five Years". CBE: Life Sciences Education. 9 (4): 379–380. doi:10.1187/cbe.10-09-0117. PMC   2995746 . PMID   21123675.
  4. Maricq, Andres V.; Peckol, Erin; Driscoll, Monica; Bargmann, Cornelia I. (November 1995). "Mechanosensory signalling in C. elegans mediated by the GLR-1 glutamate receptor". Nature. 378 (6552): 78–81. Bibcode:1995Natur.378...78M. doi:10.1038/378078a0. ISSN   1476-4687. PMID   7477293. S2CID   4261322.
  5. Peckol, Erin L.; Troemel, Emily R.; Bargmann, Cornelia I. (25 September 2001). "Sensory experience and sensory activity regulate chemosensory receptor gene expression in Caenorhabditis elegans". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 98 (20): 11032–11038. Bibcode:2001PNAS...9811032P. doi: 10.1073/pnas.191352498 . PMC   58678 . PMID   11572964.
  6. Peckol, E.L.; Zallen, J.A.; Yarrow, J.C.; Bargmann, C.I. (1 May 1999). "Sensory activity affects sensory axon development in C. elegans". Development. 126 (9): 1891–1902. doi:10.1242/dev.126.9.1891. ISSN   0950-1991. PMID   10101123.
  7. "Hands-On Science Courses Boost Graduation Rates and STEM Retention". UT News. 2016-06-01. Retrieved 2021-07-22.
  8. Auchincloss, Lisa Corwin; Laursen, Sandra L.; Branchaw, Janet L.; Eagan, Kevin; Graham, Mark; Hanauer, David I.; Lawrie, Gwendolyn; McLinn, Colleen M.; Pelaez, Nancy; Rowland, Susan; Towns, Marcy; Trautmann, Nancy M.; Varma-Nelson, Pratibha; Weston, Timothy J.; Dolan, Erin L. (1 March 2014). "Assessment of Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences: A Meeting Report". CBE: Life Sciences Education. 13 (1): 29–40. doi:10.1187/cbe.14-01-0004. PMC   3940459 . PMID   24591501.
  9. Dolan, Erin; Johnson, Deborah (16 May 2009). "Toward a Holistic View of Undergraduate Research Experiences: An Exploratory Study of Impact on Graduate/Postdoctoral Mentors". Journal of Science Education and Technology. 18 (6): 487. Bibcode:2009JSEdT..18..487D. doi:10.1007/s10956-009-9165-3. ISSN   1573-1839. S2CID   54600427.
  10. "Dolan Wins 2018 Bruce Alberts Award for Excellence in Science Education". ASCB. 2018-08-21. Retrieved 2021-07-22.
  11. Adriana, Bankston (April 1, 2017). "Dolan recognized for 'transformation of teaching'". www.asbmb.org. Retrieved 2021-07-22.
  12. "Excellence in Education Award". American Society of Plant Biologists. Retrieved 2021-07-22.
  13. "Dr. Erin Dolan honored with the "Excellence in Education Award" | Biochemistry & Molecular Biology". www.bmb.uga.edu. Retrieved 2021-07-22.