"...the genome is... a mosaic of independent molecular blue-prints for the building of individual cellular constituents. In the execution of these plans,... co-ordination is... of absolute survival value... the genome contains not only a series of blue-prints, but a co-ordinated program of protein synthesis and the means of controlling its execution."
—F. Jacob and J. Monod, J. Mol. Biol. (1961)
Our research team is making use of whole-genome sequences from a variety of organisms to explore how life works and how it evolves. Our research team has made advances in several areas from animal development and evolution to evolution of the genetic code itself.
On an important mechanism in animal development and its evolution over the past 40 million years (My):
Identified and decoded a developmental morphogen gradient encoding scheme in a genome and its mode of evolution.
Read more here:
On the evolutionary origins of animals (~1,000 Mya):
Identified and documented the evolutionary origin of the Myc signaling pathway as having occurred in the stem-Holozoan ancestor.
Read more here:
On the origins of life (>4,000 Mya):
Identified the evolutionary origin of the amino acid codon table and L-amino acid and D-ribose homochiralities.
Read more here:
...gagccgagatcgctcca ctgcactccagcctgggcga cagagcgagactccatttca aaaaataataaataaataaa aataaaaaatagcttcgtgt tttggtccttataaaggcaa ataaattgagcatcccaatg ttgcggattcacaggacgaa cactttttaataataagtat acctggttttgttttcagGT GTCGTTATTTGTGCAACAAC ATTGAAAAACAAGCAGAAAT AAAACATTGACGGAACGGAT ACGACCGCAGATTGCGGGAG CTGTCCTCTCAATCAGCCCG GCAGCGGCGGCCCACAATTT ACGCGTGTGCAACCCTAACC CCGGCCCAAGCTTGACCTAC AATTTGCGCAGGCGCAGATC CTAACTTTGGCGTCCCTGTG GGCGGCCTTTGGTGTGAGAC GCGTGGTATTCTGGGAACGT CGGAGACGGAAGTTACTTCG TCTTTAGCTCCTGGCGCTGC TGGCTTCTGGGCGGTTTTTG TCTTTTGATTTCAAGAGTTA GGAGCTCGAGAACCGTTTGG CAATATGTACGACGCGGATG AGGgtaggtgaacgctcaaa acacacgccgtggcggtcca tttaagcaggaaagcgttgg gaactgattggattgaggat ttggggccttcccatgc...
The DNA sequence above is a short snippet from the human genome. Click through our lab web pages to find out what it is!
"However clever you think cells are: [remember] they are clever!"
—Lewis Wolpert
40th anniversary of the
Positional Information model of morphogen gradients.
Developmental Biology GRC
Andover, New Hampshire
June 2009