George Plopper

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George Plopper

• Discover how FAK signals
• stem cells to become bone

Biology_at_Rensselaer
Goal of Project To develop bone tissue from
adult stem cells grown in the lab without the use
of chemicals, which someday can be injected into
a bone injury, or spread on like spackle to
fill in a crack, making healing faster and
stronger.
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Blanca Barquera

• Study the mechanism of sodium
• pumping and coupling to redox
• reactions in the Na-NQR

Biology_at_Rensselaer
Goal of Project To understand how sodium
metabolism helps organisms like Vibrio cholerae,
which causes cholera in humans, adapt to
different environments encountered in their cycle
of propagation and infection.
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Chris Bystroff

• Predicting protein folding pathways and protein
  misfolding

Biology_at_Rensselaer
Goal of Project When proteins dont fold
correctly, there can be serious effects,
including many well-known diseases, such as ALS,
Alzheimer's, Mad Cow (BSE), CJD, Huntington's,
and Parkinson's disease.
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Fern Finger

• Septin function in C. elegans pharyngeal
  development

Biology_at_Rensselaer
Goal of Project Using nematode worms as a
model system, experiments will explore how
septins help form cell-cell junctions, which may
be important for heart pumping and for
maintaining heart structure during aging.
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Picture Yourself Here!
Biology_at_Rensselaer http//j2ee.rpi.edu/biology