>>The Hammer Lab is in ARL's Division of Biotechnology and is devoted to better understanding the genomic and evolutionary factors shaping patterns of human variation and to testing models of human origins.  The Division of Biotechnology  provides investigators and students with state-of-the-art facilities necessary to carry out leading-edge biological, chemical, and engineering research. The Division specializes in providing high-end equipment that is difficult for individual investigators to afford and advanced technical assistance in the application of this equipment and other modern analytical methods.

>>The non-profit DNA Shoah Project is building a database of genetic material from Shoah survivors and their descendants in an effort to reunite families torn apart by the Holocaust. More than seventy  years after the Second World War, thousands of families still seek information about loved ones who disappeared. The Project aims to match displaced relatives, provide Holocaust orphans and lost children with information about their biological families and eventually, when the database has reached sufficient size, assist European governments with Holocaust-era forensic identifications. The work is urgent as the world is losing aging Holocaust survivors at an alarming rate. The Project's goal is to collect as many DNA samples as possible from the international community of survivors and their families. There is no cost to participate, though donations are welcome.  Your tax-deductible contributions enable the DNA Shoah Project to expand its efforts throughout the country and around the world.

Barnes Co-Authors Publication on Memory and Aging

Carol Barnes, Ph.D., Director of the Evelyn F. McKnight Brain Institute (EMBI), is one of the authors of an upcoming paper in the Neurobiology of Aging Journal.  This publication is the oldest journal that specifically addresses questions regarding the aging brain. 

The article is entitled, “Age-related changes in Arc transcription and DNA methylation within the hippocampus.”  Its thesis is that the transcription of genes that support memory processes are likely to be impacted by the normal aging process.  Because Arc is necessary for memory consolidation and enduring synaptic plasticity, the authors examine Arc transcription within the aged hippocampus. 

Not only did the authors find significant age-associated changes in the transcription of the Arc gene within the hippocampus, but they also identified one of the potential causes of this change. This process is known as DNA methylation, and involves the addition of chemical ‘marks’ to the DNA. This ‘marking’ of the DNA affects whether a gene can be transcribed without changing the sequence of the DNA. The traditionally held belief has been that these marks occur during development, and remain stable for the entire life of the individual. Recent work has challenged this view, and instead indicates that DNA methylation can take place within minutes and last only hours. The work recently completed in the ARL Division of Neural Systems, Memory and Aging and the Evelyn F. McKnight Institute by Dr. Marsha Penner (working in Dr. Carol Barnes’ laboratory) indicates that this process is disrupted in the aged brain and is likely to contribute to alterations in gene transcription. These changes may result in less efficient memory storage and retrieval during aging.

Authors are M.R. Penner, T.L. Roth, M.K. Chawla, L.T. Hoang, E.D. Roth, F.D. Lubin, D.J. Sweatt, P.F. Worley, and C.A. Barnes.  In addition to Barnes and Penner, other authors with current or past connections to EMBI include Chawla and Hoang.

>>The objective of the Evelyn F. McKnight Brain Institute at the University of Arizona is to uncover the neurobiological changes in the brain that cause memory to decline as we age, and to understand what characterizes "normal" from pathological aging. The premise is that if age-related brain and behavioral changes associated with normal aging are well enough understood, then it will be possible to develop research directions that lead to practical recommendations for pharmacological and lifestyle interventions for maintenance of cognitive health throughout life. The Institute will identify and promote cross-disciplinary and collaborative research initiatives in support of its objective. The University Of Arizona Evelyn F. McKnight Brain Institute was established in November 2006 as a unit of the Arizona Research Laboratories (ARL).  The Director of the McKnight Institute reports to the Director of ARL and the VP for Research.

Biotechnology - Human Origins Genotyping Laboratory (HOGL)

 Tucson Weekly Features HOGL Projects and People

An extensive description of the Human Origins Genotyping Laboratory (HOGL) and its many projects appears in the December 10th issue of the Tucson Weekly. Author Jim Nintzel conducts an in-depth interview with HOGL Project Lead Matthew Kaplan, who introduces the Genographic Project and how HOGL provides DNA testing for this international research collaboration with IBM and National Geographic. Using a self-administered DNA testing kit, a participant can scrape off cells inside his or her cheek with the small brush and send the sample back in the enclosed vial to the National Geograhic Society.  Over a thousand of these samples are routed each week to HOGL for analysis. The participant receives a personalized report mapping how his/her ancestors migrated north from Africa.  Click here for the complete feature article.

The feature also discusses other projects and collaborations underway at HOGL. One such collaboration is the DNA Shoah Project sponsored by ARL Biotechnology.  Barbara Fransway, Education Coordinator for the DNA Shoah Project, explains the means by which this nonprofit project aims to reunite families that were separated by the Holocaust.  The article highlights Fransway’s development of the DNA Shoah Project curriculum and her work with Palo Verde High School’s $265,000 Innovations in Education grant.

Nizel covers the laboratory’s work in conservation biology, as well, detailing HOGL research on Southwest tortoise populations and the group’s international research on African bushmeat populations 

The Tucson Weekly feature article is thorough, engaging and inspiring as noted by the follow-up comments on the article web page.

>>The Human Origins Genotyping Laboratory (HOGL) was formed by ARL to service the DNA testing needs of large-scale projects for both the academic community and the private sector. Over the last few years HOGL has expanded to meet the needs of National Geographic and IBM's "Genographic Project." HOGL has built infrastructure to extract, quantify, normalize, and amplify DNA from thousands of samples at a time. ARL’s  Biotechnology Computing Facility (BCF) has constructed a custom Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) to track samples from entry into the laboratory, through all of the testing procedures, to completed results. Through collaborations with the University of Arizona Genetics Core (UAGC), HOGL is capable of providing the client with cheek cell collection swabs and barcoded vials and performing all manipulations necessary to provide nearly any form of genetic data set for any type of client.

Million-Dollar Grant Project has Six Graduate Students Already at Work

The first six doctoral students are on-board with the five year-NIH Training grant "Computational and Mathematical Modeling of Biomedical Systems” according to Timothy W. Secomb, Ph.D., Principal Investigator of the project and Director of Arizona Research Laboratory's (ARL) Division of Microcirculation.  The grant project will prepare the students for research careers in the computational analysis and mathematical modeling of biological systems. 

The first trainees are (row 1): Brian Anderson (Physics), Ian Borukhovich (Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics), Brendan Fry (Applied Mathematics), (row 2): Bennett Kalafut (Physics), David Lyttle (Applied Mathematics), and Deborah Shelton (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology). 

Each year, the NIH grant will support six students who are selected from participating graduate programs. The students will take required coursework in their own programs in addition to courses in bioinformatics, biostatistics, and mathematical modeling. Three of the current positions will be filled for two years and three other positions will be filled for one year.  Applications for three positions opening in the fall of 2010 will be accepted in the next couple of months.

Secomb further explained that researchers with math skills are critically needed now in many areas of biomedical science and even more researchers with computational analysis skills will be needed in the future as sophisticated theoretical approaches and technologies continue to evolve. Biology can be described via words in a narrative fashion, by basic analog readings such as heart rate, or via sophisticated analytical equations that describe and predict the processes and their normal variations. Mathematical models provide a way to better understand biological systems and how the normal physiological system works in order that health care professionals can more accurately diagnose and more effectively treat diseases.

>>The mission of the Microcirculation Division is to provide interdisciplinary research and educational programs in which engineering and mathematical approaches are applied in physiology and other health sciences. The focus of research is on physiological transport, especially in the microcirculation, in normal and pathological conditions. Teaching activities include offering undergraduate and graduate courses and training graduate and postdoctoral students in the areas described above. This unique interdisciplinary focus of the Microcirculation Division builds on and enhances major strengths of the UA in related areas of biomathematics, physical sciences, and health sciences. Learn more about Microcirculation on this site.