John F. Rawls, PhD

 Links:

Assistant Professor

Education:
PhD, Washington University in St. Louis, 2001

 Contact:

 john_rawls@med.unc.edu

 6312C Medical Biomolecular Research Bldg
 Campus Box 7545

 (919) 966- 8340 (office)
 (919) 966- 6336 (lab)

  Zebrafish Aquaculture Core Facility

  Center and Program Memberships:

• Center for Gastrointestinal Biology and Disease
• Curriculum in Genetics and Molecular Biology

Available Rotation Projects, Fall 2009 and Spring 2010:

- Test the sensitivity of zebrafish hosts to genetic variation in enteric bacteria: Our lab has collected a set of bacterial strains from the zebrafish and mouse intestine, and defined their phylogeny using 16S rRNA sequence analysis. Students will colonize germ-free zebrafish with individual bacterial strains, then compare host responses to different bacterial strains using transgenic reporters, wholemount in situ hybridization, and quantitative RT-PCR.

- Test the role of microRNAs on tissue-specific gene expression in zebrafish: Students will microinject pre-existing microRNA (miRNA) fluorescent reporter constructs into zebrafish embryos, then define the spatial and temporal pattern of miRNA-mediated gene regulation.