The Range lab at Mississippi State University is recruiting graduate
students interested in evolutionary and developmental biology. Research
in the lab focuses on understanding how a network of three different
Wnt signaling branches (Wnt/Beta-catenin, Wnt/JNK, and Wnt/Ca2+)
coordinate the regulatory networks that establish territories along the
anterior-posterior axis, using sea urchin embryos as the primary model
system. Remarkably, functional and expression studies in other metazoans
(vertebrates, urochordates, hemichordates, echinoderms and cnidarians)
suggest that many aspects of this Wnt signaling network governing AP axis
specification identified in the sea urchin are part of the ancient AP
patterning mechanism that existed in the common ancestor of bilaterians
and cnidarians.
We also work closely with Counterman lab at MSU to study how Wnt signaling
is involved in butterfly wing pattern development. In collaboration,
we have begun to characterize the Wnt network of signaling governing
pigmentary and structurally-based color patterns.
The position is for a talented PhD student to work on a NIH funded
project beginning as early as the Spring of 2018. The student project
will focus on the roles of non-canonical Wnt signaling pathways
(Wnt/JNK and Wnt/Ca2+) in patterning the early AP axis in sea urchin
embryos. The student will also have opportunities to study similar Wnt
pathways in butterfly wing development. The position offers training in
a combination of molecular manipulations, high-throughput genome-wide
assays and bioinformatics, gene regulatory network analysis as well as
classical embryology.
Mississippi State University is situated in the quintessential college
town of Starkville and is located close to several major cities (e.g. New
Orleans, Memphis, Birmingham) as well as the beaches along the Gulf of
Mexico. You can learn more about the Department of Biological Sciences
at Mississippi State University at http://biology.msstate.edu.
Interested applicants should contact Dr. Ryan Range at
range@biology.msstate.edu With your inquiry, please include a CV,
unofficial transcript, and GRE scores if available.
Applications for Spring are accepted until November 1st, 2017.
Recent publications related to the position:
Integration of canonical and non-canonical Wnt signaling pathways patterns
the neuroectoderm along the anterior-posterior axis of sea urchin embryos.
Range RC, Angerer RC, Angerer LM. PLoS Biol. 2013;11(1):e1001467. doi:
10.1371/journal.pbio.1001467. PMID: 23335859
Specification and positioning of the anterior neuroectoderm in
deuterostome embryos. Range R. Genesis. 2014 Mar;52(3):222-34. doi:
10.1002/dvg.22759. Review. PMID: 24549984
An anterior signaling center patterns and sizes the anterior neuroectoderm
of the sea urchin embryo. Range RC, Wei Z. Development. 2016 May
1;143(9):1523-33. doi: 10.1242/dev.128165. PMID: 26952978
“Range, Ryan” <range@biology.msstate.edu>