Welcome, our lab is in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, at Texas A&M University. Our research goal is to understand how cells couple their growth with their division. Knowing which cellular growth pathways, and how these pathways, affect the machinery of cell division will allow modulations of cell proliferation, because such processes dictate how fast cells multiply.

To address this problem, we use baker's yeast as a model organism. This microbe has several useful properties, ideally suited to our research objectives:

• • In yeast initiation of cell division is coupled to the formation of a bud. Hence, one can monitor the timing of initiation of division by phase microscopy.

  • Yeast can grow in steady-state continuous cultures. This allows for precise control and monitoring of metabolic parameters.

  • Yeast is a genetically tractable eukaryote. It has a machinery of cell division that is very similar to that of human cells.

For graduate students interested in a rotation in the lab, see this video.