Dr. Jocelyn Krebs awarded $225,000 grant to study links to Williams Syndrome in neural development of frogs

UAA biology professor, Dr. Jocelyn Krebs, was recently awarded a $225,000 three-year research grant titled, Role of the Williams Syndrome Transcription Factor (WSTF) in Xenopus neural development. The award will provide supplies and salaries to support student research in Krebs' lab.

The award was given by the Whitehall Foundation, a non-profit corporation focused on assisting basic research in vertebrate (excluding clinical) and invertebrate neurobiology in the United States.  Krebs' research is also supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Patients with Williams Syndrome have characteristic "elfin" features, overly social personalities, learning deficits and visual/spatial impairments.  These patients are missing a group of genes, one of which is WSTF.  To study the normal role of WSTF in development, Krebs and her team use the African clawed frog, Xenopus laevis, as a model in which to study WSTF since the frog gene is very similar to the human gene.  The embryonic frogs are deprived of WSTF as researchers observe what happens as they develop from fertilized egg to tadpole.  Frogs that lack WSTF have severely impaired brain and eye development and unusual facial features.  
One of the main goals of this research project is provide new insights into how reduced WSTF may contribute to the complex physical and behavioral abnormalities in Williams Syndrome patients.   

For more information on this research, please contact Dr. Jocelyn Krebs at (907) 786-1556 or afjek@uaa.alaska.edu.