WWAMI Science in Medicine Lecture March 29, 2010 by Dr. Stephen Hanes on research with yeast and fruit flies that could lead to the development of antifungal and anti-cancer drugs

Monday, March 29, 1-2 p.m.

UAA/APU Consortium Library, Room 307

Dr. Steven Hanes earned his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from Brown University in 1988. From 1988 to 1993, Dr. Hanes was a postdoctoral fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School. Dr. Hanes is a faculty candidate for the Alaska WWAMI associate/full professor of biomedical sciences position and an Alaska INBRE faculty candidate.

Dr. Hanes' research focuses on the study of model genes in model organisms. Dr. Hanes' laboratory uses Saccharomyces cerevisiae (baker's yeast) and Drosophila melanogaster (fruit flies) to study genes that have homologs in higher organisms, including humans. Dr. Hanes' research results are important for understanding how genes like bicoid (homeobox genes) function in normal cells and how their disruption causes certain human cancers (e.g. childhood leukemias). By conducting simple molecular and genetic experiments in yeast, Dr. Hanes and his lab are learning how yeast ESS1 and its human homolog P1N1 genes control cell growth; this is an understanding that might lead to the development of antifungal or anti-cancer drugs.

Read more about Dr. Hanes at this link. For more information about this event, contact Kathleen Boeckman at anksb1@uaa.alaska.edu.