The Wittkopp Lab at U. Michigan

Patricia Wittkopp, Principal Investigator (CV)
Dr. Wittkopp's studies of evolution and development in Drosophila started during her undergraduate research with Dr. Greg Gibson (currently at NCSU) at the University of Michigan (B.S. 1997), and continued during her doctoral work at the University of Wisconsin with Dr. Sean Carroll (Ph.D. 2002). From 2002-2005, Dr. Wittkopp studied the evolution of gene expression as a Damon Runyon Cancer Research Postdoctoral Fellow with Dr. Andy Clark at Cornell University. Coming full circle, the Wittkopp lab was officially founded at U. Michigan in August 2005.

Gizem earned her B.S. in Molecular Biology and Genetics in 2005 from Bogazici University (Istanbul, Turkey). She also spent a summer studying evolution and development with Dr. Matthias Gerberding at the Max Planck Institute (Tuebingen, Germany). Gizem officially joined the Wittkopp lab in April 2006, with a primary focus on studying the effects of new mutations on gene expression in yeast. She is also creating transgenic Drosophila to study regulatory divergence in flies.

Erin joined the lab in July 2006 with a diverse background in Evolutionary Biology, Economics, and Mathematics from Case Western Reserve University (B.S. 2006) and a summer spent at the National Institutes of Health, Division of Computational Bioscience. She is currently working on a variety of bioinformatic projects and begins the biostatistics master's degree program in September 2006.

With a master's degree from U. Rochester (2003), Adam joined the lab in July 2006 with a strong background in molecular biology. He also has prior experience studying evolution and development, having done his undergraduate honors research with Dr. Jim Langeland (Kalamazoo College). Adam only recently joined the lab, and we look forward to working with him.

Emma joined the lab within her first few weeks as a freshman at UM in September 2005. She studies the genetic basis of pigmentation differences between D. americana and D. novamexicana using a combination of genetic, transgenic, and molecular genetic techniques. She has become our immunohistochemistry and pigmentation scoring expert.

Gabe is a senior, pre-med, political science major who began working in the lab in Janurary 2006. He is investigating the molecular evolution of pigmentation genes in D. americana and D. novamexicana, and characterizing pigmentation in isofemale lines of these species. Gabe's current specialty is making troublesome PCR reactions work and aligning sequences with heterozygous indels.

After earning her B.S. in Biology from Cornell, Belinda became the founding member of the Wittkopp Lab (August 2005). She was instrumental in setting up the lab and getting all projects up and running. Her expertise, organization, and personality are sorely missed! In August 2006, Belinda moved to George Washington University to pursue her master's degree in Public Health.

Emily spent a six-week rotation with us in March and April, 2006, cloning tan cis-regulatory elements from D. americana. She has since joined the Csankovszki lab in the department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology.

Ceyda rotated in the lab during the winter 2006 semester. During her rotation, she worked on cloning the tan gene from D. americana and characterized expression of ebony GFP reporter genes in D. melanogaster.

Alekhya worked in the lab during her freshman year (2005-2006) as a participant in the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP). She analyzed the genetic basis of pigmentation differences between D. americana and D. novamexicana using interspecific crossses. Currently, Alekhya is focusing on her engineering studies, working toward her bachelor's degree.

Monica joined the lab in September 2005 as a history major with a renewed interest in biology. In December 2005, she left to study abroad in Paris, where she is continuing to do biological research. While in the lab, Monica helped characterize pigmentation in D. americana.