Below are some of the current activities going on in the Smith lab:
Kathleen's current NSF grant is focused on the differentiation and migration of cranial neural crest in marsupials, and its relation to the regionalization of the developing neural plate. Her current grant (NSF IBN 0316353) has the following specific aims:
1) To examine whether the population of neural crest cells to the first arch and frontal nasal region exhibits any subdivision into subpopulations
2) To examine the possible role of the isthmus as an organizing center in at the midbrain/hindbrain boundary, by establishing the relation between FGF8 expression, and Hoxa2 expression in the neural plate and migrating neural crest cells into aches 1 and 2.
3) To test the hypothesis that genetic differentiation of R3 and R5 as exhibited by Krox 20 expression is a necessary component of the suppression of neural crest migration from these zones.
It is hoped that these comparative experiments will distinguish between whether gene expression retains a conserved relation relative to neural tube differentiation, or whether gene expression retains a conserved relation relative to neural crest development.
Kathleen is also working on the material on neural crest migration in the JP Hill collection.
Alex van Nievelt is continuing his work on the relation between dental development and life history factors in mammals.
Anna Keyte is working on somitogenesis in marsupials.
Arielle Linderman is working on the development of the heart in marsupials.
Sarah Cork will be spending the summer working on heterochronies in brain development in marsupial and placental mammals, with particular focus on the olfactory tract.