MOLECULAR TECHNIQUES IN PLANT SCIENCE
June 29 - July 19, 2007
Application Deadline: March 15, 2007

Instructors:
Thomas Brutnell, Boyce Thompson Institute
Elizabeth Toby Kellogg, University of Missouri
Vivian Irish, Yale University
Jennifer Normanly, University of Massachusetts

This course provides an intensive overview of topics in plant physiology and development, focusing on molecular genetic approaches to understanding plant biology. It emphasizes recent results from Arabidopsis thaliana and other plants and provides an introduction to current methods used in plant molecular biology. It is designed for scientists with some experience in molecular techniques or in plant biology who wish to work with Arabidopsis and other plants using the latest technologies in genetics and molecular biology. The course consists of a vigorous lecture series, a hands-on laboratory, and informal discussions. Discussions of important topics in plant research will be presented by the instructors and by invited speakers. These seminars will include plant morphology and anatomy; plant development (such as development of flowers, leaves, male and female gametophytes, and embryos); perception of light and photomorphogenesis; synthesis, function and perception of hormones. Lectures describing bioinformatics tools available to the plant community, and the resources provided by plant genome projects are also included. Speakers will provide overviews of their fields, followed by in-depth discussions of their own work. The laboratory sessions will provide an introduction to important techniques currently used in plant research. These include studies of plant development, mutant analysis, histochemical staining, transient gene expression, applications of green fluorescent protein fusions, protein interaction and detection, proteomics approaches, transcription profiling, and techniques commonly used in genetic and physical mapping. The course also includes several short workshops on important themes in genetics.

The broader impact of the course is the training of plant researchers from throughout the world in the most recent knowledge and skills of the field. In addition, they are introduced to the available resources and tools of advanced research in plant biology. The students are chosen to include those who will likely disseminate information acquired in the course most broadly. Many of the students are likely to have educational and supervisory responsibilities in the near future; others are already professors or post-doctoral fellows, who will pass on what they have learned in the course. Many of the students who take the course go on to lead their own laboratories and the course provides a foundation of knowledge for these new lab heads. Female and male students have been equally represented in the course in recent years. This course will be advertised widely, and institutional programs that facilitate recruiting and retention of underrepresented groups into the life sciences professoriate (e.g. NSF-supported AGEP programs and life sciences REU sites) will be contacted specifically. The fact that the students come from a variety of backgrounds and that they are exposed to multiple approaches during the course will likely increase the chance of their conducting interdisciplinary research that is so vital for today's research.

Invited speakers include:
Kenneth Birnbaum, New York University
Judy Callis, University of California, Davis
John Celenza, Boston University
Savithramma Dinesh-Kumar, Yale University
Kevin Folta, University of Florida
Erich Grotewold, The Ohio State University
Stacey Harmer, University of California, Davis
David Jackson, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Georg Jander, Boyce Thompson Institute, Cornell University
Thomas Nuhse, University of Manchester, UK
Torbert Rocheford, University of Illinois
Jocelyn Rose, Cornell University
Eric Schaller, Dartmouth University
Ian Sussex, Yale University
Peter Tiffin, University of Minnesota
Marja Timmermans, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory


This course is supported with funds provided by the National Science Foundation

Cost (including board and lodging): $3,690
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