From owner-drosophila@net.bio.net Mon Jun 06 23:00:00 1994 Newsgroups: bionet.drosophila Path: biosci!agate!howland.reston.ans.net!gatech!newsfeed.pitt.edu!dsinc!ub!acsu.buffalo.edu!ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu!v069t3q8 From: camlhall@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu (Linda Hall) Subject: Postdoc position Message-ID: News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.50AXP Sender: v069t3q8@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu (Maninder Chopra) Nntp-Posting-Host: ubvmsa.cc.buffalo.edu Organization: University at Buffalo Date: Tue, 7 Jun 1994 03:08:00 GMT Lines: 46 Ion Channels/Developmental Neurobiology Postdoctoral position available to work on mutants affecting calcium or sodium channels in Drosophila. Calcium Channel Studies: We have cloned, sequenced and analyzed expression patterns for several different subunits of voltage-sensitive calcium channels in Drosophila. For one subunit subtype we have identified mutants which cause embryonic lethality and have rescued the lethality with a cosmid clone. This subunit shows a variety of alternative splice forms which are expressed differentially in development and which are likely to exhibit different functional properties. We would now like to use transformation rescue of various cDNAs under the control of heat shock and endogenous promoters to define the role of the various splice forms in calcium channel function in development. This will be done in collaboration with others in the lab who are using baculovirus and Xenopus expression systems to study the functional characteristics of the cloned subunits. This work has recently received a Merit Award from the National Insitutes of Heart, Lung, and Blood and will be funded for 10 years. Sodium Channel Studies: This work began with temperature sensitive paralytic mutants that affect sodium channel properties (tip-E and seizure). The tip-E gene has been cloned by chromosome walking and verified by transformation rescue. It encodes a novel membrane protein required during development in order to have normal adult nervous system function. Future work will involve analysis of protein expression patterns, expression studies aimed at further defining tip-E function, and characterization of vertebrate homologues of the tip-E protein. Work in progress with the seizure locus has identified putative transcripts of this locus. Future work will involve characterization of the seizure gene product and defining its role in neuronal function. This work is funded by a Jacob Javits Award from the National Insitutes of Neurological Diseases and Stroke. For further information contact: Dr. Linda M. Hall Department of Biochemical Pharmacology SUNY at Buffalo, 329 Hochstetter Hall Buffalo, NY 14260 Phone: 716-645-2834 Fax: 716-645-3850 email: camlhall@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu .