Project Lab

Project lab in Molecular Genetics

Jennifer Mansfield offers a year-long project laboratory course (BIOL BC3305-3306) for students interested in getting involved in molecular genetics research. The course combines instruction in techniques of molecular biology, bioinformatics (mainly transcriptomics) and microscopy that are central to current biomedical research, with small group participation in an original project related to my lab’s work as described above. Enrolled students also lead a year-long journal club in which we delve into primary literature in the field. Our educational goals are to build essential research skills including at the bench, in research design and communication, and through analysis of the literature that forms the broader context for our work.

Students who are interested in getting involved in research–in the Mansfield lab or elsewhere, are encouraged to start with Project Lab! A year of introductory biology with lab is all that is required in order to take the course. BIOL BC100 Molecular and Mendelian Genetics is a co-requisite, meaning students should be either currently enrolled or have previously taken it when they begin this course.

Current project lab students conduct research related to one of our lab’s main projects described here. 

In previous years students in my lab courses collaborated with the Glendinning and Morton groups to identify and characterize chemosensory receptor genes from the model insect Manduca sexta (the tobacco hornworm), and contributed to the international Manduca genome project.

Publications related to the Manduca project

Kanost... Shukla, A., Hirsh, A., Mansfield, J.H... and 111 others. 2016. Multifaceted biological insights from a draft genome sequence of the tobacco hornworm moth, Manduca sexta. Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 76:118-47.

Koenig C, Hirsh A, Bucks S, Klinner C, Vogel H, Shukla A, Mansfield JH, Morton B, Hansson BS, Grosse-Wilde E. 2015. A reference gene set for chemosensory receptor genes of Manduca sexta. Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 66: 51-63.

Afroz, A., Howlett, N., Shukla, A., Ahmad, F., Batista, E., Bedard, K., Payne, S., Morton, B., Mansfield, J.H. and J.I. Glendinning. 2013. Gustatory receptor neurons in Manduca sexta contain a TrpA1-dependent signaling pathway that integrates taste and temperature. Chemical Senses 38(7):605-17.

Howlett, N., Dauber, K.L., Shukla, A., Morton, B., Glendinning, J.I., Brent, E., Gleason, C.,
Islam, F., Izquierdo, D., Sanghavi, S., Afroz, A., Aslam, A., Barbaro, M., Blutstein, R., Borovka, M., Desire, B., Elikhis, A., Fan, Q., Hoffman, K., Huang, A., Keefe, D., Lopatin, S., Miller, S., Patel, P., Rizzini, D., Robinson, A., Rokins, K., Turlik, A., and J. H. Mansfield. 2012. Identification of chemosensory receptor genes in Manduca sexta and knockdown by RNA interference. BMC Genomics 13: 211.