Jodi McKay
Benny Mote
Cari Steelman
Jodi McKay is a Ph.D. student from Twin 
Falls, Idaho. She received a B.S. degree in Biology from Idaho State University in 2001. She is currently completing rotation. Jodi says her first exposure to genetics when she was participating in the DO-IT program through the University of Washington. This is a program for high school students with disabilities who are interested in science and technology. The program allows students to pick one of four "areas of emphasis" and she chose genetics. She has been hooked ever since. She is glad to be at Iowa State University and hopes to earn a doctorate degree in genetics.
Benny Mote is a 
Ph.D. student from Happy, Texas, who is in his first rotation this spring with Dr. C. K. Tuggle in the AGBG program. He received his BS degree in Animal Science in December 2002 from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Benny says he became interested in animal genetics as a youngster showing livestock and through his collegiate livestock judging experience. "These activities caused me to wonder what genetics
govern the displayed phenotypes of the 'perfect animals,'" he says, "and pursuing a
degree in animal genetics should help him answer some of these quesitons."
Cari Steelman is 
from Woodbury, Minnesota. She received a B.S. degree in Biotechnology from North Dakota State University in 2002. After arriving at Iowa State, Cari rotated through the Carpenter, Reecy, and Buss labs before joining Dr. Reecy's lab in the spring of 2003.
2000 Fellows
Symantha Miller received a B.S. in Equine Science from 
Colorado State University. She was admitted into the Interdepartmental Genetics program at Iowa State University in the Fall of 2000 and her present GPA is 3.78. She participated inrotations in the Nilsen-Hamilton, Lamont, Phillips and Reecy labs and joined Dr. Reecy's lab in the spring of 2001. In Dr. Reecy's lab Symantha will be working on analyzing the molecular events underlying skeletal muscle hypertrophy. She is currently examining microarray data obtained from inducing work overload in rat skeletal muscle to understand genes involved in muscle hypertrophy. Symantha will be attending the Growth Factor and Signal Transduction Conference in Ames, Iowa, September 2001.
Christian Paxton graduated in 1997 from Brigham Young University 
with a BS in Animal Science and a minor in English. In 2000 he also received his MS in Animal Science with a 3.79 GPA, again from BYU. His M.S. thesis was entitled "Identification of AFLP Markers Associated with Round Heart Disease in Turkeys," which was initially presented at the Conference for Research Workers in Animal Diseases in 1999. He was admitted into the Interdepartmental Genetics program in the fall of 2000 and presently has a 3.92 GPA. In March 2001 he attended the Midwest Conference for the American Society of Animal Science. As a first year student he has had the opportunity to rotate through the Nilsen-Hamilton, Tuggle, Rothschild, and Reecy labs and joined Dr. Reecy's lab in the spring of 2001. Presently he is trying to better understand the role of Tbx2 in the development of cardiac muscle by identifying genes that interact with Tbx2 during differentiation and development.
Wendy O. Wood graduated Summa Cum Laude from Colorado State University with a B.S. in Animal Science (Science Concentration) and a minor in Mathematics. She was a participant in the Colorado State McNair Scholars program. Upon admission to the Interdepartmental Genetics program in Fall of 2000, Wendy rotated through the labs of Drs. Susan Lamont, Marit Nilsen-Hamilton, and Susan Carpenter. She currently holds a 3.93 GPA. In the Spring of 2001, Wendy joined the Carpenter lab. Wendy's project explores the genotypic and phenotypic evolution of equine infectious anemia virus throughout the resulting disease course, using both molecular and computational tools. Wendy will be attending the American Society for Virology meeting in July of 2001 at Madison, WI.
Matthew A. Abbott
2255 Kildee
Voice: (515) 294-9084
E-mail: abbottm@iastate.edu
Matt Abbott received his BA in Biology from Grinnell College in the Spring of 1996. He was admitted into the Interdepartmental Genetics Program at Iowa State University in the Fall of 1997. He rotated through the laboratories of Rothschild, Carpenter, and Tuggle. Matt's research accomplishments during his rotation through the Rothschild lab led to a co-authored publication (Hu, Z.,L., M. Abbott, and M.F. Rothschild. 1998. J. Anim. Sci. 762749-2750). In the Spring of 1998, he joined the Tuggle laboratory. The focus of his research project is gene function in development. He is investigating the role of the homeobox gene Hox-a5 in the mouse nervous system. Matt's GPA at ISU is currently 3.84 and he was admitted to candidacy for the Doctor of Philosophy degree March, 2000. Matt attended the "Genetically Engineering and Cloning Animals Science, Society and Industry Symposium" in Park City, Utah, June 1998. Matt presented part of his thesis research at the "Transgenic Animal Research Conference", held August 1999 at Tahoe City, CA., and at the 2000 Mouse Molecular Genetics Conference at Cold Spring Harbor, NY. Matt received a ISU Genetics Fellowship for Spring 2001. His work is part of a manuscript currently being written on the analysis of a Hoxa5 over-expressing transgenic mouse line.
Gregory S. Park
1183 Vet. Med.
Voice: (515) 294-7961
E-mail: drsyn@iastate.edu
Gregory Park graduated Magna Cum Laude with a B.A. in Biology with minors in Chemistry and Sociology from Carroll College in Helena MT in 1996. Upon arrival at Iowa State University in June of 1997, Gregory rotated through the labs of G. Lindberg, Lamont, Tuggle, and Carpenter. He is now working for Susan Carpenter on a project investigating the biological and functional characterization of the competition between equine infectious anemia virus Rev and SR proteins for his dissertation research. While rotating through the lab of Dr. Lamont, Gregory's research contributed to a poster at the 1997 Plant and Animal Genome V meeting in San Diego CA. Gregory attended the 1998 American Society for Virology national meeting in Vancouver B.C. and he gave a poster presentation on his thesis work. He also attended a regional meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in October 1998 at Vermillion SD, where he gave an oral presentation, "Functional Characterization of EIAV Alternatively Spliced mRNAs." For his oral presentation, Gregory received an award of the Outstanding Graduate Student Presentation. Gregory also attended the American Society for Virology meeting in July of 1999 at Amherst MA and also in July of 2000 at Fort Collins CO. At the meeting in Fort Collins, Gregory gave an oral presentation, "SR proteins can inhibit equine infectious anemia virus Rev activity." Recent research has led to a second author publication (Belshan, M., G.S. Park, P. Bilodeau, C.M. Stoltzfus, and S. Carpenter. 2000. Binding of equine infectious anemia virus Rev to an exon splicing enhancer mediates alternative splicing and nuclear export of viral mRNAs. Molecular and Cellular Biology 203550-3557). Gregory received a ISU Genetics Fellowship for Spring 2000. Most recently, Gregory returned from attending the 2001 RNA Society Meeting in Banff, AB where he gave a poster presentation.