About Charles Hi all! My research background is mainly in the areas of genetics, and molecular/cellular neuroscience but i am interested in just about anything scientific. Especialy intriguing to me are human evolution and the emerging understanding of the relationship between genetics and human behavior (Anyone carry that pesky allele encoding a low-affinity Nor-epinephrine receptor? ). I foresee some interesting and unprecedented ethical dilemmas for society! After six years in my phd program, i took a leave of absence in the fall of 2007. Despite swearing "never!", i have been trying to return and finish up the doctorate but funding issues have delayed me for a year or so. This has given me the opportunity to teach biology for several semesters (and also to work in a state diagnostic facility where i mainly dealt with amorous afflictions of cattle). I'm starting to realize that maybe i enjoy telling people about science more than actually poking those worms, pestering those Drosophila, lysing those cells or pushing those rats. That's why i'm here! I welcome any input. Background and education: BS Biology and Psychology double major. University of New Mexico 1999. As an undergraduate i worked for several years in the lab of Dr. Dennis Feeney where i participated in research geared towards developing pharmacological interventions following traumatic brain injury and stroke. I learned a lot and enjoyed participating in rat behavioral work. Dr. Feeney's lab was in the psychology department and it was interesting to study brain injury from the psychology perspective rather than a pure biology perspective. It gave me insight into how different disciplines might approach the same problem and what each can bring to the table (the biologists would ask how i enjoyed doing that "touchy-feely" stuff over in psychology). I also worked in the lab of Dr. Andreas Wagner where we studied evolution rates of genes depending upon their importance to an organism. It was really mind opening work. MA and Mphil in biology. Columbia University 2000-2007. My doctoral work was conducted in the lab of Dr. Martin Chalfie. My research focused on the sense of touch in the simple soil nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. The sense of touch in c. elegans offers a great system for addressing many fundamental biological questions. A fully sequenced genome, fully characterized cell lineage, short life cycle, and the presence of different types of tissue in a 1,000 cell animal make c. elegans extremely useful for studying phenomena that simpler organisms don't exhibit and more complicated organisms might present experimental difficulties in addressing. Upon encountering a physical stimuli such as a poke with an eybrow hair, c. elegans will reverse direction to avoid the stimuli. This simple observation laid the ground for mutagenesis studies which have identified the genes underlying this simple behavior. Years of work have led to an understanding of the handful of neurons involved in the perception of the stimulus as well as the molecular machinery which actually transduce physical force. The fact that only a handful of c. elegans neurons are involved in percieving physical force has provided an opportunity to understand the complex choreography of gene expression needed to produce a very specific neuronal subtype. My work focused on understanding the gene expression events involved in determining and maintaining a touch neuron fate. New Mexico dept. of Agriculture, Veterinary Diagnostic Services. Nov. 2007 thru Feb. 2008. NMDA VDS is a state diagnostic facility which serves to diagnose and monitor a wide variety of diseases afflicting animals in the the state of New Mexico. My work focused on the large scale use of real-time PCR techniques to diagnose economicaly important diseases of cattle and surveilance of wild bird populations for the presence of Avian Influenza. This position was beneficial because i had the opportunity to see how science is conducted in a non-academic public service capacity. A very small number of scientists are responsible for the public's first line of defense against a myriad of possible disease outbreaks. Table-top, interagency outbreak scenarios clearly illustrated just how thin that line of defense is. At the time of my employment, there were only two people in the state of New Mexico certified to diagnose Avian Influenza using PCR based techniques (myself and my supervisor). The diagnostic demands of any outbreak event would quickly overwhelm local resources. Current position: Biology instructor Central New Mexico Community College Teaching human Anatomy and Physiology as well as Introductory biology has been a great experience and a nice contrast to lab work. Teaching has required me to widen my knowledge base beyond my specific field and has invigorated my interest in a variety of topics that i didn't consider when focused on one area of reseach. It's good for me as a scientist to have to consider the big picture.

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