Professional Background Research Interests Teaching Publications Professional Background B.A. 1973 . The main focus of my research is to study how the fusion of a sperm and egg initiates the program of development, how activation of the genetic information that is stored in the egg is used during the early stages of development to form the basic cells and tissues in the adult. The egg itself is a very highly specialized cell, containing the proteins or informational molecules required to begin this program of development. These proteins and informational molecules are stored in the egg in an inactive state.
Fertilization triggers their activation and the onset of development.
My basic research deals with identifying these informational molecules and the events at fertilization which trigger their activation. Most of the mRNAs that are stored in the unfertilized egg are translationally inactive. The information stored in these mRNAs cannot be translated because they are complexed with proteins which inhibit the binding of the cellular machinery required for protein synthesis. At fertilization, complete activation of both the stored maternal mRNAs and the translational machinery required to translate the mRNAs depends upon the activation of membrane protein tyrosine kinases and the phosphotidylinositol pathway. Using ribosome binding assays, we have recently shown that either the transient calcium increase or activation of protein kinase C triggered by the activation of these pathways is sufficient to change the structure of the mRNA-protein complexes which allows them to be translated.