The MMBR program is a nine-week intensive research experience for advanced undergraduates. Students attend lectures and seminars, and conduct individual research projects under the guidance of faculty mentors drawn from the MBL and other institutions throughout the country.
Students receive room and board, research expenses, and a stipend.
My laboratory works on the role of second messengers in signaling cell cycle events. For a number of years we studied cAMP-dependent phosphorylation during mitosis in cultured cells and in fertilized sea urchin eggs. The coelomic fluid of sea urchins contains motile, phagocytic cells called coelomocytes that undergo a dramatic spreading reaction when physically stressed or placed in hypotonic medium. The ability of coelomocytes to rapidly and extensively remodel their cytoskeleton in response to external stimuli suggested this as another model for testing the functional effects of exogenous Hsp. We have demonstrated that Hsp 70 inhibits the injury response of sea urchin coelomocytes, suggesting that it acts at the cell surface or is internalized in such a way as to inhibit signals regulating the polymerization of the cytoskeleton.