Rod Hill, Ph.D.

Summary: Our lab team is a collegiate group of scholars. We work together to learn more about the regulation of processes that underpin growth, body composition and development. Much of our work is at the cellular and molecular level with some projects also working at systems and whole animal levels. Projects are designed to give each student the opportunity to learn and be responsible for a specific set of studies as their own piece of a larger program. We use modern cellular and molecular technologies in discovery. Lately, we have also been using nanotechnology as a means of drug delivery and in better understanding of the biological mechanisms that we study.

Minimum Classes: Cell biology, anatomy and physiology, or evidence of previous biomolecular laboratory experience.

Projects: Project 1. We have found that we can overcome the challenge of studying gene regulation in mature muscle and fat cells by introducing gene modulators using nanostructures. In this project, you will study the roles of specific genes that regulate function in either muscle or fat cells. You will modify gene expression profiles using nanostructure-mediated transfection. Techniques include – cell culture, qRTPCR, confocal fluorescence microscopy, techniques to develop special nanoconstructs, cell transfection. Project 2. We have a large repository of tissues from previous studies of the regulation of growth, body composition and development. We are adding to our understanding of processes by probing further regulatory pathways not yet characterized. In this project, you will investigate regulatory processes by designing new probes for genes and proteins expressed in tissues of animals that vary in energetic efficiency. Techniques include – qRTPCR, Western blot, modeling of canonical pathways.