P.I. David Arnosti
 B.A. 1978-1982 (Lawrence University, Appleton,
Wisconsin).
 1982-1983 Thomas J. Watson Fellow; nuclear armament studies in Europe.
 1984 Internship at Foreign Policy magazine in
Washington, D.C.
 Ph.D. studies1984-1989 (University of California,
Berkeley) with RNA polymerase pioneer Mike
Chamberlin , where I studied bacterial sigma factors.
 Postdoc1990-1992 (University of Zurich) with Walter
Schaffner , discoverer of the transcriptional enhancer; work on mechanism of activation by the Oct-2 transcription factor, and my first introduction to
Drosophila technology, courtesy of Markus Noll.
 Postdoc1993-1996 (U. California, San Diego) with Mike Levine , who has made key contributions to our understanding of transcriptional regulation of development, including discovery of the homeobox.
 I know, Bill Gates looks a bit like me. No, I use a G4 Powerbook, so that’s where the similarity ends.
Postdoctoral Researchers
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (LZW) decompressor are needed to see this picture.
Dr. Sandhya Payankaulam received her training in India at
Bharathiar University (M.S. 1991) and the University of Madras
(Ph.D. 1997) in Biochemistry. She joined the Arnosti laboratory in 2003. Sandhya has in short order become an allround Drosophila molecular geneticist and biochemist. and is currently carrying out a biochemical analysis of cofactors of the
Knirps repressor.

Graduate Students
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (LZW) decompressor are needed to see this picture.
Carlos Martinez is a graduate student in the Genetics Program at
MSU. His undergraduate education was in Biochemical
Engineering at the Catholic University of Valparaiso, Chile. He has engineered a modular system that allows him to target specific repression domains to promoters in the Drosophila embryo, and is using chromatin immunoprecipitation methods to understand biochemical changes mediated by repressors in vivo. Carlos always has awesome lunches, thanks to Eu.
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (LZW) decompressor are needed to see this picture.
Priya Mani is a graduate student in the Cell and Molecular
Biology Program at MSU. Her undergraduate education was at the University of Mumbai, and she moved to East Lansing after a short stint at Western Michigan University. She is unraveling the biological activities of the CtBP corepressor, which is central to the activity of short-range repressors in
Drosophila and mammals. Priya’s motto has become “just do it!”
Martin Buckley is a graduate student in the Genetics Program, having gained his undergraduate training at St. Louis University. Besides his long, intense studies of Drosophila Retinoblastoma tumor suppressor cofactors, he is known to put in long, intense miles on his cool road bike.

Undergraduate Students
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (LZW) decompressor are needed to see this picture.
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (LZW) decompressor are needed to see this picture.
Taraz Buck is a computer science major with interests in chemistry and biochemistry. He has helped on projects genetic and biochemical, and is currently learning about the conservation of CtBP corepressors in diverse organisms. He is renowned for his interesting questions about every possible topic – if we get an invitation to Jeopardy, he’ll be our representative.
Keyunna Castleberry-Austin joined our lab in her freshman year to learn about gene regulation and molecular biology. She has done well in her cloning project, and landed an MSU-sponsored summer internship in the
Philippines to learn about medical research. She also was awarded a
Department of Biochemistry undergraduate research award for her work in our lab.
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (LZW) decompressor are needed to see this picture.
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (LZW) decompressor are needed to see this picture.
Jennifer Chen is a Biochemistry major (seen at left with friend and family) who graduated in spring of 2005, and liked MSU so much that she stuck around for more lab and course experience. She is working on testing genes to decipher the grammar of cis regulatory regions. She has also had experience in teaching visiting students from East Lansing
High School (at right).
Sarah McCormack is an MSU Professorial Assistant and has several years experience in the laboratory. She has worked on a variety of fly projects, including developing new staining techniques using quantum dot methodology. Sarah is figuring out what she wants to do after graduation.
Chu-Yin Yeh is an outstanding Biochemistry major who started in our laboratory as a lab helper and recently began working with Carlos Martinez on his research project.
She was awarded a research grant from the MSU Sigma Xi chapter for independent research in the laboratory. She is hoping to attend medical school after MSU.
Meghana Joshi has been volunteering in the laboratory, learning the ropes of molecular biology. She is seen here with two helpful grad students.
Keep on cloning!

Lab Helpers
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (LZW) decompressor are needed to see this picture.
Laya Bhavaraju started working with us in spring 2005, and is already a skilled fly media preparer and capable supervisor.
Nick Day is the most cheerful Biochemistry major we’ve met; here he is getting ready to clean up a storm. He has conducted experimental research in microbial fermentation in his spare time, specializing on the conversion of complex carbohydrates into CO
2
and CH
3
CH
2
OH.
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (LZW) decompressor are needed to see this picture.
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (LZW) decompressor are needed to see this picture.
Nicole Biluk started her work with us in the summer of 2005; she is a widely traveled Biochemistry major with an interest in carrying out her own research in the future.
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (LZW) decompressor are needed to see this picture.
Philip Williams is a Biochemistry major who helped out in 2004-5; here he demonstrates his masterful technique in the food prep kitchen.

Add this to the Interesting Links Page under the category “Useful Fly Sites”: http://flybase.bio.indiana.edu/allied-data/lk/pedigree.html
Label the link “Who trained whom in the world of Drosophila”