Andrew G. Palmer

 

Degrees

Awards/Recognitions

Research Interests (General):

Life survives by gathering, processing, and utilizing information about the world. This information is as critical at the molecular level as it is at the organismal level. The single most predominant mechanism for the transmission of such information is via molecular signals in which the desired information is stored within the molecule itself. Such information may simply convey broad effects (such as how water directs protein folding) or may induce highly specific effects (as in enzyme-substrate recognition). The subsequent integration of these signals (i.e. response to the molecule) can have broad effects. From protein folding to directing the foraging behavior of ants such chemical information is the common currency of all living systems at nearly all levels. The presence of such a unifying theme at multiple levels of complexity suggests these 'infomolecules' cannot be ignored and can often be used as models for evolutionary divergence (How enzymes evolve to accept different substrates and/or catalyze different reactions) but may themselves play a role in evolution. I am interested in studying how this cycle of 'infomolecularly-driven evolution' may occur.

My current research is on the parasitic plant Striga asiatica. My work on this system has been focused in two particular areas. First, the isolation of new host-derived signals which direct activity in the parasite. Second, mapping out the events which occur following host perception. My studies have exposed me to a variety of techniques from organic synthesis, fluorescence/confocal microscopy, to molecular biology.

I also have considerable intrest in the area of undergraduate education in the sciences. Biochemistry should be exciting not scary!