The Hood lab is looking to recruit 2 PhD students to study mitochondrial function in relation to the tradeoff between reproduction and longevity in the wild house mouse. Specifically, we are interested in tissue-specific variation in respiratory function and oxidative stress of mitochondria throughout the life of an animal. Students will contribute to the funded project and develop their own research questions. Students will receive RA support. During at least 1 semester per year, the student will be encouraged to teach laboratories to gain experience that will be critical to future endeavors.
The project is supported by a 5-year NSF CAREER award to Hood. Work on mitochondrial function is relatively new to the Hood lab but we work closely with an established expert on mitochondrial function, Dr. Andreas Kavazis in the Dept. of Kinesiology at Auburn and another lab with an emerging interest in mitonuclear interaction and sexual selection, Dr. Geoff Hill, Dept. of Biological Sciences. Prospective students can learn more about the lab and read the abstracts of our funded projects at http://www.thehoodlaboratory.com/#!funding/cto0
Interested applicants should send an email to Dr. Wendy Hood at wrhood@auburn.edu. In the email, please include a description of prior research experience, your training in evolutionary biology, physiology, and cell biology, your undergraduate and graduate institution (if post-masters), GPA and GRE scores, and the email address and/or phone number for 1-2 references. You can learn more about Biological Sciences at Auburn and our grad program at http://www.auburn.edu/academic/cosam//departments/biology/index.htm.