The Hood lab at Auburn University is looking to recruit 2 grad students (Ph.D. preferred) for fall 2017 to evaluate the role that mitochondria play in variation in reproductive fitness and longevity of animals. Students may work on our wild-derived house mouse model or alternate species.
The project is supported by a 5-year NSF CAREER award to Hood. Our lab works closely with an established expert on mitochondrial function, Dr. Andreas Kavazis in the Dept. of Kinesiology at Auburn and a lab with an emerging interest in mitonuclear interaction and sexual selection, Dr. Geoff Hill, Dept. of Biological Sciences. Please review the papers listed below and the abstracts of our funded projects (http://www.thehoodlaboratory.com/funding) to learn more about future directions of our lab.
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. If available, please also include an unofficial copy of your undergraduate and graduate institution transcripts (if post-masters), GPA and GRE scores, an example of your scientific writing, and the email address for 1-2 references. Please contact Dr. Hood ASAP if you would like to be considered for invitation to our graduate student recruitment day in January.
You can learn more about Biological Sciences at Auburn and our grad program at http://www.auburn.edu/cosam/departments/biology/grad/index.htm
The results of this paper served as the foundation for our NSF and NIH grants.
Mowry, AV, AN Kavazis, AE Sirman, WK Potts, WR Hood (2016) Reproduction Does Not Adversely Affect Liver Mitochondrial Respiratory Function but Results in Lipid Peroxidation and Increased Antioxidants in House Mice. PLoS ONE 11(8): e0160883.
This review gives recommendations for future research on mitochondrial function and life history variation. The ideas described herein will serve as the foundation for many future studies in the lab.
Zhang, Y and WR Hood. 2016. Current versus future reproduction and longevity: a re-evaluation of predictions and mechanisms. Journal of Experimental Biology 219: 3177-3189
PDF's of the papers can be found at: http://www.thehoodlaboratory.com/publications