Life Sciences Commons^™

Spokony Is A Hands-On Researcher, Teacher Of Genetics., Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

“When I was very little, my parents always took

us to the American Museum of Natural History,

the Bronx Zoo, and then even just watching on TV

we would pick the shows that were about science.”

That is how Dr. Rebecca Spokony traces back her

interest in science.

A native of Brooklyn Heights, New York City,

she remembers how when her mother was an

undergraduate, she worked on fruit flies. “Even

though she did not go on to work on science after

she graduated from college, it still was important

to her, and she shared that with me, and I …

Post-Transcriptional Regulation Of The Drosophila Anterior Determinant, Bicoid, John Mclaughlin

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In a wide variety of biological contexts, messenger RNA (mRNA) is known to have a complex and dynamic life cycle. In particular, the localization and translational control of mRNA are essential for proper development in eukaryotes. The fly Drosophila melanogaster is an excellent model for studying these processes. During D. melanogaster oogenesis, several mRNAs are trafficked and localized within the developing egg chamber, and regulated at the translational level to enable embryo patterning. One such mRNA, bicoid, is localized at the anterior of the oocyte and translated in the early embryo, where its encoded protein directs formation of the fly's …