Research Focus:
Genetic Variation in Primate Genomes
For the last two decades, Professor Mark Batzer has studied the genetic variation in
primate genomes created by “mobile elements” or transposons.
Mobile elements are DNA segments that can make copies of themselves
that are then inserted elsewhere in the genome. These elements can
influence many important evolutionary processes, including mutation
and rearrangement of chromosomes.
Batzer utilizes high-throughput computational
analyses of genome sequences, along with molecular genetics, to analyze
the genetic variation associated with transposable elements in primates.
His goals are to better understand the impact of mobile elements on
genomes and to utilize mobile element-based genetic variation to gain
insight into human population genetics, non-human primate phylogenetic
relationships, and the genetic basis of healthy aging in humans.
His research has received major support from
the NSF, NIH, and other federal agencies and involves ongoing collaborative
projects with the University of Utah Health Sciences Center, LSU Health
Sciences Center in New Orleans, Pennington Biomedical Research Center,
and across the LSU campus.
Department of Biological Sciences
The Department of Biological Sciences has a strong research base centered on exceptional programs in structural biology, biological signaling mechanisms, and biodiversity.
The department’s new $26 million building provides researchers with high-technology equipment in the facility’s 130,000 square feet of space and 28 research laboratories. The new facility is also complemented by major renovations to the research laboratory space in the older Life Sciences building.
With more than 1,400 undergraduate majors, the department leads the state in students accepted into medical, dental, and veterinary schools. In fact, over the past three years, more than 50 of the program’s undergraduate students have published papers or presented their research at national and international scientific meetings.
In addition, faculty research spans a broad range of interests, from studies on whole ecosystems to the examination of the molecular characteristics of single proteins.
One example of the research being undertaken in the department is that of macromolecular crystallography, an area with huge potential for biomedical and pharmaceutical applications. With major National Science Foundation/National Institutes of Health funding for a protein crystallography beam line at the Center for Advanced Microstructures and Devices synchrotron light source, the department can move aggressively into this field of research.
One final part of the department’s work is community service. The nationally recognized Howard Hughes Medical Institute Undergraduate Biological Sciences Education Program and other outreach programs touch thousands of secondary and elementary school students and teachers each year.
