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Individual Student Views - 2003
Felipe H. Santiago-Tirado
Bretscher Lab
BMCB (entered program fall 2003)
From: Ponce, Puerto Rico
Undergraduate: University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez Campus; BS (Industrial
Biotechnology) in 2003
Statement
Why Cornell? Simply because of the environment--not only the natural
setting of the Finger Lakes area, which is “gorgeous”, but the
friendly nature of the departments, professors, staff, and students. Everything
combines to make you wake up every day, happy to go to the lab and continue
on your experiments. The Graduate School, as well as the BMCB program, really
work for the students. Everyone wants you to succeed. Also, the interdisciplinary
way in which the grad programs are built not only allows you to make connections
outside your field, but makes learning new things and applying them easy.
After visiting for a weekend and noticing all of these things, and knowing
the kind of research that is done here every day, how could I not come to
Cornell?
Research
In most eukaryotes, the several regions of the cell are differentially
organized, a phenomenon called polarity. Our lab tries to understand
how polarity is established, maintained and regulated. We use two model
systems to answer that question: epithelial cells and the budding
yeast. My work concentrates on elucidating how the essential
myosin motor in yeast, Myo2p, binds secretory vesicles and transports them
into the bud. In
particular, I am looking at the role that phosphoinositides may
have in this process. To tackle this problem, I apply such tools
as yeast genetics, biochemistry, and microscopy.
Awards
2003-04 SUNY Underrepresented Minority Fellowship
2006-present NIH Predoctoral Fellowship
Publications
Legesse-Miller A, Zhang S, Santiago-Tirado FH, Van Pelt CK, Bretscher
A. (2006) Regulated phosphorylation of budding yeast's essential myosin
V heavy chain, Myo2p. Mol Biol Cell. 17:1812-21.
Conference presentations
2007 NERY Meeting (oral presentation): A Role for PI-4P in Myo2p secretory
functions.
2007 Cold Spring Harbor Yeast Meeting (oral presentation): PI-4P is important
for Myo2p-secretory functions.
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