Home --> Eric Peterson's Profile
   
  The UC LEADS program at UC Davis has helped to shape my future by pushing me to become a more involved student and leader. UC LEADS provides a network of caring staff members that support and encourage all of the scholars' activities. UC LEADS has made us aware of what is necessary to become a productive graduate student while offering seminars that will prepare, guide and deliver us to our goals. UC LEADS also provides funding for attending professional conferences as well as required conferences, all of which provide a unique interaction between students and faculty members from multiple institutions. The UC LEADS program has opened my eyes to many possibilities and has provided me with the structure and guidance necessary to achieve any number of goals.


[  My Curriculum Vitae (DOC)  |  UC LEADS Essay (DOC)  |  UC LEADS Statement of Purpose (DOC)  ]

Awards and Honors:
  • UC LEADS Scholar
  • Transfer Student Fellowship Program Scholar (TSFP) Scholar
  • Biological Undergraduate Scholars Program (BUSP) Scholar
  • Member of Golden Key Honors Society
  • Deans List Fall 2002
  • Currently conducting research with J. David Furlow in the department of Neurobiology Physiology and Behavior; my assistance has been acknowledged for a paper in review titled: "Spatiotemporal Retinoid-X Receptor Activation Detected in Live Vertebrate Embryos"
  • Teacher's Assistant for CHA 101L Anatomy Lab, Winter 2004, UC Davis


Temporal and Spatial Detection of Biologically Active Retinoid X Receptor in Vivo
Mentor: Ayala Luria and J. David Furlow, Section of Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior, University of California, Davis

The nuclear retinoid X receptor (RXR) functions as a ligand-activated transcription factor. Most studies on RXR have focused on its role as a heterodimeric partner, yet little is known about its own activation pattern during development, and the distribution of potential endogenous ligands. The aim of this study is to visualize the distribution of activated RXR alpha in live transgenic Xenopus Laevis embryos across a wide range of developmental stages. We adopted a nuclear receptor Gal4 fusion/UAS E1B minimal promoter based reporter system for our assay. We observe strong activation of the RXR alpha ligand-binding domain in a segment of the spinal cord just posterior to the hindbrain. This activation is first detected in neurula stage embryos and persists up to swimming tadpole stages, after which activation strongly declines. Addition of exogenous ligands, such as 9-cis retinoic acid (9-cis RA) or all-trans retinoic acid (atRA), expands the activation of RXR all along the spinal cord but not in the brain. Embryos expressing Gal4-RXR alpha fusion with a deletion in the ligand-dependent activation domain (AF2) show no reporter gene activation. Our purpose is to observe activation patterns of Gal4-RXR alpha in the developing spinal cord, which may suggest the existence of RXR ligand "hot-spots".

[  Download Research Poster (PPT)  |  Download My UCSF Research Paper (DOC)  ]


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Last Updated: February 12, 2008