Developmental Biology

The Molecular Biosciences program offers numerous opportunities for research and study in numerous areas of Developmental Biology. Students can choose to enter the Rutgers/UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School Joint Program in Cell and Developmental Biology, which includes over 100 research laboratories working on cutting-edge problems related to the molecular and cellular mechanisms of development.

This is a highly interactive group of laboratories that support interdisciplinary approaches to complex problems in development using genetic, biochemical and biophysical methods.

Problems under investigation extend from the molecular genetic basis of development, using Caenorabditis elegans, Drosophila and transgenic mice as experimental organisms, to mammalian neural development and the developmental basis of human genetic diseases.

Two Howard Hughes laboratories focus on problems relating to the molecular mechanisms of early embryonic development and in genetically programmed cell death.

Rutgers and UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School developmental biology research laboratories are located in:

• Waksman Institute,
• Department of Cell Biology and Neuroscience
• Department of Neuroscience and Cell Biology
• Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry
• Department of Genetics
• Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine
• Laboratory for Cancer Research
• Cancer Institute of New Jersey

Resources available to the graduate group include:

• State of the Art Facilities for Performing Molecular Genetics
• Construction and Maintenance of Ttransgenic Animals
• Proteomics and Genomics Facilities
• NMR Spectroscopy and X-ray Crystallography Facilities
• Confocal Microscopy
• Advanced Computing Laboratories

For more information about specific foci in developmental biology, search this website using the terms: development, molecular biology, Drosophila, C. elegans or on any of the research topics described above.