Speaker: Jared Talbot, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of University of Maine’s School of Biology and Ecology
Dr. Talbot received his Bachelors in Science in Biology from Cornell University. He then began his work on developmental biology by studying skeleton formation with Dr. Charles Kimmel at the University of Oregon. After this, he did a postdoc investigating muscle development with Sharon Amacher, initially working at the University of California Berkeley, then continuing the same work at The Ohio State University. He is now an assistant professor at the University of Maine in Orono.
In order to produce conscious movement, our body contains hundreds of carefully positioned muscles, that are each endowed with specific contractile properties. The Talbot lab investigates how muscle precursor cells are positioned during embryonic development and how these precursors transform from motile cells into functional muscle fibers. To investigate muscle precursor development Dr Talbot uses zebrafish embryos, which have a comparatively simple musculature and can be imaged live at high resolution throughout their rapid embryonic development. Right now the Talbot lab is pursuing two projects: The first investigates how precursor cells migrate to the correct positions during development. The second project investigates how muscle cells generate contractile structures called sarcomeres.
This event is free, but registration is required