Andrew Nelson
Hometown:
Brownfield, TX, USA
Undergraduate Degree:
Southwestern Oklahoma State University, OK
Research Synopsis:
My main focus since joining the lab has been the third POT1 protein POT1c. We have attempting to characterize its role in Arabidopsis thaliana using both genetic and biochemical techniques. What I am really interested in is how the variety of telomere associated proteins, including both telomere binding and telomerase associated, interact with each other to tightly regulate telomere accessibility and length throughout the lifecycle of the plant. Arabidopsis loses an incredibly small amount of telomeres per generation in telomerase knockouts, indicating that there is a very tightly (and successfully) regulated protection pathway occuring in the background. What is so special about Arabidopsis thaliana that allows this occur and what is so carefully regulating telomerase?
Background:
From the looks of my hometown and where I got my Bachelors you would think that I never got outside of Texas and Oklahoma. However, I have lived in six different countries outside of the US, and have visited a bunch more. Unfortunately, this was all when I was a kid so a lot of it has gone the way of lost memories. I am in science so that I can get rich and travel the world again as an adult (j/k)!