Postdoctoral Fellowship Award 2023: Mark Wilson

Institution: Morehead State University

Department: Biology

Rank: Postdoctoral Fellow

From the Award recipient, Melissa Mefford:
Mark obtained his PhD a while ago, then spent many years running a biotech company (ECM Biosciences, Versailles KY), which he recently sold. He was interested in getting back into research, particularly learning more recent and marketable bioinformatics skills, so I hired him to conduct genome-wide DNA- and RNA-seq experiments in my lab. Mark is going to analyze global changes in gene expression, via RNA-seq experiments, in these telomere deletion strains.

From Mark Wilson: I am performing postdoctoral research in Dr. Melissa Mefford’s laboratory at Morehead State University. In this research training, I am gaining experience with qRT-PCR, RNA-seq, and WGS techniques and bioinformatic tools.

In the Mefford lab, we are interested in exploring the evolution of linear chromosomes, telomeres, and telomerase in eukaryotic organisms. We have genetically engineered strains of the single-celled eukaryote Saccharomyces cerevisiae with individually circularized chromosome. In these telomere deletion strains, we are interested in the changes in the genomic sequences and gene expression relative to wild type. 

How funding from KY INBRE helps with this research: I have utilized KY INBRE for training in RNA and DNA preparation, WGS and RNA-seq study design, and training with the bioinformatic analytical tools required for these applications. We plan to leverage many of the core services provided by KY INBRE to accomplish our sequencing and gene expression analysis.

Outside of the Lab/Classroom: The photo is from Ohiopyle State Park in Pennsylvania. The bike trail is one of my favorites, the Great Alleghany Passage, which goes from Pittsburgh to Washington DC. My wife and I love biking, and we have visited several Bike Rail Trails across the United States. We have three children and we both love science. My wife is an Organic Chemist and I am a Cell Biologist.