Dr. Susan Brown's laboratory

"We work with a model organism to study fundamental biological processes important to normal development and to cancer. For both ethical and scientific reasons, model organisms such as insects offer powerful experimental approaches not possible in humans. History strongly supports the view that such insect studies can give key information about humans. For example, the developmentally important genes we study in the red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum, are also present in the human genome. They are important for normal development, and, when activated at inappropriate locations and times, can cause cancers. Further studies of these genes in Tribolium have good potential to inform us with respect to the mechanisms important to human development and the formation of cancers."