Minority Career Advancement Award for Sabbatical Supplement in Evolutionary and Ecological Genetics

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Dr. Scott Edwards, an African American evolutionary biologist, will use this Minority Career Advancement Award to supplement salary and provide laboratory supplies during a sabbatical year from September 2001 to June 2002. September to March 2002 will be spent at the Australian National University in Canberra, where collaborative studies on the evolution of sex chromosomes in snakes and birds will be conducted. The principal investigator will use the technique of fluorescence in-situ hybridization (FISH) to determine whether genes that influence sex determination in mammals and reside on the mammal Y chromosome are located on the sex chromosomes of birds and snakes. This research will provide a useful comparison to the genetic patterns found on mammalian sex chromosomes and will help us understand how genes determine the sex of vertebrate species. From March to June 2002 Dr. Edwards will undertake immunological research at the Institute for Animal Health in Compton, United Kingdom, in order to develop tools to monitor the immune response of birds in the wild. The ability to monitor the avian immune response will ultimately be useful for measuring the importance for disease resistance for modulating the reproductive performance, or fitness, of individuals of a variety of species.