James Moroney

James Moroney obtained his Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry from SUNY at Buffalo.  While there, he began working in the laboratory of Dr. Charles E. Wenner at the Roswell Park Memorial Institute in Buffalo.  From Buffalo he went to Ithaca, NY and obtained his Ph.D. in the Department of Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology at Cornell University working in the laboratory of Dr. Richard E. McCarty.  His Ph.D. work was on the structure and function of the chloroplast ATP Synthase.  From Cornell he went to Michigan State University and did postdoctoral research in the laboratory of Dr. N.E. Tolbert in the Department of Biochemistry.  James Moroney has been at LSU since 1986.

Tiffany Simms

Tiffany Simms graduated with her Bachelor's of Science from Louisiana State University in 2003, and her Master's of Science (also from LSU) in 2006 with Dr. David Donze. As an undergrad, she began doing the work of a lab manager, and has since essentially organized or set up several labs. Her background is in molecular biology.

Tiffany's main responsibility is to guide the undergraduate students in their own projects, with the goal that they become independent. She also has several projects of her own, including directing gene knockouts.

Kristy Brumfield

Kristy Brumfield is from Opelousas, Louisiana. She graduated from Opelousas Catholic in 1999 as Valedictorian of her class, and then received her Bachelor of Science Degree from Xavier University of Louisiana in 2003.  She is now completing her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the Department of Biological Sciences at Louisiana State University. She hopes to pursue a career in academia. Her dissertation research examines ergosterol biosynthesis in C. reinhardtii. 

Bratati Mukherjee

Bratati Mukherjee is from India. Having done her Bachelors and Masters in Science (majoring in Botany) from Presidency College Kolkata, she decided to join the Moroney lab in 2006 and has been working with the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, since. One of the nifty features of the Chlamydomonas reinhardtii Carbon Concentrating Mechanism (CCM) is the ability to trap the uncharged CO2 molecule as a charged anion, HCO3-  , thereby preventing it from leaking out of the cell.  In contrast to the cyanobacterial CCMs, that have a very well characterized bicarbonate uptake system, the uptake and transport of bicarbonate across membranes still remains largely uncharacterized in C. reinhardtii. Several genes encoding putative bicarbonate transporters have been identified over the years and this missing puzzle piece of the Chlamydomonas CCM has proved to be an intriguing research problem. Bratati’s research is focused on the investigation of the role of a few of these putative bicarbonate transporters. She is trying to generate knock down mutants of a couple of these putative bicarbonate transporters and also aiming to immunolocalize them in the Chlamydomonas cell.

Yunbing Ma

Born in Suzhou, China, Yunbing Ma obtained her Bachelors of Bio-Engineering at Shanghai University, Shanghai. She joined the Moroney lab in 2006 and started her project in characterization of a pyrenoid-less mutant, named cia6. In many eukaryotic algae, Rubisco is localized to the pyrenoid, an electron dense structure within the chloroplast. Generated in a random insertional mutagenesis, cia6 is one such mutant that possesses a disrupted pyrenoid, as well as a deficient CCM. The gene disrupted in cia6 encodes a protein that has sequence homology to SET domain, and members of this protein family are often methyltransferases. Inspection of cia6 cells using electron microscopy revealed that the pyrenoid in this mutant is highly disorganized even though the amount of Rubisco is about the same as in wild type. The current hypothesis is that either Rubisco or some other proteins must be methylated for proper pyrenoid organization, and failure of pyrenoid formation leads to a defective CCM. Current experiments include testing CIA6 for methyltransferase activity; compare pyrenoids in mutant and wild type; rescue the pyrenoid-less phenotype by complementation; and to identify CIA6 by immunolocalization.

Monica

Monica is from Denham Springs, Louisiana and graduated from Denham Springs High School. She plans to transfer to ULM's pharmacy program in Fall of 2009. She is currently working on a project studying the carbonic anhydrase genes in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Trang

Trang is from Baton Rouge, LA. and graduated from Baton Rouge High School in 2006. She expects to graduate from LSU with a BS in May 2010. She is working on sequencing an unknown region in Cah9 as well as working on a protocol for freezing cells.

Wesley

Wes was born in Zachary, Louisiana and attended Zachary High School, graduating in 2006. His major is Biochemistry, with a prospective 2010 graduation date. In Dr. Moroney's lab, he is testing the efficiency of Carbonic Anhydrase antibodies via western blot, also he is methodically coordinating knockouts of specific Carbonic Anhydrases in Chlamydomonous reinhardtii.

Katelyn

Kate is from Baton Rouge, Louisiana and attended Saint Joseph's Academy. Her current majors are Microbiology and French. In Dr. Moroney's lab, she is working on cloning the CAH4 gene. She also harvests and digests plasmids used in the introductory biology labs for undergraduates.

Hoa

Hoa Bui is from New Olreans, Louisiana, majoring in Biology. She graduated from Eleanor McMain Highschool in 2006. She is currently helping Bratati with her research, performing techniques such as amplifying DNA, RNA purification, and mini preps.

Robert

Robert was born in Baltimore, MD and attended Catholic High School. He is in the Biological Sciences program, and intends to graduate in May 2010. His project is to obtain successful gene knockouts of carbonic anhydrase in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Rachel

Rachel is from New Orleans, Louisiana and graduated from Academy of the Sacred Heart.  Her major is Mechanical Engineering, and she expects to graduate in May 2011.  In Dr. Moroney's lab, she is working on cloning the CAH4 gene. She also harvests and digests plasmids used in the introductory biology labs for undergraduates.

Serena

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Michael

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Kristen

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