Kimberly Cooper
University of California, San Diego
Seminar Information
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The vertebrate limb is a paradigm of developmental biology. It is a complex musculoskeletal structure that is formed by many of the same genes that construct other parts of the bodies of all animals. Decades of research has revealed mechanisms of limb induction, outgrowth, and pattern formation, but evolution produced astounding phenotypic diversity over hundreds of millions of years that is not represented in ‘traditional’ laboratory animals. This is likely due to differences between the experimental elimination of gene function versus the process of natural selection that refined expression of many genes in time and space to reshape species. Our research aims to discover mechanisms that diversified limb form and function using the laboratory mouse and a closely-related bipedal rodent, the three-toed jerboa. While the jerboa forelimb has “mouse-like” proportions and five fingers, the elongated hindlimb has three toes, disproportionately long metatarsals in the feet that fuse into a single bone, and a complete absence of intrinsic foot muscle. In addition to work focused on identifying the genetic mechanisms of complex trait evolution, our laboratory is advancing technologies to model genetically complex traits in laboratory mice.
Kim Cooper is an Associate Professor in the Cell and Developmental Biology Section of the UC San Diego Division of Biological Sciences. Kim received her Ph.D. in the lab of Dr. Cecilia Moens at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center where she studied the genetics of hindbrain motor neuron specification and cellular behavior. Her interest in limb development and the diversity of form in animals drew her to a postdoctoral position with Dr. Cliff Tabin in the Department of Genetics at Harvard Medical School. Work in her lab at UC San Diego focuses on the mechanisms of limb evolution and on developing approaches to model such complex genetic traits in mice. Kim has received numerous awards, including the Packard Fellowship in Science and Engineering, the NSF CAREER Award, and Harvard University Certificate of Distinction in Teaching.