Name: Mike Cuoco
Hometown: Concord, Massachusetts
Hobbies: Skiing, Gardening, Camping, Tennis
Lab: Rusty Gage
Lab website: https://gage.labsites.salk.edu/
What do you study? I study transposon activity in the mammalian brain. Transposons (a.k.a. jumping genes) are pieces of our DNA that can move across our genome, by copying themselves from one location and pasting themselves into another. If pasted into an important DNA sequence, a transposon can disrupt normal functions of our cells. Thankfully, most of our body’s cells naturally silence transposons to prevent this damage. Interestingly, the Gage lab has discovered that transposons are highly active in our brains and are necessary for the proper formation of neurons. My goal is to understand what about transposons makes them so important for neuronal development.
Why is it important? A complete understanding of brain development will help us recognize and treat injuries, disorders, and diseases of the brain. Most importantly, transposon activity has been observed to be elevated in neurological disorders and diseases like autism, schizophrenia, and alzheimer’s. If we can learn how transposons affect the healthy brain, we can study them more accurately in the context of disorders and diseases.
What piqued your interest in science? When I first learned about human sexual reproduction, my classmates squirmed, but I was completely awestruck and amazed by the simple fact that two cells can merge to create an entirely new person!
What do you like about being a scientist? I love the scientific method. This involves identifying an important problem, forming a hypothesis, strategizing ways to address it, and rigorously executing those strategies. This process very often works perfectly, but requires constant troubleshooting and rethinking. Making it through this process is one of the most rewarding feelings I have ever experienced.
What are 5 general vocabulary terms someone should know going into your field of science? stem cell, neuron, gene, transcription, mutation
What are 5 specific vocabulary terms someone should know about your research?Transposon, reverse transcription, retrotransposition, perturbation, somatic mosaicism