HomeResearchIntramural ResearchResearch Branches at NHGRIGenome Technology Branch Burgess Lab

Shawn Burgess, Ph.D. Investigator Genome Technology Branch Head Developmental Genomics Section B.A. Wesleyan University, 1988 Ph.D. Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 1995 (301) 594-8224 (301) 496-0474 burgess@nhgri.nih.gov Building 50, Room 5537 50 South Drive, MSC 8004 Bethesda, MD 20892-8004 Selected Publications cDNA Microarray Project

Our laboratory employs a variety of modern molecular methods to study developmental processes and their relation to human genetic disease. We use zebrafish as a model organism to identify and functionally characterize novel developmental genes. We are particularly interested in the genomics of human ear development.

Zebrafish allow geneticists to perform large-scale mutagenesis and phenotypic screening in a vertebrate system. I was part of a group that developed pseudotyped retroviruses as an insertional mutatgen in zebrafish. Similar in concept to P-element mutagenesis in fruit flies, this technology represents a major breakthrough in the ability to identify genes important in the early development of all vertebrates. The use of retroviruses, as opposed to chemical mutagens, reduces the time of gene identification from years to weeks of work. At MIT, a three-year, large-scale screening effort that used retroviruses as the mutagen has produced over 300 mutations that visibly affect the developing zebrafish embryo. Of these mutations, over twenty affect the development of the zebrafish ear and vestibular system. We are focusing our research on this set, in order to identify the genes involved and establish their role in the development of the vertebrate ear. We are using oligo-based microarray technology for this project; we recently developed a comprehensive microarray based on the zebrafish EST and genome projects.

We continue to expand the functionality of the pseudotype retroviruses we use, in order to initiate new large-scale screens for gene function. The next challenge is to devise screens that are not based solely on "knocking out" genes, but will allow for conditional expression, misexpression, or rapid tissue expression screening. Continued achievements in retrovirus technology, as well as the contribution of the zebrafish genome project, will speed the gene identification process further and create new possibilities for insertional mutagenesis.

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Last Updated: June 2004