James Hoerter
Professor of Biological Sciences 231-591-2563
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I maintain an
active research program with undergraduate
research scholars on the early events leading to the development of melanoma
due to increased exposure to UVA (320-400 nm) and UVB (290-320 nm)
radiation. Just recently (2010), I received an NIH
AREA grant ($347,000) to investigate how UVA and UVB impacts damage and
repair mechanisms in the melanocyte stem cell. We are utilizing the zebrafish model to
test the hypothesis that melanoma begins with UV-induced damage to melanocyte
stem cells. A favorite
project of mine was Research
Link 2000. It is continuing to
help biology faculty from colleges and universities with implementing a
series of field-tested, research-based systems into the
undergraduate biology curriculum.
Funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation
in collaboration with the Council on Undergraduate Research, this project is
promoting research activities by students and faculty on all levels of the
undergraduate curriculum. I also help
local high schools with providing research
experiences by offering on-site biotechnology workshops during the
academic year. These workshops help to
acquaint students with the exciting career opportunities now available in
genetics/biotechnology. I enjoy contributing to the improvement of high
school biology teaching by offering Advanced
Placement Biology Institutes for high school teachers every summer. I believe
research is really the process of connecting the “data dots” of different
disciplines so that the total picture or reality of the way things actually work
becomes visible. It takes a lot of
hard work to recognize which dots to connect before a pattern begins to
emerge. We are never really going to
do anything other than create a dot or two in our own research labs unless we
take time to step back and try to recognize how our dots connect to others,
forming that the “big beautiful tapestry of life.” I view the
research process as a marathon, not as a sprint. The goals of my lab are (1) to ask simple
questions arising from clearly stated hypotheses, (2) to use both simple
experimental designs and transparent statistical analyses, (3) to proceed one
step at a time, and (4) keep experimenting until we always get the same
results. We do this until we are sure
that when others attempt to repeat our experiments, they will get the same
results as we did. This process takes
time and patience in an undergraduate setting. Contact
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