The Pollard Lab is a student-centered research team that investigates the genetic and environmental causes of cellular trait variation. Our projects are motivated by big questions such as:
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- Why do some individuals make more protein in their cells? What part of the central dogma (transcription, RNA stability, translation, protein stability) is involved? What is the mechanism?
- How can we efficiently search the genome for key gene sequence differences responsible for variation in a specific cellular trait like protein abundance?
- Much of laboratory science is done under static environmental conditions and yet natural systems are constantly in flux. Can we uncover unique aspects of cell biology by studying the dynamics of cellular traits through time?
- Does existing knowledge allow us to build statistical models that accurately predict cellular phenotypes from gene sequence alone? If not, what more do we need to investigate?
We use natural population isolates of baker’s yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) as our model system and we combine methods from biochemistry, bioinformatics, cell biology, genetics, genomics, molecular biology, and statistics to address open questions in cellular trait variation.
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- Please visit our Research page for information about current student-led projects.
- Get to know current and former lab members on our People page.
- If you are considering joining our team, please visit our Prospective Students page.
- For a list of products from our team’s efforts, please visit our Publications page.
- For more information about the Pollard Lab, please contact Dan Pollard at pollard@wwu.edu