Mark Beilstein - Principal Investigator
B.A. Biology, Grinnell College
M.S. Biology, University of Utah
Ph.D. Biology, University of Missouri – St. Louis & Missouri Botanical Garden
My background is in evolution and systematics. As an undergraduate I began my scientific career working on Trillium grandiflorum at Kellogg Biological Station (Hickory Corners, MI) with Dr. Frances Hanzawa and Dr. Sue Kalisz. As a Masters student, I described a new species in Draba, the largest genus in the family Brassicaceae, and detailed how aneuploid Draba in the intermountain western United States evolved. Once I started working on Draba, I was hooked on Brassicaceae. As a graduate student at University of Missouri - St. Louis with Dr. Elizabeth Kellogg, I completed a family-wide phylogenetic analysis of the group and collaborated with Dr. Ihsan Al-Shehbaz on the first revision of its tribal classification in over 70 years.
My interest in telomeres was sparked when Dr. Dorothy Shippen came for a sabbatical at Harvard University Herbaria where I was a Mercer Postdoctoral Fellow with Dr. Sarah Mathews. Dr. Shippen and I began collaborating on comparative molecular evolution of duplicated telomere proteins. In addition, we began to investigate the evolutionary history of the telomerase RNA, one of the two essential components of the ribonucleoprotein enzyme telomerase. I continued this work as a NIH National Research Service Awardee at Texas A&M University, before accepting a position at University of Arizona. Since establishing the lab in August 2011, I have initiated projects that use a comparative molecular evolutionary approach combined with comparative functional biology to understand how telomerase evolved in plants. I am also continuing to work on systematic and taxonomic questions in the genus Camelina, which contains the emerging bioenergy crop C. sativa.
I am always looking for motivated and hardworking undergraduates, graduate students, and potential post-docs. If you are interested in our work and the possibility of joining us here in sunny Tucson, please contact us using the link above.
M.S. Biology, University of Utah
Ph.D. Biology, University of Missouri – St. Louis & Missouri Botanical Garden
My background is in evolution and systematics. As an undergraduate I began my scientific career working on Trillium grandiflorum at Kellogg Biological Station (Hickory Corners, MI) with Dr. Frances Hanzawa and Dr. Sue Kalisz. As a Masters student, I described a new species in Draba, the largest genus in the family Brassicaceae, and detailed how aneuploid Draba in the intermountain western United States evolved. Once I started working on Draba, I was hooked on Brassicaceae. As a graduate student at University of Missouri - St. Louis with Dr. Elizabeth Kellogg, I completed a family-wide phylogenetic analysis of the group and collaborated with Dr. Ihsan Al-Shehbaz on the first revision of its tribal classification in over 70 years.
My interest in telomeres was sparked when Dr. Dorothy Shippen came for a sabbatical at Harvard University Herbaria where I was a Mercer Postdoctoral Fellow with Dr. Sarah Mathews. Dr. Shippen and I began collaborating on comparative molecular evolution of duplicated telomere proteins. In addition, we began to investigate the evolutionary history of the telomerase RNA, one of the two essential components of the ribonucleoprotein enzyme telomerase. I continued this work as a NIH National Research Service Awardee at Texas A&M University, before accepting a position at University of Arizona. Since establishing the lab in August 2011, I have initiated projects that use a comparative molecular evolutionary approach combined with comparative functional biology to understand how telomerase evolved in plants. I am also continuing to work on systematic and taxonomic questions in the genus Camelina, which contains the emerging bioenergy crop C. sativa.
I am always looking for motivated and hardworking undergraduates, graduate students, and potential post-docs. If you are interested in our work and the possibility of joining us here in sunny Tucson, please contact us using the link above.