NEWS

Jonathan Gent

Postdoctoral Research Award 2012

Jonathan Gent, postdoctoral fellow in plant biology, has been a highly productive researcher since joining the Dawe lab at UGA. Upon his arrival, Gent initiated a long-term project to identify genes that control the number of active centromeres, the regions of chromosomes that direct their behavior during cell division. While working on this, Gent also began studying other aspects of chromosome structure in and near centromeres, and he has made multiple discoveries and published two papers, all within the first two years of his arrival. In addition to carrying on his original project, Gent is currently studying structural features at the boundaries of intergenic regions of chromosomes (the regions between genes). He is also working closely with graduate and undergraduate students, training them in bench work and bioinformatics.