Assistant Professor of Biology Rhea Datta recently presented research in Dallas and at the Marine Biology Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass.
In Dallas, Datta gave a platform talk at the Genetics Society of America’s 60th Annual Drosophila Research Conference. She presented her work on temporal gene regulation during development in a talk titled “The contributions of optimal and suboptimal Bcd and Otd DNA binding sites to enhancer activity in the Drosophila embryo.”
Datta and members of her research lab presented their work at the Northeast Regional Society for Developmental Biologists meeting at the Marine Biology Laboratory. Seniors Jordan Allen, Deborah Gakpo, Daniela Gonzalez, and Stephanie Kall presented a poster titled “Reusable enhancers – examining the contribution of binding site specificity and combinatorial regulation to enhancer activity in the Drosophila embryo and eye.” Additional co-authors included seniors Jordan Northrup and Susanna Yee, along with Rimma Levina and Stephen Small of NYU.
Datta also served as a session chair for Gene Regulation and Developmental Networks talks and acted as a session leader for a table discussion on Invertebrate Model Systems at the conference.
Her research at Hamilton focuses on how the non-coding DNA surrounding functional genes is activated in developmental time and space. Datta’s research group focuses on Drosophila embryo and eye development.