Dr. Cristina Iftode

Iftode Lab

Location: Science Hall 221

Student research

The students in my lab will get familiarized with molecular biology and biochemical techniques, such as bacterial transformation, plasmid DNA isolation, restriction enzyme digestions, site-directed mutagenesis, PCR, nucleic acid and protein gel electrophoresis, electroblotting. They will also make use of the software developed to allow DNA primer design, restriction mapping, and inspection of genomic sequences. These approaches will be useful to design appropriate gene mutations, which will be utilized for the generation of mutant viruses. These viruses will be examined for various functional modifications both in vitro (in cell-free systems) and in vivo (in infected cells). To this end, my students will learn cell culture techniques and will perform transfections and infections with established cell lines.

Research progress and various administrative matters will be discussed weekly, in an informal lab meeting, with my participation. Those students interested in joining my lab should be committed to spend at least 10 hours a week doing research. Molecular biology techniques are fun, but they are often laborious, and require focus and good organizational skills. If you are interested in joining the lab, feel free to contact me by email or stop by my office (Science Hall 201I).

 

Current lab students (2010-2011)

Katelynn Toomer
Jacqueline Davis
Bianca Hess
Sherri English


Former lab students (2008-2010)

Eileen Oni
Michael Fitzgerald
Lisa DeGironimo

Student participation at scientific meetings

  • The Annual Meeting of the American Society for Virology, Montreal & Vancouver, Canada, Bozeman, Montana (2004, 2009, 2010)
  • The Balkan Human Genetic Meeting, Cavtat, Croatia (2009)
  • The International Congress of Virology, San Francisco, CA (2005)
  • The Annual Saint Joseph's University Student Research Symposium, Philadelphia, PA (2004, 2006)
  • Rowan STEM Symposium (2001-2010)