The long awaited Michigan summer has finally arrived and the lab went to celebrate by taking a canoe trip down the Huron River. Seems like a good spot to have weekly lab meetings.

Kevin Cruz-Colón is a graduate student in the Neuroscience Graduate Program. He completed his undergraduate degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Puerto Rico, Ponce. He is working on a project to understand the molecular processes regulating the membrane protein composition of the light-sensitive outer segment organelle in photoreceptor cells.

Amanda Travis, PhD was award a postdoctoral fellowship from the Vision Research Training Program at the University of Michigan. Human mutations in the small GTPase, Arl3, cause a variety of inherited retinal dystrophies, including rod-cone dystrophy and retinitis pigmentosa. These mutations are generally believed to destabilize Arl3 or impair its interactions with binding partners; however, precise pathobiological outcomes has yet to be studied in vivo.  Amanda uses in vivo mouse models as well as in vitro biochemistry and cell-based experiments to understand the cellular consequences dominant Arl3 mutations
have in rod photoreceptors. Congratulations Amanda!