Chris Rodrigues
Background: I was born in Sydney, Australia and did my undergraduate degree in Applied Biology in Portugal. In the last year of my undergraduate degree, I spent a year at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, where I worked with the plant-pathogenic fungi Fusarium oxysporum. After graduating, I moved back to Australia to do my PhD with Liz Harry at the University Technology, Sydney. My thesis work examined the process of division-site selection in Bacillus subtilis.
My current work: I joined the Rudner Lab in May, 2011, where I continued working with B. subtilis focusing on the process of sporulation. During sporulation, B. subtilis divides asymmetrically generating two cells of unequal size and different fate. The larger cell is called the mother-cell and the smaller the forespore (or prospective spore). Both cells interact through traditional/classical signal transduction pathways to coordinate and/or activate cell-type specific programs of gene expression, which involve a complex web of protein-protein interactions. The mechanisms by which these interactions are established and maintained during the early stages of B. subtilis sporulation, and the activities generated through them, are poorly understood. My research looks into the spatial cues that anchor important sporulation proteins at particular subcellular sites and the way these proteins govern key morphological processes that take place at the early stages of sporulation.
christopher_rodrigues [at] hms.harvard.edu