B.Sc., University
of Tamaulipas, Mexico, 1984
M.Sc., University of Nuevo Leon, Mexico, 1989
Ph.D., University of Nuevo Leon, Mexico, 1994
Postdoctoral Fellow, Baylor College of Medicine, 2000
Assistant Professor, Baylor College of Medicine, 2003
Rodriguez-Esteban C, Schwabe JWR, de la Pena J, Rincon-Limas
DE,
Magallon J, Botas J, and Izpisua-Belmonte JC. Lhx2, a vertebrate
homologue of apterous, regulates vertebrate limb outgrowth. Development
125:3925-3934; 1998.
Fernandez-Funez F, Lu C-H, Rincon-Limas DE, Garcia-Bellido
A, and Botas J. The relative expression amounts of apterous and
its co-factor dLdb/Chip are critical for dorsoventral compartmentalization
in the Drosophila wing. EMBO Journal 17:6846-6853; 1998.
Rincon-Limas DE, Lu CH, Canal I, Calleja M, Rodriguez-Esteban
C, Izpisua-Belmonte JC, and Botas J. Conservation of the expression
and function of apterous orthologues in Drosophila and mammals.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences U.S.A. 96: 2165-2170;
1999.
Rincon-Limas DE, Lu C-H, Canal I, and Botas J. The level of
DLDB/CHIP controls the activity of the LIM-homeodomain protein
Apterous: evidence for a functional tetramer complex in vivo. EMBO
Journal 19:2602-2614; 2000.
Lu C-H*, Rincon-Limas DE*, and Botas J. Conserved overlapping
and reciprocal expression of msh/Msx1 and apterous/Lhx2 in Drosophila
and mice. Mechanisms of Development 99:177-181; 2000. * Co-first
authors.
Bergman CM, Barret P, Rincon-Limas DE, Hoskins RA, Gnirke A,
Mungall CJ, Wang AM, Kronmiller B, Park S, Stapleton M, George
RA, Botas J, Rubin GM, and Celniker SE. Assessing the impact of
comparative genomic sequence data on the functional annotation
of the Drosophila genome. Genome Biology 3: 86-6; 2002.
Neurobiology,
Drosophila genetics, fly models of neurodegenerative and infectious
diseases, developmental biology, limb development.
Neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s
disease, microsatellite expansion disorders, and prion diseases,
are some of the most dreaded conditions in our society and constitute
one of the major challenges of modern medicine. This is because
the mechanisms involved in their pathologies are poorly understood
and because there are no effective therapies to avoid their fatal
outcome. My laboratory is using the power of Drosophila genetics
to identify molecular pathways leading to pathology in fly models
of these disorders. We are modeling these diseases by disrupting
homologous genes in Drosophila, or by expressing a human disease
gene in this organism. We are also interested in using these fly
models to identify and validate new pharmacological compounds.
In addition, we are studying the role of several
LIM-homeobox genes in Drosophila development. In this regard, we
are conducting comparative studies between flies and mammals to
investigate the functional conservation of enhancers and regulatory
networks throughout evolution. This work will shed light into the
molecular basis of development and evolution of animal body plans
and body parts.
My research is supported by Departmental funds
and by an HHMI start-up Award. |
