Much of our understanding about the biology of gene regulation, physiology, adaptation, and evolution comes from bacterial systems. Most studies involve rapidly growing cells. However in nature this is the exception rather than the rule. Cells repeatedly experience situations where they do not divide or divide infrequently due to resource limitations. We seek to understand how cells adapt and evolve during such periods. Paradoxically, this state seems to help direct mutational events to adaptively beneficial genes. This has been termed adaptive mutation and has raised a heated debate in the scientific community. Our goal is to study how cells genetically adapt to conditions of limited or no growth and to ascertain the molecular mechanism(s) used to evolve new or enhanced genetic constructs during such periods. Our current focus is to understand how the adaptive mutation response is regulated and identify the genes that are involved in it regulation.

Traditional herbal medicine is practiced through out the world by millions of people and has a history that predates the written word. Herbal medicines are increasingly being used by modern western societies as nuturaceuticals. We are currently studying a root-extract from Arnebia euchroma, which traditionally is used as wound healing agent. The extract and the individual compounds present in the extract have a number of interesting biological activities that include; antibacterial, antifungal, antiinflamatory, antithrombic, and anticancer activity. We have shown that combinations of individual agents act synergistically to enhance the antimicrobial activity. Our current research focus is to develop this system as a model system for the characterization of synergistic interactions that are the foundations of most herbal medicines. An important outcome of the work will be to test if the premise that combinations of herbal ingredients have greater efficacy in the treatment of chronic conditions.

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