Diane M Dunham

Palo Alto, CA *****

acyl1f@r.postjobfree.com

650-***-****

Objective: Research Associate/Research Scientist

Summary

Motivated and dependable professional with over 10 years of experience planning and implementing research protocols in a number of academic positions.

Meticulous work utilizing molecular biology, protein chemistry, virology, and immunological techniques that have resulted in numerous publications.

Knowledgeable about RNAi techniques for gene silencing such as VIGS for transient gene silencing and CRISPR and hairpin transformation for stable gene silencing.

Maintained lab safety protocols, ordered supplies, researched new equipment, and organized several of the vital stock databases.

Worked independently and with other lab members on large scale screens to identify genes involved in plant immunity.

Instructed and organized lab research assistants in their supportive jobs around the lab.

Acted as liaison with other facilities and departments in the building and outside the institute to coordinate tasks for the research lab.

Motivated to learn and completed “Clinical Trials Site Monitoring 1”, part of the Clinical Trials Design and Management Certificate program at UCSC extension.

Professional Skills

DNA and RNA purification from plant and microbial pathogens

QPCR, RT-PCR, Gateway cloning, knowledge of NGS library preparation

Southern and Western Blots

Immunoprecipitation of proteins, protein expression in bacteria, and preparation of samples for proteomics.

Culturing/preparing microbial pathogens, bacterial growth curves, bacterial secretion assay, virus inoculation and purification.

RNAi in tobacco and tomato plants, and knowledge of CRISPR techniques in plants.

ELISA, Flow cytometry and cell culture of mammalian cell lines.

DNA sequence and multiple sequence alignment programs (DNA star), Excel, Power Point, File-maker pro and Microsoft word.

Experience

Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research, Ithaca NY

Lab Manager 2012-2016

Worked closely with other lab members to complete research goals in a fast paced academic environment.

Assisted in transcriptomic screens by cloning candidate genes into silencing vectors, silencing the gene in the plants and then identifying important genes with pathogen challenge.

Worked independently on projects and presented my results in our regular lab meetings.

Created hairpin constructs for silencing in tomato plants. Characterized these tomato lines for silencing (QRT) and their effect on pathogen challenge.

Assisted in pathogen assays to determine a biological role of the newly identified FLS3 receptor.

Research Assistant, 2008-2012

Assisted post-docs and research associates with completing research goals for the lab.

Instrumental in maintaining and organizing important inventory stocks for the lab.

Carefully kept the lab organized, oriented new members to safety protocols, supported lab members with daily issues, and organized the exit of those lab members leaving.

Publications

Schwizer S, Dunham DM, Kraus CM, Zheng YI, Pombo MA, Fei Z, Chakravarthy S, and Martin GB. (2016) The tomato kinase Pti1 contributes to production of reactive oxygen species in response to two flagellin-derived peptides and promotes resistance to Pseudomonas syringae infection. Plant Physiology, Under review.

Hind SR, Strickler SR, Boyle PC, Dunham DM, Bao Z, O'Doherty IM, Baccile JA, Hoki JS, Viox EG, Clarke CR, Vinatzer BA, Schroeder FC, and Martin GB. (2016) Tomato receptor FLAGELLIN-SENSING 3 binds flgII-28 and activates the plant immune system. Nature Plants 2:16128.

Worley JN, Pombo MA, Zheng YI, Dunham DM, Myers CR, Fei Z, and Martin GB. (2016) A novel method of transcriptome interpretation reveals a quantitative suppressive effect on tomato immune signaling by two domains in a single pathogen effector protein. BMC Genomics 17:229.

Bao Z, Meng F, Strickler SR, Dunham DM, Munkvold KR and Martin GB. (2015) Identification of a candidate gene in Solanum habrochaites for resistance to a race 1 strain of Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato. Plant Genome 8.

Pombo MA, Zheng YI, Fernandez-Pozo N, Dunham DM, Fei Z, and Martin GB. (2014) Transcriptomic analysis reveals tomato genes whose expression is induced specifically during effector-triggered immunity and identifies the Epk1 protein kinase which is required for the host response to three bacterial effector proteins. Genome Biology 15:492.

For more publications see google scholar

Education

MS Biology, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (Research focused in Immunology)

BS Biology, Millikin University, Decatur, Illinois

MT, ASCP Loyola Medical Center, Hines, Illinois

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