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3258 TAMU Office: Lab: Fax: 979-845-2891 |
Biography |
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Lawrence Griffing received a B.S. (1976) in Biology from the University of Utah and a Ph.D. (1981) in Biology from Stanford University. He held postdoctoral positions at Oregon State University with Ralph Quatrano and at the University of Saskatchewan and the Plant Biotechnology Institute in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, with Larry Fowke and Fred Constabel. He joined the Department of Biology at Texas A&M University in 1986. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 1991. In 1994-1995 he was Program Director for Cell Biology and the National Science Foundation. He has continued to serve as panel member for that Program. He has also recently served on the DOE grant panel. He is currently active in American Society of Plant Biologists, as member and chair of the corresponding member committee (1997-2001), and as member of the education committee (2002-present). In 2001 he was named as a Fellow to the Academy for Educator Development. In 2002 he was appointed as Associate Director of the Information Technology in Science (ITS) Center for Teaching and Learning, an NSF-funded center with mission to share research with undergraduates and secondary school students. Dr. Griffing is on the Executive Committee of the Molecular and Environmental Plant Sciences program at Texas A&M (2003-2005). For more information about Dr. Griffing and his research projects go to his home page at: Courses: Dr. Griffing has taught Freshman Biology, BIOL 113, Graduate Cell Biology, BIOL 617; Undergraduate Cell Biology BIOL 413, Transmission Electron Microscopy BIOL 602, Graduate Introductory Cell Biology, BIOL 613 (new), Plant Cell Biology, BOTN 636, Cell Biology Laboratory, BIOL 423, Seminar in 3D Biology, BIOL 491, and Biological Imaging, BIOL 430. |
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| Plant Cell Biology and Remote Imaging | |
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Plant cell biology is an exciting new frontier. A focus in my lab is endocytosis, the process by which vesicles from the plasma membrane internalize macromolecules. My goal is to determine the role of endocytosis in renewing the plant cell membrane and in delivering important ligands and their receptors to the internal compartments of the plant cell. Analysis of the down-regulation or recycling of receptors which mediate plant-microbe interactions is part of this study. Another new area of research is putting the cell into 3D and 4D space using computational reconstruction of the cell. We have recently used the software package, Visualization Toolkit, to generate accurate 3D reconstructions of plant cell membrane systems that can be used for analysis. Areas of interest include "nuclear wormholes", or membrane channels through the nucleus, organization and movement of the endoplasmic reticulum and nucleus, and movement of endosomes and Golgi in relation to endoplasmic reticulum. The 3D imaging techniques that are used to study the cell can be extended to the 3D morphometry of the whole plant. New projects are underway to link 3D morphometry databases with genomic databases in collaboration with Alan Pepper (Biology) and John Keyser (Computer Science). Image analysis can be used to explore sea life. In a series of papers on photo- and video-transects of the intertidal zones and the Stetson Bank, part of the Flower Gardens National Marine Sanctuary, new imaging techniques using color segmentation and computer-based image recognition have been used to monitor organism distribution and changes with time. It is with this type of non-perturbing imaging studies that baselines can be established for how much man-made and natural environmental changes influence our precious ocean resources. Imaging and information technology is also changing the way we look at larger scale organism interactions. A new study has been initiated to start remote video-based analysis of the grizzly bear interaction at the McNeil Falls Sanctuary in Alaska. A remote video camera is used to monitor the bears all day during the summer when they are feeding on the salmon. Currently, investigations include analysis of bear population changes bear spacing and behavior during group foraging, monitoring the changing bear population over the season, and computer-based recognition of individual bears. |
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| Selected Publications | |
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Holtcamp, W., Griffing, L.R. and Packard, J. (2003) Grizzly Bears, Evolution, and Critical Thinking: Analyzing the Impact of a Scaffolding IT for Teaching Biology. Paper Presented Mar 1, 2003 at the 2003 Joint Conference Information Technology in Science (ITS) Center for Teaching and Learning Southwest - Association for the Education of Teachers in Science Griffing, L.R.(2002) 3-D and 4-D Architecture of Cells. Faculty Inovation Profile Project. http://www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/fipp/m12/m12_table.htm Riha, K., T.D. McKnight, L.R. Griffing, and D.E. Shippen. 2001. Living with genome instability: plant responses to telomere dysfunction. Science 291(5509): 1797-1800. Enloe, L.C. and Griffing, L.R. (2000) Improved volume rendering for the visualization of cells with confocal microscopy. In:: Visual Data Exploration and Analysis VII. Robert Erbacher; Phillip Chen, Jonathan Roberts,; Craig Wittenberg, Editors. Proceedings of SPIE Vol. 3960 pp. 385-392 Stout, R. G. and Griffing, L. R. (2001) "Plant Cell Physiology" In Cell Physiology Sourcebook. N. Sperlakis Editor. Academic Press pp. 1079-1096. Bernhardt, S. and Griffing, L. (2001) An evaluation image analysis of benthic sites based on color segmentation. Bulletin of Marine Science. 69:639-653 Griffing, L.R. and Griffing, D.J. (2001) 3D Virtual Fieldtrip to Sabal Palm Grove Audubon Sanctuary. Curriculum unit on Plant Identification. http://www.vftn.org/projects/griffing/ |
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