I am Jackson Hoffman, a third year Ph.D. student in Dr. Merrill's lab. I graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a B.S. in Microbiology, and originally joined the Microbiology and Immunology department here at UIC. However, after a year I transferred to Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics to join Dr. Merrill's lab. My research is focused on elucidating the role of Tcf3 in the developing mouse embryo, specifically during gastrulation. Gastrulation is the process by which the embryo transitions from a single pluripotent cell layer to the lineage committed germ layers endoderm, ectoderm, and mesoderm. Tcf3 is required for this process to occur correctly. I am examining the requirement for Tcf3 to determine how it functions to control pluripotency in the post-implantation mouse embryo and allow gastrulation to occur correctly.
