Dr. Annkatrin Rose

Rose Lab at Appalachian State University

Info for prospective students

Like to play with plants? And DNA? And proteins?

You've come to the right place! Several of my students will be graduating this year, so I'm seeking enthusiastic and motivated students to join the lab and fill the space later this year or early next year.

Check out my research page for a quick overview of the research question in my lab. Our study organism is the plant Arabidopsis thaliana, the "Drosophila of plant genetics." We are particularly interested in determining the function of a group of chloroplast proteins characterized by a coiled-coil structure motif. Past and current projects have investigated protein localization, protein-protein interaction, and the phenotype of knock-out mutants.

The techniques utilized in these projects range from standard molecular and biochemical lab techniques working with DNA, RNA, and proteins, to confocal and electron microscopy, plant transformation, and photosynthesis measurements.

Students wishing to join the lab ideally have an interest in molecular and cellular mechanisms in plants, great attention to detail, and are eager to do benchwork or microscopy as the main component of their research project. Masters students joining my lab will likely enter the Cell and Molecular Biology Concentration of the Graduate Program and should have had Molecular Biology included in their undergraduate coursework. In addition, one or more of the following courses would be helpful and could serve as a starting point and direction for your project:

• Plant Molecular Biology
• Plant Physiology
• Biotechnology
• Biochemistry
• Microscopy
• Microbiology

Links of interest:

For Graduate Students Biology Graduate Programs Cratis D. Williams Graduate School

For Undergraduate Students Independent Research Office of Student Research

Financial support:
Students in the Masters program may be eligible for a Graduate Assistantship. Most graduate students support themselves through teaching assistantships.

For bright and motivated undergraduates wishing to do summer research, I usually try to get an Undergraduate Research Assistantship. They are limited to one per year per faculty and highly competitive, but we have received three of these in the past. Caveats: You have to be enrolled as a full-time student and you cannot receive a URA for a project that you are also getting class credit for, such as an independent study or honors research.

Please note:
Appalachian State University is an undergraduate institution granting Bachelors and Masters degrees. The Biology Department does not have a Ph.D. program. Therefore, we have no Ph.D. or postdoc positions available. If you are looking for one of these, you will have to look at a more research-intensive university with the appropriate program.