Geoff Hicks
Professor
Rady Faculty of Health Sciences
Canada
Biography
B.Sc. (Microbiology & Chemistry), Univ. of Manitoba, 1985 Ph.D. (Physiology), Univ. of Manitoba, 1991 Postdoctoral Fellowships, M.I.T. & Vanderbilt Univ., 1991-98 Assistant Professor (Physiology and Cell Biology), Univ. of Manitoba, 1998-2003 Associate Professor (Physiology and Cell Biology), Univ of Manitoba, 2003 - present Research Interests
Research Interest
Our Centre is a leading international Mammalian Functional Genomics facility developing technology to greatly speed up the process of moving from gene identity to discovering gene function in vivo. One major project is currently deriving 20 - 40,000 embryonic stem cell lines to generate “knock-out” mice for any given gene. Assessing gene function within the context of the intact organism is an extremely powerful approach to discovering the molecular mechanisms of human diseases and has the potential to develop models of human disease or to evaluate the therapeutic potential of specific disease treatments and therapies. Bioinformatics is also a major research component of the centre (www.EScells.ca). Our lab focuses on known genetic determinants of leukemia and cancer, particularly the TLS and EWS genes. For example, we have discovered that TLS is essential for lymphocyte activation, maintaining the integrity of the genome and the biological responses to DNA damage. EWS is a closely related gene and is affected in children with Ewing Sarcoma.
