Congratulations to Susan Cole, whose NIH grant entitled "Identification and analysis of chicken DLL3 as a segmentation clock component" was recently funded for two years. The Cole lab is interested in a cell communication pathway called the Notch signaling pathway that is active. One important role for this pathway is an a genetic clock that times skeletal development.  When the functions of genes linked to this clock are perturbed, this can cause congenital defects including skeletal deformities such as scoliosis in humans, and in this grant the lab will examine the evolutionary conservation of this clock. This research will provide information that will allow better treatment for defects and diseases that arise from dysregulation of the clock, and from perturbed Notch signaling in other contexts, including cancer.