Mark Carter Email & Phone Number

Waltham, Massachusetts

Biotechnology R&D

Center For Regenerative Biology And Dept. Of Animal Science, Storrs, Ct

Currently working to integrate single-cell gene expression and chromatin mapping data from pluripotent and differentiating ES cells to test existing models of epigenetic gene regulation in stem cells, look for correlations with ES/iPS line-specific restrictions of differentiation potential, and identify targets for purification and characterization of sub-populations.Assembled collaborative teams with biotech firms on NIH SBIR-funded projects to develop animal disease models and establish proof-of-principle for pharmaceutical protein production.Managed Dr. Jerry Yang’s research laboratories during his medical leave and transition to Dr. Cindy Tian’s leadership. A combination of excellent information- and time-management skills, professional relationships cultivated with support staff in compliance and administration, and good communication and listening skills allowed me to keep research projects and graduate students moving forward, improve administrative efficiency and research compliance, all while simultaneously managing my independent research projects.Used gene expression profiling techniques to study the effects of nuclear reprogramming on developmental gene expression patterns in cloned cow and mouse embryos after nuclear transfer.Taught graduate and undergraduate courses on embryology and animal-based biotechnology.

Developmental Genomics And Aging Section, Laboratory Of Genetics, Baltimore, Md

Probe content biases, cryptic probe set redundancy, and prohibitive RNA input requirements limited the application of global expression profiling methods to pre-implantation embryos and stem cells, a major research goal of our lab. We coordinated a team of bench scientists, technicians, in-house and extramural bioinformatics sections, and R&D staff from a microarray industry partner to address these problems by integrating specialized embryonic cDNA library construction techniques, novel in-house EST/cDNA clustering and probe selection algorithms, and RNA amplification/labeling techniques. The resulting microarray platforms had broad and development-specific probe content, flexible RNA input requirements, and optimized processing protocols to our specific experimental needs, and were successfully marketable to a broad range of our industry partner’s customers.Conventional gene expression microarrays deliver reliable relative expression ratios, not transcript abundance levels that would be more readily comparable to EST frequencies, RT-PCR, or RNA-seq data. We developed synthetic RNA “spike-in” controls and incorporated corresponding probes into microarray platforms for validation. Open access to probe sequences and RNA templates provide a standardized system for estimating absolute transcript levels for endogenous transcripts in any oligo array platform in addition to ratios.Functionally important genes are difficult to identify from individual expression profiling experiments. To capitalize on a large in-house collection of standardized global expression profiles from embryonic tissue and stem cell samples, transcription factor genes expressed primarily in multipotent and pluripotent cell types were identified and screened for cellular expression heterogeneity in undifferentiated ES cultures. The handful of transcripts with dramatic cellular expression heterogeneity formed the basis of a fully funded seed grant from the CT Stem Cell Research Initiative.

Endocrine / Hypertension Laboratory, Boston, Ma

Developed and programmed an automated system for processing high-volume clinical radioimmunoassays.Developed computer-based systems to track research specimens and data for a multi-site Genetics of Human Hypertension study.

Ph.D., Human Genetics, Molecular Biology

Thesis Dissertation: “Developmental roles for HIC1, a candidate tumor suppressor gene on chromosome 17” Advisor: Dr. Stephen B. Baylin.

B.Sc., Biology, Environmental Studies

Activities and Societies: Phi Beta Kappa Society, Orchestra, Chamber Music, Tufts Mountain ClubGraduated Magna Cum Laude