Kimberly Cooper
University of California-San Diego, CA·Genetics
How do genes build the very different bodies of mammals? The two projects here take on this question from opposite directions.
- Fields
Genetics
Biology
Ecology & Evolution
- Topics
evolutionary developmental biology
evo-devo
mammalian tail
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Aug 2029
What they work on
- Identify genetic controls of vertebral elongation that drive differences in tail length, by comparing tail development in laboratory mice and bipedal jerboas.
- Develop and test three BAC transgenic Cas9 drivers, built from regulatory DNA of the meiotic genes Tex12, Prdm9 and Rad51ap2, to boost CRISPR gene conversion in male and female mouse germlines.
- Measure CRISPR/Cas9 gene conversion efficiency at two new loci in mice, alone and together in the same cell, to test whether multi-locus conversion follows a multiplicative or coordinated probability.
More about the research
One traces how mammal tails became so varied, from gene control in embryos to how tails move. The other builds a genetic tool that makes it easier to breed mice carrying several chosen gene variants at once. That tool helps study traits shaped by many genes together.
Why it matters
Mouse models of diseases shaped by many genes, such as Alzheimer's, heart disease and diabetes, are slow, costly and animal-intensive to breed. Efficient CRISPR gene conversion could reduce the time, cost and animal numbers needed to study and treat these diseases. The tail research adds understanding of how genetic changes produce new anatomy, and it may also inform robotics design.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Collaborative Research: IntBIO: Mammalian Tail Innovations & Biodiversity Revealed By the Intersection of Genetics, Biomechanics, and Macroevolution
NSF · Sep 2025 – Aug 2029
Development of approaches to apply CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene conversion to model complex genetic traits in mice
NIH · Feb 2023 – Jan 2027
Closest labs
Leslie Pick
University of Maryland, MD·Genetics
Determine how the milkweed bug Oncopeltus achieves pair-rule segment patterning without the canonical pair-rule genes used by Drosophila, using expression analysis, RNA interference and CRISPR/Cas9.
Eric Haag
University of Maryland, MD·Genetics
Reconstruct how FOG-2, a protein found only in C. elegans, evolved from a large family of F-box proteins to become an essential regulator that lets hermaphrodite worms make sperm.
Meredith Protas
University of San Francisco, CA·Genetics
Map the genome regions responsible for eye loss in two cave populations of the crustacean Asellus aquaticus and in a surface-population intercross, using RADseq (restriction site-associated DNA sequencing) to read markers across the genome.
The school
University of California-San Diego: 84 labs on PI Pages, $1.9B a year on research, 637 research doctorates a year.
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