Faculty Sponsor: Gilad Barnea

William used massively parallel DNA sequencing and computational analysis to investigate differential gene expression in mouse olfactory sensory neurons at several stages of development from stem cells. This gene expression information will help reveal the genetic regulatory network that controls the development of these neurons. In particular, this information will help expose the mechanism by which progenitor cells make an irreversible, stochastic choice of a single olfactory receptor for expression in an olfactory sensory neuron, which is a critical genetic component of the mammalian olfactory system.