Dr. Rebekah Waikel
- Assistant Professor
- BS, Biology, 1995, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
- PhD, Molecular and Cellular Biology, 2000, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX
- Post-Doctoral Fellow, 2000-2003, Emory University, Atlanta, GA
Contact Information
- Department: Biological Sciences
- Office: Moore 249
- Mailing Address: Moore 235
- Email: rebekah.waikel@eku.edu
- Phone: 622-1534
Bio
Rebekah L Waikel is broadly trained in the field of molecular genetics. She began her career using genetic engineering approaches in mice to address biomedical questions. As a PhD student at Baylor College of Medicine, Dr. Waikel investigated the role of c-Myc in cancer and stem cell biology utilizing transgenic mouse models, culminating in a Nature Genetics publication. During her postdoctoral fellowship at Emory University, she studied the role of chemokine receptors in skin and gut immunology, using knockout mouse models, for which she was awarded an individual NIH NRSA. Dr. Waikel currently oversees the Molecular and Cellular Systems Lab at EKU in the Department of Biological Sciences. The group studies molecular genetics questions in biomedicine and biofuels. Dr. Waikel is a new member of the CRAFT team. Her CRAFT funded research is underway to identify novel enzymatic genes involved in lipid synthesis in algae. Her group will isolate and sequence genes that produce enzymes directly involved in algal lipid production. They will further develop a rapid detection assay to determine levels of these gene products in an attempt to predict conditions that optimize their expression. Her overall goal is to understand these genes, to manipulate the expression of these genes, thus producing more efficient biofuel production from algae.
