Name: Jim McCarter
Country of Residence: USA
Areas of Science: Development, Evolution, Genetics, Parasitology
Joined: 1995
Comments: Genetics and germ line development in C. elegans
Web Pages: Tim Schedl Lab; Worm Teaching Team; Graduate Student Representatives
Biography: Updated: 5/21/97
Hello Mad Sci. Visitors! I am an M.D. and Ph.D. student at Washington
University in my 7th year in the Developmental Biology Program and Dept. of
Genetics nearing the completion of my thesis work on oocyte development,
maturation, and ovulation in the nematode worm C. elegans. My wife is also
an M.D. / Ph.D. program, but in Microbiology and Cell Biology. My
scientific interests, beginning around age 5, have gone from paleontology,
to astronomy, to architecture, to physics, to biology, to evolution, to
neuroscience, to development, to genetics, to parasitology. (Can I explain
how these are all connected?) I've been heavily involved with science
education since co-founding the Young Scientist Program at Washington Univ.
6 years ago. My career plan is to use C. elegans as a model system for
studying parasitic nematodes.(Parasitic nematodes infect 2.9 _billion_
people and cause billions of dollars in damage to crops and livestock each
year.) Besides doing science these days, I play basketball, work in
student government, read extensively, and help my wife with her garden and
pets. You can contact me at