Hughes Mentor:  Ronald Booker

Department: Neurobiology and Behavior

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Meet a Cornell Researcher: Ronald Booker

Professor Ronald Booker is quite unlike most Cornell faculty members. My first experience with Booker was as a student in BioNB 222: Introduction to Neurobiology. He taught the section of the course devoted to developmental neurobiology. As soon as he took the floor and began talking, the auditorium of drowsy, half-interested undergraduates perked up. It was hard to pay attention to anything other than Professor Booker’s animated lecture. He cracked jokes and picked on students all while teaching us about cell adhesion molecules and synaptic plasticity. When I signed up to interview Professor Booker, I was expecting an equally lively meeting. Booker did not disappoint.

Although it seemed Booker was doing the majority of the talking and was asking most of the questions, I did manage to squeeze the following information out of him. Ronald Booker completed his undergraduate years of study at Bowdoin College, a nationally renowned college of liberal arts and science in Maine. It was there that he had his first research experience studying rabbits and their muscle physiology. He was not enthralled by his research, but he took what he could get as most undergraduates must. In Booker’s opinion, undergraduates involved in research do not realize how little they actually know. They have only breached the subject of biology, dealing with a wide range of topics only superficially. Thus, as an undergraduate, it is difficult to know what one is truly passionate about and what he wants to investigate. Booker’s interests became more defined as he conducted his graduate work at Princeton University and continued his studies as a post-doctorate at institutions as prestigious as Harvard University.

Booker came to Cornell in the 1980s with a fascination in entomology and developmental physiology. Today he uses the moth Manduca sexta and the fly Drosophila melanogaster as model systems to study the neural and hormonal basis of behavioral development. In their transitions from larva to pupa to adults, these insects exhibit drastic shifts in their behavioral repertoires. Booker is out to determine the neural correlates that cause such age-dependent behavior changes. Booker and his lab also use Drosophila to explore the cellular and molecular basis of postembryonic neurogenesis.

In addition to conducting research and writing grants, Professor Booker also promotes undergraduate research on campus by serving as an honors advisor, a Hughes scholar sponsor, and a BioG499 mentor. Obviously, his duties to his students are not limited to the classroom.

With so many responsibilities on campus, it is sometimes difficult to imagine professors as real people with real families and outside lives. Professor Booker’s life outside academics includes his wife and daughter. Booker met his wife, who also works at Cornell, as a post-doc. Together they have raised a daughter who is now a freshman at Ithaca High School. One would think that the daughter of two science-oriented parents would also have her eyes set on a future in science. According to Booker, however, she is more interested in “managing a large group of people.” Judging by the way Booker can command an entire lecture hall of young adults, the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree.

The next question: do professors have hobbies? Booker does. He enjoys reading, gardening, and “tinkering” in his spare time. When asked to define “tinkering,” Booker explained it as getting very excited and involved in one hobby only to abandon it for another soon afterwards. Booker recently tinkered around with building furniture. It was also apparent from our conversation on social mobility and college acceptance statistics that Booker is an avid reader of the New York Times.

From my brief lunch with Professor Booker, I learned that he is a very influential force on campus. He has taught courses such as Introduction to Neurobiology, Developmental Neurobiology, and Clinical Neurobiology, he has mentored several graduate / medical school-hopefuls, and he has been implemented in writing grants for future Office of Undergraduate Biology programs. It was a privilege to meet with him, and one can only hope all Cornell faculty members are as involved and committed as Ronald Booker.

Interview

Ronald Booker, an associate professor in the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, completed his undergraduate degree at Bowdoin College and graduate degree at Princeton; both were in biology. His decision to come to Cornell was based on his love for the area. In his spare time at his home, he chops firewood in his backyard and enjoys gardening. As a kid he was interested in insect development, he now studies the correlation between neural and behavioral changes during metamorphosis in the Manduca sexta (tobacco hornworm) and Drosophila melanogaster (fruit fly); but he says this is really more of a general study of functional analysis of genes and the creation of a model for development. As far as working with undergraduate researchers, one has to come with the motivation to learn both the subject material and methods and the motivation to gain some personal insight. Students should be prepared to be organized and efficient with there time; if they are going to take 18 credits, Kaplan and want the lab job solely for beefing up a med school app…this job might not be for them. He also looks for students that have some personal reason(s) for choosing either med school, a job, or graduate school in the future; students who are just going through the motions are not the type he looks for as a researcher. Students accepted into his lab need not be a neurobiology and behavior major. Presentation of an honest desire to get involved, an understanding of the actual benefits that research will have towards the student as a person and in their future lives, and a readiness to learn are the main qualities he desires from his students. Any student, in any area of biology, should be able to benefit from research by gaining a real, practical understanding of the theories behind certain research questions, connecting with faculty and obtaining valuable practice in a lab, as long as they are willing to that is. Interested students can contact Prof Booker at rb28@cornell.edu, (607) 254-4367, or drop by his office at W121A Seeley G. Mudd Hall.

A Day in the Life of an Undergraduate in the Booker Lab

I first learned of the booker lab in my sophomore year from a friend who was graduating and going to medical school. I was asking for advice, I wanted to know what I could do that might help me get into medical school. And he told me undergraduate research was really important he even new of a lab that I might be able to work in. That was when he referred me to Dr. Booker. To Dr. Booker grades were important, he wanted to make sure that I would both work hard and understand the research. It was not important for me to know any particular information from a previous class only that I understand basic biology. The model organism I work with are fruit flies, and more specifically I look at the interaction between a gene called twins and the Egfr signaling pathway to bring about development of sensory bristles in their backs. A typical day involves coming into lab in the morning, and the first thing that I do is look for virgins to make more crosses. Depending on how may crosses I plan to make, looking for virgin females can take 1 to 2 hours. The next thing I do is check the crosses I have already made to make sure that they are doing well. If there are flies emerging on that day from previous crosses, I go though them and look for phenotypes and count their relative frequency. After checking on the flies I may start dissections on fly larvae or continue work ups on previous dissections depending on where I am in the staining process. This usually takes at least 2 hours. When waiting on washes or when I have downtime I usually read a book. To finish the day I return to flies and look for more virgin females and make the crosses for the day. This is obviously my schedule during the summer, as I cannot devote 7 to 8 hours during the school year. When I am working in the lab during the school year I often have to balance school work with lab work and generally devote approximately 3 hours a day to research. Instead of doing the same thing every day I plan out the week as if it were a long day and take the same systematic approach I take to actual days during the summer.

A Hughes Scholar Guide to Doing Research in the Booker Lab

If you are interested in working in the Booker Lab, Bio101-104 covers important general background information and the courses BioNB 222 (Intro to Neurobiology) and BioGD 281 (Genetics) are helpful but are not required. In addition, no previous research experience is necessary. Booker is extremely patient and doesn’t mind explaining things, sometimes multiple times, and everyone else in the lab is friendly and knowledgeable about fly genetics.

The organism that we work on is Drosophila melanogaster (fruit fly) and the goal of my project is to define the role of a gene called trol (terribly reduced optic lobes) in the regulation of neurogenesis in D. melanogaster. I also want to determine the developmental origin of one population of neuroblasts, the optic lobe precursors, in the brain. My typical day in the lab includes following immunocytochemistry protocols, looking for virgin female flies, and setting up crosses. I do crosses to investigate any interactions that might be interesting and I dissect the larvae of the crosses when they emerge.

The technique that is essential for my project is immunocytochemistry, which involves the use of antibodies. I follow standard, immunocytochemistry protocols that are specific for each primary antibody. The protocols include dissecting the tissue, fixing, doing washes, incubating in antibody, and mounting. This summer I was also trained to use the Leica Confocal microscope so that I can view my slides and take images.

From doing this project, I have learned that it is impossible for me to know everything (I realize that Booker doesn’t understand everything!) and it important to ask questions and read papers. Even though research is frustrating and difficult at times, I learned that I am more determined than I thought and that it is important to always try new things because I like research more than I thought I would.

I have seen firsthand that you can get a lot more accomplished during the summer compared to the school year. Initially I thought that the days and the summer would be so long since I was spending four times the amount of time in lab, however the hours passed quickly and the atmosphere was much more relaxed. In addition, during the year I am used to coming into lab with a purpose and then leaving, so I really enjoyed getting to know the other people who work in the Booker lab on a more personal level.

A Guide to Research in the Booker Lab

Before joining the Booker lab, I realized I had an interest in developmental biology and neurobiology. After looking through several developmental biology and neurobiology labs, I decided to contact Dr. Booker and a few other professors. Not having taken genetics or BioNB 222, I did not have much expertise in the research conducted by the Booker lab. That lack of experience did not deter Booker from letting me join his lab. In fact, the other two undergraduates that entered the lab at the same time as I knew as little/much as I did.

The Booker lab works with Drosophila melanogaster developmental neurobiology, although I would consider the lab focus to be more on developmental biology than neurobiology. The lab work consists mainly of fly husbandry, dissection and immunocytochemistry. On most days, I count or cross my flies, dissect larvae, and stain dissections with immunocytochemistry techniques. Immunocytochemistry is an antibody staining technique, and it generates a lot of the data we use. The technique involves dissecting out (usually) imaginal discs, staining with primary antibody, and then a fluorescent secondary antibody. All of these techniques are pretty easy to learn but do take a bit of practice. Dissections are a bit difficult at first because fruit fly larvae are very tiny and sometimes a bit wiggly. Most importantly, Booker is very patient about learning techniques and the language of developmental biology research. We work with several genes in the Booker lab, and it definitely takes some time to get used to the lingo.

A day in the Booker lab is not all work and no play. Everyone in the lab, Booker definitely included, likes to talk and be sociable. One important thing I’ve learned while working in the Booker lab it’s okay to take time out of your research to get to know your surroundings. The Booker lab is probably not for one interested in a great deal of independent research because a lot of Booker’s undergraduate projects involve some collaboration. My previous research experiences were a lot more independent, so it did take me some time to get used to group work. Working in the Booker lab has helped me learn that professors are real people. They aren’t gods, and they don’t expect students to be superhuman beings. I’ve also learned that research can be extremely frustrating one day and extremely rewarding the next. You can’t always expect things to go your way, but it can feel great when they do.

Summer research is very different from research during the school year. It is very difficult to get much done during the year because of the sheer time involved in doing biological research. Summer research definitely allows one to multitask and accomplish much more, but research during the school year can also be fruitful. The techniques used in the Booker lab involve a lot of downtime, which lets students stop in between classes to finish up quick work. That being said, the techniques can also take a few hours out of the day, and as with any research, a substantial time commitment is required.