Biography

Professor Peters received a B.A. in Biology from Washington University in St. Louis. For the next three years she worked as a research technician, first at Rutgers University with Frederick Kauffman, Ph.D. Next she moved back to her hometown Baltimore where she worked at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in the laboratory of William Agnew, Ph.D. After gaining this important experience, she enrolled in Ph.D. program in the Biological and Biomedical Sciences (BBS) at Harvard Medical School. She joined the lab of Constance L. Cepko, Ph.D., for her thesis, where her work focused on neural retina developments. The specific topic was how transcription factors and secreted factors give progenitor cells unique capacities related to their placement along the dorsal-ventral axis. For her postdoctoral training, Professor Peters joined the lab of Erik M. Jorgensen Ph.D. at the University of Utah. Here, she studied the molecular mechanisms controlling timing and execution of the one minute digestive motor program in C. elegans. In 2005, Professor Peters joined the Department of Biology at Oberlin College where she continues to study the digestive program of C. elegans using molecular genetics approaches with the assistance of undergraduate researchers in her research and classroom labs.

An equally important part of Professor Peters' career is teaching and mentoring undergraduates. The remainder of her time is spent with her husband Drew Wilburn, their infant son Patrick, and diva cat, C. Hoober Peters, as well as other friends and family.

Support for the Peters Lab

(2009-2012) National Science Foundation-Research in Undergraduate Institutions (RUI) - Integrated Organismal Systems, Physiological and Structural Systems

(2008-2009) Donald R. Longman Fellowship, Oberlin College

(2007) Support of Mentors and their Students in the Neurosciences (SOMAS) National Science Foundation subaward.

(2005-Present) Oberlin College and Oberlin Biology Department

Professor Peters and recent graduate Jamie Wagner traveled to the "Genetics 2010: Model Organisms to Human Biology" meeting in Boston, MA.  Jamie presented a poster.

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Our research program uses molecular genetic and physiological techniques to understanding a multi-cellular signaling system in a small nematode named Caenorhabditis elegan (C. elegans )

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Professor Peters teaches lecture and lab courses in the Biology department. In 2010/2011 she will teach Cell and Molecular Biology (team taught with Laura Romberg) and Genetics.

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