Patricia Lam
Growing up in Newfoundland, I came all the way across the country to get my Bachelor's degree at the University of British Columbia in Integrated Sciences (Botany and Microbiology) in 2003. In September 2003, I started working as a lab technician in the Kunst lab. My project involved engineering plants to produce high hydroxy fatty acid levels in seeds. Later, my focus changed to studying genes involved in cuticular wax biosynthesis.
I started my PhD in Ljerka’s lab in September
2006, investigating the possible mechanisms of regulating wax biosynthesis.
The CER7 gene has been shown to encode an exoribonuclease that
indirectly affects transcript levels of CER3, a key wax biosynthetic
gene thought to work early in the pathway. By identifying the putative
target(s) of the CER7 exoribonuclease, we can perhaps understand how wax
biosynthesis is regulated.