Faculty/Staff Directory
First Name
Georgette
Last Name
Sass
Email
sassg@gvsu.edu
Title
Associate Professor
Website
Office Address
3323 Kindschi Hall of Science
Office Phone
616-331-2471
Areas of Expertise
Molecular and Developmental Genetics
Courses Taught at GVSU
BIO 120 General Biology I
BIO 328 Biomedical Ethics
BIO 355
Human Genetics
BIO 376 Genetics Laboratory
BIO 405 Cell and
Molecular Biology
BIO 406 Cell & Molecular Biology Laboratory
Research Interests
Dr. Sass’ current research involves her favorite experimental organism, the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. She is using the well-studied process of oogenesis to determine the molecular components that are required to establish a functional egg. She is studying a unique gain-of-function mutation that disrupts cell-cell signaling between germ-line derived cells and somatic cells of an egg chamber during oogenesis. Characterizations of this mutation, as well as genetic analysis of its interaction with proteins known to function in this pathway, are currently underway.
Education
Ph.D. in Biochemistry & Biophysics; University of North Carolina,
Chapel Hill, 1994.
B.S. in Biology; Kent State University, 1983.
Select Publications
Sass GL, Pannuti A, Lucchesi JC. Male-specific lethal complex
of Drosophila targets activated regions of
the X chromosome for chromatin remodeling. Proc Nat'l Acad
Sci. USA. 2003 Jul 8;100(14):8287-91.
Sass GL, Henikoff S. Pairing-dependent mislocalization of
a Drosophila brown gene reporter to a heterochromatic
environment. Genetics. 1999 Jun;152(2):595-604.
Sass GL, Henikoff S. Comparative analysis of position-effect
variegation mutations in Drosophila melanogaster delineates
the targets of modifiers. Genetics. 1998 Feb;148(2):733-41.
Csink AK, Sass GL, Henikoff
S. Drosophila heterochromatin: retreats for repeats.
In: Nuclear Organization, Chromatin Structure and Gene
Expression (ed R Van Driel and A Otte), pp
223-235. Oxford University Press, Oxford. 1997.
Sass GL, Comer AR, Searles LL. The ovarian tumor protein isoforms of Drosophila
melanogaster exhibit differences in function, expression,
and localization. Dev Biol. 1995 Jan;167(1):201-12.
Sass GL, Mohler JD, Walsh RC, Kalfayan LJ, Searles LL. Structure
and expression of hybrid dysgenesis-induced alleles of the ovarian
tumor (otu) gene in Drosophila
melanogaster. Genetics. 1993 Feb;133(2):253-63.