TJ Hollingsworth – Current Student

“Having come from a non-vision related field, I felt the curriculum to be very challenging for me; however, my mentor, Dr. Alecia Gross, helped me to better my knowledge of the subject. I really feel like she cares about what happens to me. For the most part, the faculty seem to have a genuine interest in their students.”

Name: T.J. Hollingsworth

Mentor: Dr. Alecia K. Gross

Discipline: Biochemistry, Physiology and Molecular biology

Education: B.S. Cellular and Molecular Biology, 2007, Jacksonville State University, Jacksonville, Alabama

Current Research: My project involves the biochemical characterization of the rhodopsin mutant Ter349Glu and discovering its underlying mechanism in causing autosomal dominant retinitis pigmentosa.

Publications/Presentations:

Summer FASEB “The Biology and Chemistry of Vision” (2009): Defective Trafficking of Autosomal Dominant Retinitis Pigmentosa Mutant Ter349Glu Rhodopsin Is Rescued by the Addition of –VXPX Sorting Motif

Association of Southeastern Biologists (2009): Rhodopsin mutant Ter349Glu mislocalizes in primary ciliated cells

Teaching assistant (2009): Dauphin Island Introduction to Neuroscience course.

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