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A native of Florida, Dr. Arana attended Florida State University where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology. She received her Doctorate degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the Leonard Miller School of Medicine at the University of Miami. Her graduate work focused on DNA transactions in the herpes simplex type-1 genome.
Continuing with the theme of DNA replication, she joined the DNA Replication Fidelity group as an IRTA Postdoctoral Fellow at NIEHS. Her interests are directed towards understanding the fidelity of human DNA polymerases in addition to studying proteins involved in mismatch repair processes. In her current position as a biologist, her focus on human DNA polymerases continues and expands towards studying genome-wide gene expression changes in yeast strains.
Recently, Arana has expanded her teaching and mentoring experience by giving several lectures to students participating in the NIH Summer Internship program, undergraduate students from North Carolina Central University and high school science teachers during EHP workshops. She has also been involved in several outreach projects with Chapel Hill, Durham and Miami-Dade county schools.
Originally from Canada, Dr. Heacock received her undergraduate degree in Biochemistry from Delta State University in Cleveland, Mississippi and her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Texas A & M in College Station, Texas. Her dissertation topic focused on following the extreme terminal ends of chromosomes, telomeres, as they progressed into end-to-end chromosome fusions. Her current post-doctoral research is a structure/function study of the DNA repair enzyme, Pol, in response to DNA damage.
The primary use of the collection of your name, your school/organization, 1-2 preferred dates or times, your work email, your cell phone, the street address and city of your organization, and a description of the event is for organizing the event your request. It is optional to provide a preferred speaker, estimate attendance, other topics of interest, and how you heard about this service. If you do not provide this information, you would not be able to be contacted with a correct reply.
Collection of this information is authorized under 42 U.S.C. 203, 241, 289l-1 and 44 U.S.C. 3101, and Section 301 and 493 of the Public Health Service Act. The Privacy Act System of Records Notice (SORN) that covers collection of this information is 09-25-0156 Records of Participants in Programs and Respondents in Surveys Used to Evaluate Programs of the Public Health Service, HHS/PHS/NIH/OD and 09-90-1901 HHS Correspondence, Comment, Customer Service, and Contact List Records.
