Joanna Miller
Office: Hall of Sciences 138, Phone: x3656
jmiller1 at drew.edu

Professional Biography

Dr. Miller is a molecular biologist with an interest in RNA interference. She earned B.S. degrees in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Cellular Biology from the Interdepartmental Biological Sciences Program at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois (just outside of Chicago). Her doctoral thesis focused on investigating how DNA-binding proteins are able to access their nucleosomal targets using Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model organism. She moved to North Carolina and took an industrial postdoctoral position with a small biotechnology company in Research Triangle Park. Although she enjoyed the research and industry experience, she missed interacting with students and accepted a Postdoctoral Teaching Associate position at North Carolina State University in the Biotechnology Program. There she taught lecture and laboratory courses to undergraduate and graduate students, and developed a novel course on RNA interference. She joined the Drew faculty in fall of 2008.

RNA interference, a powerful reverse genetics technique, can be used to specifically down-regulate gene expression in a wide variety of organisms, from tiny single-celled fission yeast to humans. RNA interference is significant not only as a new biological pathway and a useful tool for research scientists, but also as a novel approach to a new class of therapeutic agents. Dr. Miller's research interests are to discover new homologs of key RNA interference proteins, such as Dicer, by bridging bioinformatics tools with experimental data. This allows her to study a protein's evolutionary conservation and provides the opportunity to further investigate the role of particular domains or key amino acid residues using site-directed mutagenesis.

On the Personal Side

Dr. Miller was born in Mexico but grew up in Wisconsin . She enjoys playing with her daughter (born in 2002) and son (born in 2005), reading, cardio kickboxing, sailing (when the opportunity presents itself), and relaxing with family and friends.

Publications Include:

Miller, J.A. (in preparation for fall 2010 publication) Textbook on RNA Interference and Model Organisms: A Laboratory Manual. Jones and Bartlett Publishers. Boston , MA .

Miller, J.A. , Witherow, D.S., and Carson, S. 2009.A Laboratory-Intensive Course on RNA Interference and Model Organisms CBE--Life Sciences Education, 8(4) : 316-325.

Miller, J.A. and Widom, J. 2003 Collaborative competition mechanism for gene activation in vivo. Molecular and Cellular Biology, 23(5) : 1623-1632.

Goryshin, I.Y., Miller, J.A ., Kil, Y.V., Lanzov, V.A. and Reznikoff, W.S. 1998. Tn5/IS50 target recognition. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the United States of America 95: 10716-10721.

Dr. Joanna Miller
Assistant Professor of Biology