The IGBB logo features a stylized "pinwheel" to the left of the letters IGBB in caps in a modified Bank Gothic Pro font.
The six-part "pinwheel" in the IGBB logo is:
- A symbol of lab unity as it shows "parts" coming together to make a "whole."
- A flower or three-leaf clover representing (a) plants, important subjects of our research, (b) life in general, and (c) the life sciences (biology).
- A set of chromosomes being moved towards the center of a cell.
- The Sun - another symbol of life.
- A protein composed of six subunits (e.g., a protein pore).
- Three foxes putting their heads together. The fox is a symbol of cleverness in Western folklore. Since the IGBB is organized into three service groups (Genomics, Proteomics/Metabolomics, and Biocomputing/Computational Biology), the foxes could represent the three disciplines working together.
- A scientist jumping for joy after making an important discovery.
- A windmill, the primary symbol associated with Cervantes' famous character Don Quixote - Like Don Quixote, scientists must be willing to attack 'wicked giants' (e.g., ignorance, racism, sexism, intolerance, use of the term 'science' in the promotion of non-scientific causes), champion worthy causes (e.g., education, intellectual freedom, human rights, environmental responsibility), and remain optimistic in the face of defeat (e.g., most days in the lab). Hopefully, however, the average scientist can accomplish these tasks without becoming delusional (a problem that squashed Quixote's dreams of becoming a plant molecular biologist).
- A DNA double-helix or protein in cross section.
- Antibodies binding to a protein.
- Whatever you want it to be.

Dr. Chuan-Yu Hsu (Shu or Sue)Senior Research Associate
GENOMICS LEAD
email(662) 325-9511
Pace 121

Rerooting the evolutionary tree of malaria parasites
IGBB Authors:
Diana C. OutlawPUBLICATION YEAR:
2011IMPACT FACTOR:
10.425CITATION COUNT:
63Outlaw DC, Ricklefs RE (2011) Rerooting the evolutionary tree of malaria parasites.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 108(32): 13183-13187.
DOI:
10.1073/pnas.1109153108EID:
2-s2.0-80051960846PMID: 21730128
DOWNLOAD PDFABSTRACTMalaria parasites (Plasmodium spp.) have plagued humans for millennia. Less well known are related parasites (Haemosporida), with diverse life cycles and dipteran vectors that infect other vertebrates. Understanding the evolution of parasite life histories, including switches between hosts and vectors, depends on knowledge of evolutionary relationships among parasite lineages. In particular, inferences concerning time of origin and trait evolution require correct placement of the root of the evolutionary tree. Phylogenetic reconstructions of the diversification of malaria parasites from DNA sequences have suffered from uncertainty concerning outgroup taxa, limited taxon sampling, and selection on genes used to assess relationships. As a result, inferred relationships among the Haemosporida have been unstable, and questions concerning evolutionary diversification and host switching remain unanswered. A recent phylogeny placed mammalian malaria parasites, as well as avian/reptilian Plasmodium, in a derived position relative to the avian parasite genera Leucocytozoon and Haemoproteus, implying that the ancestral forms lacked merogony in the blood and that their vectors were non-mosquito dipterans. Bayesian, outgroup-free phylogenetic reconstruction using relaxed molecular clocks with uncorrelated rates instead suggested that mammalian and avian/reptilian Plasmodium parasites, spread by mosquito vectors, are ancestral sister taxa, from which a variety of specialized parasite lineages with modified life histories have evolved.
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The IGBB is an HPC² member center.