Leslie Pick

Portrait of Leslie Pick

Leslie Pick

Professor & Associate Dean
301 405 3914
lpick@umd.edu 1109 A.v. Williams Building

Teaching

BISI712: Rcr For Biologists
ENTM701: Tchng & Prof Dvlp Biol
ENTM788C: Colloquium
HLSC322: Genetics & Genomics

Graduate Program Affiliations

Biological Sciences (BISI): Behavior, Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics (BEES)
Biological Sciences (BISI): Molecular and Cell Biology (MOCB)
Entomology

Research

The Pick lab studies the function and evolution of regulatory genes that control embryonic development. The lab is currently focused on ‘evo-devo’ studies that compare gene expression and function in the model insect Drosophila melanogaster to other insect species, revealing unexpected levels of genetic variation across insect phyla. The development of molecular methods in diverse insects, including mosquitoes, beetles and milkweed bugs, has led the lab to begin exploring mechanisms underlying RNAi susceptibility in insects.

Education

Ph.D., Albert Einstein College of Medicine, NY, 1986
B.S., Wesleyan University, 1977

Latest Papers

Compensatory action of different types of cis-regulatory elements buffers the striped expression of Drosophila pair-rule-genes

| Development
Author(s): Matthew D. Fischer, Kristen Au, Minh Lê, Patricia Graham, Leslie Pick


Arthropod Pax Gene Evolution: A Role for Vanessa Cardui Twin of Eyeless in Eye Development

| Molecular Biology and Evolution
Author(s): Ximena Gutiérrez Ramos, Leslie Pick, Patricia Wittkopp


Recent approaches lead to a deeper understanding of diverse segmentation mechanisms in insects, with a focus on the pair-rule genes

| Current Opinion in Insect Science
Author(s): Katie Reding, Leslie Pick


A conserved sequence that sparked the field of evo-devo

| Developmental Biology
Author(s): Leslie Pick, Kristen Au


Same rule, different genes: Blimp1 is a pair-rule gene in the milkweed bug Oncopeltus fasciatus

| Science Advances
Author(s): Katie Reding, Matthew Chung, Abigail Heath, Julie Dunning Hotopp, Leslie Pick


Same rule, different genes:
Blimp1
is a pair-rule gene in the milkweed bug
Oncopeltus fasciatus

| Science Advances
Author(s): Katie Reding, Matthew Chung, Abigail Heath, Julie Dunning Hotopp, Leslie Pick


The ftz upstream element drives late ftz stripes but is not required for regulation of Ftz target genes

| Developmental Biology
Author(s): Matthew D. Fischer, Patricia Graham, Leslie Pick


Segmental expression of two ecdysone pathway genes during embryogenesis of hemimetabolous insects

| Developmental Biology
Author(s): Judith Wexler, Leslie Pick, Ariel Chipman


Genome editing of the vermilion locus generates a visible eye color marker for Oncopeltus fasciatus

| Scientific Reports
Author(s): Katie Reding, Minh Lê, Leslie Pick


Anterior‐posterior patterning of segments in Anopheles stephensi offers insights into the transition from sequential to simultaneous segmentation in holometabolous insects

| Journal of Experimental Zoology Part B: Molecular and Developmental Evolution
Author(s): Alys M. Cheatle Jarvela, Catherine S. Trelstad, Leslie Pick