We developed Gene Investigator to facilitate literature searches of the NCBI PubMed database. This application allows the user to input a list of up to 100 genes to be searched in combination with a custom search expression. The search is performed one gene at a time and the results are reported on a gene-by-gene basis. We hope that you find this tool useful.

The Developers

Laura Cotterman is an application developer with experience developing database driven applications for the web.

Laura Mathies is a faculty member in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at Virginia Commonwealth University. She works alongside and in collaboration with Jill Bettinger and Andrew Davies. Our research group uses the genetic animal model Caenorhabditis elegans to understand how the nervous system responds to alcohol.

The Research Project

The goal of this research project is to learn how the SWI/SNF complex controls ethanol responses, and, because SWI/SNF regulates transcription, to determine the downstream genes that mediate these effects. We used a combination of genetic perturbations and next generation sequencing to identify transcripts whose expression changes in SWI/SNF mutants in adult neurons. We were interested in finding SWI/SNF-regulated genes that are mediating the effects of the SWI/SNF complex on human alcohol-related phenotypes.

If you use Gene Investigator, please cite our paper:

SWI/SNF complexes act through CBP-1 histone acetyltransferase to regulate acute functional tolerance to alcohol. Mathies LD, Lindsay JH, Handal AP, Blackwell GG, Davies AG, Bettinger JC. BMC Genomics. 2020 Sep 21;21(1):646. doi: 10.1186/s12864-020-07059-y. Download here

Our Team
Laura Mathies - project lead
Laura Cotterman - application development
Elizabeth Quamme - web development
Nelson Ruth - python scripts
Maya Mason - logo

If you have any comments or suggestions, please feel free to contact us at geneinvestigatorapp@gmail.com.