California State University San Marcos
Mission statement: we strive to figure out how economically and environmentally important animals function, and how their physiology helps them deal with changing internal and external environments on a molecular level.
We are always looking for bright motivated trainees to join our research group - please contact Dr. Kolosov using form at the bottom of this page.
Paid NSF-funded undergraduate summer research opportunities are available in the Department of Biological Sciences (application required, description here)
Dr. Kolosov is available for consultant appointments, expert and technology transfer interviews, science communication and invited seminar talks (please reach out using the form below).
About Kolosov lab
We are interested in how animal physiology works on cellular and molecular levels - there is nothing that piques our interest more than "odd" and "weird" animals that stretch their physiology to the limit! A fish that lives in water and does not explode or shrink because of salt and water imbalance; a caterpillar that grows ~1,000-fold in weeks and eats ~5 times more than it weighs daily; a mosquito that takes a blood meal equivalent to you drinking your own weight in beer and does not explode. All of these animals use specialized epithelia-lined organs to re-balance their salt and water content and compensate for their crazy lifestyles.
Dr. Dennis Kolosov is a passionate early-career first-generation animal physiologist and educator in the Department of Biological Sciences at CSUSM. His research group at CSUSM uses vertebrate and invertebrate model organisms (e.g., insects and fish) for the study epithelial ion transport. Study of epithelial ion transport in the Kolosov lab involves the use a variety of cutting-edge laboratory techniques:
- bioinformatics (RNAseq, Deseq, GOseq, de novo transcriptome assembly, alternative splicing analysis)
- pharmacology and cell/molecular biology (e.g., RNA extraction, cDNA synthesis, PCR/qPCR, transcriptional knockdown; cloning and heterologous expression)
- functional bioassays (e.g., paracellular permeability assays; fluid secretion "Ramsay" assays)
- cell and tissue culture, electrophysiology (e.g., membrane potential measurements, ion-selective microelectrode use)
See latest Publications, current Projects, and K-Lab members on the news - Spotlight 1, Spotlight 2, Spotlight 3, Spotlight 4) in the lab and join us if decoding how animals work is something you'd like to do at CSUSM!
