Research in the Williams Lab   

      Our work centers on the acclimatization and adaptation of fish to changes in temperature. We are interested in the biochemical, molecular and cellular attributes that allow some fish, but not others, to thrive at a wide variety of environmental temperatures. We are particularly interested in how cell membranes contribute to overall cell function during temperate acclimation. The fish we use include Icelandic Arctic charr (a salmonid), Icelandic three-spined stickleback, and cells in culture from Chinook salmon, rainbow trout and zebra fish. We use the charr and stickleback to test the hypothesis that fish living for thousands of generations in an environment free of thermal variability (i.e., in cold lakes in Iceland) have lost the ability to restructure their cell membranes. The cell culture systems allow us to pursue similar questions in a controlled laboratory environment.
      We also have a keen interest in understanding the relationship between fish oil and cancer. In this area we focus on the curious properties of certain membrane-associated fatty acids, the omega-3 fatty acids, which are abundant in fish oil. These fatty acids are intricately linked to cold-acclimation in fish cells but, surprisingly, they induce apoptosis, or programmed cell death, in many types of cancer cells including mouse leukemias. The basis of this dramatic difference in the action of the omega-3s is unclear and under examination.

Most semesters we have openings for students wishing to explore either the fish or cancer work.