Gen Mager
Associate Teaching Professor of Biology
Education
Postdoctoral Fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital (2011)
University of Wisconsin, Madison, Ph.D. (2007)
The Pennsylvania State University, B.S. (2002)
Teaching Philosophy
Broadly, my goal as an instructor is to engage with a diverse student community to facilitate intellectual development and instill an appreciation for biology.
My experiences in undergraduate classrooms have led me to conclude that one of my core responsibilities as a science educator is to help students realize that scientific knowledge will help them achieve their full potential as engaged citizens of the world. My goal is for students to leave my courses with not only foundational knowledge of biology, but also a broader appreciation for how biology impacts their daily lives. I view my role in the classroom as that of a catalyst, cultivating students’ ability to assess information and pull together key concepts. My goal in aiding this development is to 1) provide opportunities to practice and build critical thinking skills, 2) to create an open classroom where students are comfortable and will actively engage in their learning experience, and 3) to provide real-world examples to make material approachable.
Publications
Mager, G.M., Ward, R.M., Jang, S.W., Wrabetz, L., and Svaren, J. (2008) Active gene repression by the Egr2.NAB complex during peripheral nerve myelination, Journal of Biological Chemistry 283(26): 18187-97.
Jones, E., Jang, S.W., Mager, G.M., Chang, L., Srinivasan, R., Gokey, N., Ward, R.M., Nagarajan, R., and Svaren, J.P. (2007) Interactions of Sox10 and Egr2 in Myelin Gene Regulation, Neuron Glia Biology 3(4): 377-387.
Mager, G.M.*, Srinivasan, R.*, Ward, R.M., Mayer, J., and Svaren, J. (2006) Nab2 represses transcription by interacting with the CHD4 subunit of the NuRD complex, Journal of Biological Chemistry, 281(22): 15129-37.
LeBlanc, S.E., Srinivasan, R., Ferri, C., Mager, G.M., Gillian-Daniel, A.L., Wrabetz, L., and Svaren, J. (2005) Regulation of lipid/cholesterol biosynthetic genes by Egr2/Krox-20 and the SREBP pathway during peripheral nerve myelination, Journal of Neurochemistry, 93:737-748.
Reber, KM, Mager, G.M., Miller, C.E., and Nowicki, P.T. (2001) Relationship between flow rate and NO production in postnatal mesenteric arteries. Am J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol, 280: G43-50.
*both authors contributed equally to this work