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Drew Tonsager

Assistant Professor

Office: Anatomy and Zoology (AZ) E208

Phone: 

Education:

  • B.S., Biochemistry, Iowa State University
  • Ph.D., Biochemistry, Colorado State University

About

I am an assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and currently teach several in-person and online courses. I teach two introductory lecture courses in LIFE: Introductory Genetics (LIFE201B) and Introductory Eukaryotic Cell Biology (LIFE210). I also teach Comprehensive Biochemistry I (BC401) and Comprehensive Biochemistry Lab (BC404).

I was recently conferred my doctoral degree in Biochemistry, where I investigated the role of several factors known as histone chaperones in preserving the eukaryotic chromatin landscape in yeast (S. cerevisiae) in Dr. Laurie Stargell’s group here at Colorado State University. To ascertain the role of these histone chaperones on preserving chromatin structure, we utilized micrococcal nuclease digestion followed by sequencing (MNase-seq) to analyze chromatin protections across the yeast genome in cells expressing numerous mutant alleles of these factors. Extensive characterization of MNase-protected fragments revealed how histone chaperones maintain nucleosomal and subnucleosomal structures over promoters and open reading frames.

During my time as a Ph.D. candidate, I co-developed a course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE) with Dr. Stargell to introduce upper-level biochemistry students to techniques in yeast genome engineering in an authentic research setting. 

Publications

  • “The histone chaperone Spn1 preserves chromatin protections at promoters and nucleosome positioning in open reading frames.” Tonsager AJ, Zukowski A, Radebaugh CA, Weirich A, Stargell LA, Ramachandran S G3 (Bethesda), 2025 doi: 10.1093/g3journal/jkaf032
  • “An undergraduate research experience in CRISPR-Cas9 mediated eukaryotic genome editing to teach fundamental biochemistry techniques.” Tonsager AJ, Stargell LA Biochem Mol Biol Educ., 2025 doi: 10.1002/bmb.21862
  • “Single-cell genetic models to evaluate orphan gene function: The case of QQS regulating carbon and nitrogen allocation.” Wang L, Tonsager AJ, Zheng W, Wang Y, Stessman D, Fang W, Stenback KE, Campbell A, Tanvir R, Zhang J, Cothron S, Wan D, Meng Y, Spalding MH, Nikolau BJ, Li L Front. Plant Sci., 2023 doi: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1126139