Dr. Moore is co-director of the BEND program and hosts the weekly progress reports.

Dr. Claire Moore is a professor in the Department of Molecular Biology and Microbiology, with joint appointments in the Biochemistry Department and Genetics Graduate Program. As a member of Dr. Philip Sharp’s research team at M.I.T., she participated in the discovery of mRNA splicing, for which Dr. Sharp was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1993. After establishing an independent laboratory at Tufts, she has become internationally recognized for her work using the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae to study the formation of mRNA 3’ ends in eukaryotes. She is currently the Principal Investigator of two NIH R01 grants. Because of her own positive experiences as an undergraduate, Dr. Moore has a long-term interest in encouraging the participation of students in science. Dr. Moore is also involved in teaching graduate and professional students, and in the last five years has supervised the research projects of two undergraduates, five graduate students, and seven postdoctoral fellows. Two of her trainees now have tenured faculty positions (at Tulane University in New Orleans and at the University of Valencia, Spain), and five are senior research scientists in biotechnology companies.

Dr. Moore initiated the Summer Research Program for Minority Undergraduates in 1990 and was Program Director since its inception and through three cycles of NIH funding. She expanded its scope in 2002 to include the American Society for Microbiology and the Leadership Alliance components. In 2003, Dr. Andrew Camilli took over responsibility as director and Dr. Moore remains a co-director of this program, in an advisory role rather than an administrative one. Until recently, she was also coordinator for the Roxbury Community College Program, and for many years ran a similar program for students from the Boston campus of the University of Massachusetts. Dr. Moore worked with Dr. Henry Wortis of Immunology and Dr. Dan Jay of Physiology to develop the Postbaccalaureate Research Education Program, and now serves as one of its three co-directors. Her other roles include the Tufts representative to the Leadership Alliance, liaison for the Health Sciences Campus to select and place students in the Tufts Summer Scholars Program, and Tufts recruiter at minority conferences and minority-serving institutions. She has proven her ability to run excellent institutional, cross-departmental programs, and has the university-wide recognition to successfully run a program that crosses schools and campuses as well. Through the Minority Summer Program, Dr. Moore has forged connections with faculty at the Health Sciences Campus in the Basic and Clinical Sciences departments of the Medical School, at the School of Nutrition and School of Dental Medicine, and in the School of Arts and Sciences on the Medford campus. She has experience working with and motivating undergraduate students to get involved in research, in coaching faculty on how to provide a successful experience for the students, and in handling problems that arise when the mentor and student are not a good match.