= C. J. O'Kane
{c}
= Cahir J. O'Kane
{c}
{synonym}
= Cahir O'Kane
{c}
{synonym}
<Cahir J. O'Kane> is a geneticist whose work includes developing <enhancer trap> experiments in <Drosophila melanogaster>. His institutional account places that work during his postdoctoral period with <Walter Jakob Gehring> in Basel. The original 1987 paper's first-page byline gives Cahir J. O'Kane and Walter J. Gehring.<Professor Cahir O'Kane profile by Churchill College>[biography, Basel postdoctoral work and enhancer trapping]{ref}<Detection in situ of genomic regulatory elements in Drosophila by C. J. O'Kane and W. J. Gehring>[PNAS 84, page 9123, original byline]{ref}
The experiment used a <P element> to place a weak-promoter <reporter gene> in different genomic contexts. <Beta-galactosidase> activity provided a visible readout of reporter expression. About seventy percent of forty-nine transformed lines showed spatially regulated expression in embryos, demonstrating the method's ability to recover distinct regulatory patterns.<Detection in situ of genomic regulatory elements in Drosophila by C. J. O'Kane and W. J. Gehring>[Abstract and Results, promoter/reporter design and transformed-line observations]{ref}
A pattern is a starting point for a biological question. For example, a hypothetical reporter restricted to one tissue identifies a useful expression domain, but does not alone establish the full normal expression of a nearby gene or prove that only one <enhancer> caused the pattern. Additional mapping and comparisons address those questions.
O'Kane's Cambridge research profile also describes work on the organization of <axonal endoplasmic reticulum> in <Drosophila> <neurons>. It connects the geometry and continuity of this membrane network with cellular function.<Cahir O'Kane research profile by the Department of Genetics at Cambridge>[first-person biography and Research Interests, axonal ER organization]{ref} Both research themes use an experimentally tractable <model organism> to turn a difficult cellular or regulatory property into an observable phenotype.
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