Cell Biology

The Cell Biology program provides outstanding training of PhD candidates in a vibrant and rapidly evolving field. Our comprehensive program emphasizes original research, interdisciplinary coursework, and advanced topical colloquia. Trainees have the opportunity to explore fundamental questions in many areas including molecular mechanisms of cell function; regulation of growth and differentiation; cell interactions in migration; embryonic patterning in development; and morphogenesis of cells, tissues and organs. Training in cell and developmental biology forms the basis not only for making fundamental new discoveries, but also for understanding and exploring the links to human diseases where the fundamental processes of cytoskeletal dynamics, membrane trafficking, signal transduction, mitosis, cell adhesion, motility, mechanotransduction, and polarity go awry. For more information, click here…

Program Faculty

Ai, Huiwang

Spatiotemporal Regulation of Biological Signaling; Protein Engineering for Imaging, Diagnostics, and Therapeutics
Bloodgood, Robert A.

Cell-Surface Glycoprotein Dynamics and Cell Locomotion
Bloom, George S.

Pathogenic mechanisms in Alzheimer’s Disease and other neurodegenerative disorders
Casanova, James E.

Role of Arf family GTPases in vesicular transport and cytoskeleton assembly.
Cell Biology of bacterial pathogenesis.
The innate immune response to bacterial infection.
Chalfant, Charles Edward

Hematology and Oncology, Cell Biology, Lipid Signaling, Cancer Cell Signaling, and RNA Biology
DeSimone, Douglas W.

Cell Adhesion and Adhesion-Dependent Cell Signaling in Vertebrate Morphogenesis
Dwyer, Noelle

Neural Development; Cell Division in Neural Stem Cells; Axon Outgrowth and Guidance
Halme, Adrian J.

Regeneration and Systemic Responses to Tissue Damage
Hinton, Barry T.

Morphogenesis of the Developing Wolffian/Epididymal duct
Hirschi, Karen Kemper

Understanding Cellular and Molecular Mechanisms Leading to Blood Vessel Formation
Kashatus, David F

The Role of Mitochondrial Fusion and Fission in Tumorigenesis.
Keller, Raymond E.

Cellular and molecular mechanisms of morphogenesis
Kenworthy, Anne

Architecture and function of biological membranes

Kozminski, Keith G.

Regulation of Polarized Morphogenesis
Kucenas, Sarah C.

The role of glia in the development, maintenance and regeneration of the nervous system
Kulkarni, Saurabh

Human disease modeling, Quantitative cell biology, Organelle biology, Cell architecture, Cilia, Advanced light and electron microscopy
Laurie, Gordon W.

Role of Prosecretory Mitogen ‘Lacritin’ in Epithelial Homeostasis, Secretion and Innate Defense
Lu, Xiaowei

Developmental regulation of planar cell polarity in the mammalian nervous
system
O’Rourke, Eyleen Jorgelina

Obesity and Aging
Parichy, David

Developmental Genetics, Evolution and Regeneration of Adult Morphology in Vertebrates
Park, Kwon-Sik

Mechanisms of organ development and homeostasis and tumor development
Ravichandran, Kodi S.

Apoptotic cell clearance mechanisms in health and disease
Redemann, Stefanie

Chromosome segregation and aneuploidy in meiosis and mitosis
Shin, Jung-Bum

Auditory Neurobiology

Siegrist, Sarah

Regulation of neural stem cell proliferation during development and adulthood
Stukenberg, P. Todd

Mechanisms of chromosome segregation in Mitosis and generation of Chromosomal Instability in tumors
Sutherland, Ann E.

Cell behavior and morphogenesis during early mouse development.
Tamm, Lukas K.

Biomembrane Structure and Function; Cell Entry of Enveloped Viruses; Neurosecretion by Exocytosis; Structure of Bacterial Pathogen Membrane Proteins; Lipid-Protein Interactions
Winckler, Bettina

Endosomal function and dysfunction in neurons. Development of the nervous system: cytoskeleton and membrane traffic in axon and dendrite growth.
Wotton, David

Regulation of Gene Expression, Development and Tumor Progression by TGF beta Signaling
Zeitlin, Scott O.

Mechanisms of Huntington’s Disease Pathogenesis
Zong, Hui

Early detection, cancer prevention, and tumor microenvironment