PhD
Professor, Cell Biology and Physiology
UNC-Chapel Hill
Cancer Cell Biology
Area of Interest
Integrity in axon guidance and axon branching is required for the functional organization of the nervous system. Both axon guidance and axon branching employ the same fundamental cellular machinery: a dynamic cytoskeleton produces the force to initiate axonal plasma membrane protrusion, while vesicle trafficking supplies phospholipids and membrane proteins to the dramatically expanding axonal plasma membrane. Extracellular guidance cues, such as netrin, likely coordinate cytoskeletal dynamics and vesicle trafficking to elicit specific neuronal responses. In my lab we are investigating the role of two neuronally-expressed ubiquitin ligases, TRIM9 and TRIM67, in netrin-dependent axon guidance and branching.
We utilize a variety techniques including high resolution live cell microscopy, gene disruption, mouse models, microfluidics and biochemistry to understand the complex coordination of cytoskeletal dynamics and membrane trafficking driving neuronal shape change and growth cone motility in primary neurons and in the developing vertebrate mammalian nervous system.
Awards and Honors
- Scialog Fellow, 2018
- Jefferson-Pilot Fellowship Award in Academic Medicine, 2016
- North Carolina State University, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Outstanding Young Alumnus, 2016
- ASCB/Gibco Emerging Leader Finalist, 2016
- UNC Outstanding Postdoc Mentor Award, 2016
- Pierre Morell UNC Neurobiology Curriculum Mentor of the Year, 2016
- UNC Junior Faculty Development Award, 2016
- ASCB/Gibco Emerging Leader Semifinalist, 2015
- MIT Koch Institute Image Award, 2011
- Merck/SPRI Senior Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2009-2011
- Fellow of the Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund for Medical, 2006-2009
- ASCB Merton R Bernfield Award for ASCB 45th Annual Meeting, 2005
- HHMI Predoctoral Fellow, 2001-2006
