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Primary Faculty

Primary faculty

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Kristopher J. Burkewitz, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology

The Burkewitz lab is interested in understanding what causes the elderly to be at such great risk for these diseases when the young are not. What are the common biological changes that underlie many of these diverse forms of age-dependent pathogenesis, and are there ways to intervene and prevent these changes from occurring?
Lab Website


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Dylan T Burnette, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology

Using multidisciplinary scientific methodologies, the Burnette lab aspires to understand the growth of the human heart on a single cell level.
Lab Website


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Chin Chiang, Ph.D.

Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology

Our laboratory is interested in how defined numbers of functionally and neurochemically different neurons are established and later incorporated into a functional cerebellar circuit, and how defined perturbations of this circuitry affects the ability of animals to integrate and process sensory information.
Lab Website


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Neil Dani, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology

The Dani lab studies the choroid plexus, a vital brain barrier that produces cerebrospinal fluid and generates factors that support brain health throughout life. We seek to uncover mechanisms driving the normal development and maturation of this barrier, its breakdown in neurological disease and ways to leverage these insights to develop new therapies.
Lab Website

  • : Office: 3150A Medical Research Building III
    465 21st Avenue South
    Nashville, Tennessee - 37232

    : Lab: 3154 Medical Research Building III
    465 21st Avenue South
    Nashville, Tennessee - 37232

  • : neil.dani@vanderbilt.edu
  • : (615) 322-5222

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Kathy DelGiorno, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology
Assistant Professor of Surgery

The DelGiorno lab is studying the physiological role of metaplasia-derived secretory cell populations in injury, pre-invasive disease and tumorigenesis with the ultimate goal of exploiting anti-tumorigenic signaling or target pro-tumorigenic signaling pathways for patient benefit.
Lab Website

View Kathy DelGiorno’s Basic Sciences faculty profile video.


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Vivian Gama, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology
Associate Dean for Equity and Inclusive Mentorship

Our lab is interested in uncovering new pathways regulating these stem cell properties. We are particularly interested in characterizing the functions of apoptotic proteins in maintaining self-renewal and pluripotency and in the regulation of differentiation and reprogramming.

Lab Website

View Vivian Gama’s Basic Sciences faculty profile video.


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Kathleen L. Gould, Ph.D.

Louise B. McGavock Chair, Professor, Department of Cell & Developmental Biology
AAAS Fellow - 2011

Cell Division Signaling

Lab Website

 


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Guoqiang Gu, Ph.D.

Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology

My laboratory studies the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying beta cell production, function, and maintenance in the vertebrate pancreas. De-regulation of the above processes result in diabetes, which afflict over 5% of the world populations.
Lab Website


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Irina N. Kaverina, Ph.D.

Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology

In our lab, we aim to understand molecular and spatial differences between MT networks in specific cells types, and how these differences promote physiological functions of these cells.
Lab Website


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Ken Lau, Ph.D.

Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology
Professor of Surgery

Our lab develops and applies computational approaches to high content data generated by single-cell technologies to understand epithelial tissue function and organization. The intestinal epithelium is a single cell layer that separates the trillions of microbes in the gut lumen from the host’s body. The central goal of my lab is to understand how the inflammatory microenvironment, the so-called “niche”, signal to epithelial cells to alter their phenotypes.
Lab Website

View Ken Lau’s Basic Sciences faculty profile.


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Ethan Lee, M.D., Ph.D.

Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology
Professor of Pharmacology

My laboratory is interested in understanding the basic mechanism by which a Wnt signal is propagated and how this information can be used in regenerative medicine and in the treatment of cancer.
Lab Website


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Ian G. Macara, Ph.D.

Chair of the Department of Cell & Developmental Biology
Professor of Cell & Developmental Biology
Louise B McGavock Chair
AAAS Fellow - 2018
ASCB Fellow - 2019

Our lab is deeply interested in how epithelial cells make collective decisions and maintain homeostasis; and how these processes are disrupted in response to damage, and during cancer initiation. We use mouse mammary gland and skin, plus human breast organoids, as model epithelial systems. We develop novel transgenic mouse models, genome-wide CRISPR screens, and quantitative, single-molecule imaging modalities to address fundamental questions about epithelial function.

Lab Website


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Jason MacGurn, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology

The main research objective of my lab is to understand the molecular mechanisms that regulate the composition of proteins at the plasma membrane and to engineer new technologies for artificial remodeling of the cell surface.

Lab Website


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David M. Miller, III, Ph.D.

Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology
AAAS Fellow - 2013

Molecular genetics of neural specificity in Caenorhabditis elegans.
Lab Website

 


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Andrea Page-McCaw, Ph.D.

Stevenson Chair
Director of Graduate Studies (DGS)
Professor of Cell & Developmental Biology
AAAS Fellow - 2018

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), tissue remodeling, wound healing, developmental biology, Drosophila, genetics, receptor, and signaling, immunity.
Lab Website


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Jeffrey Spraggins, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology
Associate Professor of Biochemistry
Associate Professor of Chemistry
Associate Professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology
Member of the Mass Spectrometry Research Center

Our research group develops advanced imaging mass spectrometry and integrated multimodal molecular imaging technologies capable of providing a systems biology view of the tissue microenvironment that spans a wide range of molecular classes (e.g. metabolites, lipids, proteins, genes) and spatial scales (e.g. single cells, functional tissue units, whole organs). We are applying these advanced technologies to better understand critical biomedical research areas such as infectious disease and diabetes.


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William P. Tansey, Ph.D.

Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology
Ingram Professor of Cancer Research
Professor of Biochemistry
Co-Leader, Genome Maintenance Research Program/VICC
AAAS Fellow - 2012

Regulation of transcription in normal and cancer cells.


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Matthew J. Tyska, Ph.D.

Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair
Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology
Scientific Director, Cell Imaging Shared Resource
ASCB Fellow - 2022

Cytoskeletal control of cell morphology

Lab website


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Alissa Weaver, M.D., Ph.D.

Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair
Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology
Professor of Pathology Microbiology and Immunology
Director of Vanderbilt Program for Extracellular Vesicle Research
AAAS Fellow - 2016
ASCB Fellow - 2022

How the secretion of small extracellular vesicles from cells promotes aggressive, invasive behavior and facilitates tumor growth and metastasis.

Lab Website


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Christopher V. Wright, D. Phil.

Louise B. McGavock Chair
Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology
Director, Vanderbilt University Program in Developmental Biology
Associate Director, Vanderbilt Center for Stem Cell Biology
AAAS Fellow - 2012

Molecular embryology /vertebrate embryogenesis /transcription factors/intercellular signaling.
Lab Website


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Marija Zanic, Ph.D.

Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology
Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Professor of Biochemistry

Molecular cell biology, physical biology, biophysics, cytoskeleton, microtubules, microtubule dynamics.

Lab Website

View Marija Zanic’s Basic Sciences faculty profile video.


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Qiangjun Zhou, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology
Training Faculty, Vanderbilt Brain Institute

Molecular mechanisms of vesicle-mediated cell-to-cell communications in the central nervous system.

Lab Website


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