Research Areas:

Intrinsically Disordered Proteins
Cell-Cell Adhesion
Developmental Biology
Microscopy
Image Analysis

Techniques:

Molecular biology/cloning
Drosophila husbandry
Bright-field microscopy
Fluorescent microscopy
Image analysis
Machine Learning and AI for biological applications

Project Description:

The ability of a cell to maintain proper adhesion to neighboring cells and its environment is an integral part of biology. Cell-Cell adhesion and Cell-Environment adhesion is important in embryogenesis and wound healing, and the deregulation can lead to invasion and metastasis in diseases like cancer. Model organisms such as Drosophila melanogaster (fruit flies) provide a powerful tool to study how cells maintain proper adhesion under wildtype (normal) conditions and what proteins are involved in this process. My work uses genetic and cloning techniques to alter adhesion proteins and express them in flies so we can study the effects of those mutated proteins. I use classic developmental biology assays to get functional answers, and incorporate computational, machine learning, and AI tools to get a fuller picture of this biology. Students who work with me will establish new and novel mutant lines, test the functional and morphological ramifications of these mutations using wet-bench techniques, various types of microscopy, and powerful computational analysis.