I study the neural and biomechanical basis of behavior in the fruit fly, Drosophila. My group strives to build an integrated model of behavior that incorporates an understanding of morphology, neurobiology, muscle physiology, physics, and ecology. Although the research focuses primarily on flight control, we are interested in how animals transform sensory information into a … Continued
My research group uses a multifaceted approach including genetics, cell biology, biochemistry and biophysics to address major unanswered questions in cell-cell fusion using organisms ranging from insects to mammals.
Many types of stem cells undergo asymmetric cell divisions to give rise to daughter cells with distinct cell fates: one that retains stem cell identity and another that differentiates. Imbalances between these two fates or malfunctioning of stem cell derivatives are common causes of many human diseases, including infertility and cancer. During stem cell asymmetric … Continued
Our lab studies cell division, with a focus on the dynamic interaction between the chromosomes and the nuclear envelope. The chromosomes are attached to the nuclear envelope at multiple sites in most part of the cell division cycle. In higher organisms, the nuclear envelope breaks down during mitosis when the duplicated chromosomes partition into the … Continued
Epithelial cells form the boundaries between the interior and exterior of an organism. The transport properties of epithelial cells define the composition of an organism’s internal milieu. In order to carry out these transport functions, the cell surface membranes of epithelial cells must be polarized, which is to say that they must be subdivided into … Continued
Viruses have evolved to hijack cellular processes to facilitate their replication and spread, while evading host defense mechanisms. The overarching goal of our laboratory is to identify and characterize key regulators of viral pathogenesis and immunity, providing new therapeutic targets for enhancing host defense and limiting pathologic inflammation. We use advanced genetic approaches to identify … Continued
My laboratory has focused on using the powerful model Drosophila to address the problems of human neurodegenerative disease. Many genes and pathways for the brain are conserved, allowing discovery of pathways of disease. This work has highlighted many novel discoveries of players that promote and protect from brain degeneration, elucidating mechanisms and the foundations for … Continued
Our research focuses on the study of the cis-regulatory landscape of the human genome, particularly in the context of early development. This landscape includes, but is not restricted to, many of the thousands of genomic regions that are conserved (and ultraconserved) between human and other species and whose functions remain unknown. Our major interests are … Continued
Research in the Bezanilla lab aims to understand how molecules within cells impart geometric information leading to cell shape determination. Cell shape often stems from restrictions imposed by the extracellular environment. Eukaryotes can control this by building a wide variety of structures, ranging from bone and shell in animals to the carbohydrate-based cell wall in … Continued
Research in our lab focuses on regulation of gene expression by non-coding RNAs and chromatin. We study the biogenesis and function of piRNAs, one of the three major classes of small non-coding RNA that protects animal genomes against transposable elements. We investigate how piRNAs guide transcriptional repression and how nuage – the peculiar subcellular compartment … Continued