Kristi LaMonica

BIOGRAPHY

Kristi LaMonica is an Associate Faculty Member who works with Faculty Member Kristin Artinger to recommend the scientific literature in their field.

Kristi Lamonica also has responsibility for checking the contents of the following journals to ensure that the highest quality research relevant to their own interests within these publications is comprehensively and systematically evaluated for F1000:

- Developmental Cell
- Current Biology

ACADEMIC POSITIONS:
• Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Craniofacial Biology, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver, Colorado
• Part-time Faculty, Teaching Biology, Metropolitan State College of Denver, Colorado

EDUCATION:
• PhD, Cell and Developmental Biology Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT, USA (2009)
• MA, Cell and Molecular Biology Central Connecticut State University, CT, USA (2003)
• BS, Biology, Central Connecticut State University, CT, USA (2002)

RESEARCH INTERESTS:
Research in the Artinger Lab is directed toward an understanding of the molecular genetic and developmental mechanisms involved in the patterning of the early neural crest during vertebrate embryogenesis. The neural crest cells, have the extraordinary ability to retain stem cell-like characteristics during development and give rise to multiple derivatives, including peripheral neurons, pigment cells and craniofacial cartilage, which makes up most of the vertebrate face. This combination has made it an attractive model system to study cell fate determination. To answer these questions, the zebrafish and the frog, Xenopus lavis are used as model systems.