Wendy Hanna-Rose

BIOGRAPHY

ACADEMIC POSITIONS:
• Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
• Associate Department Head for Undergraduate Studies

EDUCATION:
• BA Anderson University
• PhD Harvard University
• Postdoc University of Colorado at Boulder

MEMBERSHIPS:
• Society for Developmental Biology (SDB)
• Genetics Society of America (GSA)
• American Society of Cell Biology (ASCB)

RESEARCH INTERESTS:
The overarching goal of the Hanna-Rose lab is to understand how development is genetically programmed. We use the development of the reproductive structures in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans as a research model. Our research is focused in two areas.

• NAD metabolism: NAD+ is a central molecule in metabolism and a co-substrate for NAD+ consuming enzymes that regulate key biological processes, such as longevity and stress responses. While the biochemistry of NAD+ biosynthesis from vitamin B3 is well studied, the biological impacts of disruption of this biosynthetic pathway in a multicellular organism are not. We have made the novel discovery that elimination of the first enzyme in the NAM to NAD+ salvage biosynthesis pathway (PNC-1) causes developmental and functional defects in the reproductive system. We aim to understand how perturbation of metabolism and / or NAD+ consumer activity during development contributes to reproductive function.

• Tubulogenesis: The cell rearrangements contributing to tubulogenesis in different organs and even within different areas of a single biological tube are varied. We aim to understand molecular mechanisms directing the development of biological tubes. By studying C. elegans vulval tubulogenesis, we recently revealed a novel mechanism for de novo lumen formation involving migration of one cell through an epithelial cell layer, and we developed a model that requires phospholipase function for maintenance of this luminal space. Current research is aimed at testing this model.

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