Cell Adhesion

BIOGRAPHY

ACADEMIC POSITION:
• Chair of Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology, University of Chicago
• Professor of Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology, University of Chicago

EDUCATION:
• 1986-1991 Postdoctoral Fellow with Spyros Artavanis-Tsakonas, Depts of Biology and Cell Biology, Yale University and HHMI
• 1980-1986 PhD, Department of Zoology and Developmental Biology Training Program, University of Washington, Seattle. Dissertation Research with Gerold Schubiger
• 1978-1980 BS (magna cum laude) Department of Zoology, Duke University, Durham, NC

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:
2002-2004 Co-Director, Duke University Model Systems Genomics Unit
2002-2004 Convener, Developmental, Cell, and Molecular Biology Group, Department of Biology, Duke University, Durham, NC
2001-2004 Director of Graduate Studies, Developmental Biology Training Program, Duke University, Durham, NC.
2000-2004 Associate Professor of Biology, Duke University, Durham, NC
1999-2000 Associate Professor of Zoology, Duke University, Durham, NC
1992-1998 Assistant Professor of Zoology, Duke University, Durham, NC
1989-1991 NIH Postdoctoral Fellow, Yale University, New Haven, CT
1986-1989 ACS Postdoctoral Fellow, Yale University, New Haven, CT
1982-1986 NIH Predoctoral Fellow, University of Washington, Seattle, WA

RESEARCH INTERESTS:
Our interests center on the molecular mechanisms by which signal transduction pathways are organized into specialized membrane domains. In addition to their known role in organizing receptors and downstream effectors into functional signaling complexes, such organized complexes function to integrate signaling activities from multiple pathways and to segregate simultaneous but distinct functions of a single pathway. We study this question in Drosophila because of the utility of this system for studying the functions of individual genes via mutagenesis, and for examing the functional interactions between different genes that work together in a particular cellular or developmental process.