Career Path – I completed my B.A. in Biology from small private college in Iowa, USA (where I’m from) called Wartburg College. I then moved to Iowa State University to for my PhD in Molecular, Cellular, & Developmental Biology in Ian Schneider’s lab (Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering). I recently completed my post-doctoral studies at the University of British Columbia (Vancouver, Canada) in Guy Tanentzapf’s lab and have moved on to open my own lab and teach at the University of North Dakota! At UND I hold an educator scholar position at the School of Medicine and Health Sciences focused on teaching undergraduate anatomy & physiology, so expect some more teaching in STEM coverage.
Scientific Interests – I primarily identify as a cell biologist in the context of my interdisciplinary career, interested in how physical properties of the external environment influence a cell. I started by investigating how cancer cells respond to changes in extra-cellular matrix (ECM) stiffness, looking at matrix metalloproteinase activity and cell migration. For my post-doc I decided I wanted to further this interest by looking at a different side of this process; how cells sense changes in physical properties via cell-ECM adhesion molecules. Here I characterized novel mouse models for functional mutants in Talin-1. This has allowed me to study focal adhesion biology and in vivo cell migration in the context of mammalian development. I have now combined both my graduate and post-graduate work into the new scientific interest of my new lab – the microenvironment regulation of neural crest cells. I plan to use both in vivo & ex vivo techniques to understand how neural crest cells migration and differentiation contributing to mammalian development. I then plan to apply these findings to the treatment of often aggressive neural crest derived cancers, such as neuroblastomas or melanomas.
Molecular motion and tridimensional nanoscale localization of kindlin control integrin activation in focal adhesions
Vinculin mediated axon growth requires interaction with actin but not talin
Cancer associated talin point mutations disorganise cell adhesion and migration
Calpain-2 regulates hypoxia/HIF-induced amoeboid reprogramming and metastasis
A Rap1 binding site and lipid-dependent helix in talin F1 domain cooperate in integrin activation
Molecular organization of integrin-based adhesion complexes in mouse Embryonic Stem Cells
AND
Superresolution architecture of pluripotency guarding adhesions
Protein Kinase A activity is regulated by actomyosin contractility during cell migration and is required for durotaxis
A transition from SoxB1 to SoxE transcription factors is essential for progression from pluripotent blastula cells to neural crest cells
Clathrin plaques form mechanotransducing platforms
Spatial Self-Organization Resolves Conflicts Between Individuality and Collective Migration
Tunable molecular tension sensors reveal extension-based control of vinculin loading
GSK3 Controls Migration of the Neural Crest Lineage
ASCB | EMBO Cell Bio *virtual* 2020
Preprints + open discussions related to work presented at Cell Bio 2020 in December
| List by | Dey Lab et al. |
ASCB EMBO Annual Meeting 2019
A collection of preprints presented at the 2019 ASCB EMBO Meeting in Washington, DC (December 7-11)
| List by | Madhuja Samaddar et al. |
ASCB/EMBO Annual Meeting 2018
This list relates to preprints that were discussed at the recent ASCB conference.
| List by | Dey Lab, Amanda Haage |