Seeing the pattern

Antagonistic signaling peptides determine plant tissue patterns.

Cell Signaling & Cell/Environment Interactions

It is an inevitable consequence of life that cells interact with their local environment. Cells need to respond to cues from their interactions, be they physical interactions with neighboring cells or chemical interactions with the environment. MCB faculty take a wide variety of approaches to understand the broad scope of cell signaling and adaption.

Model Curricula

Autumn

MCB 529
Cell Migration

CONJ 531
Signaling Mechanisms in Excitable Cells

CONJ 532
Signal Transduction: from the cell membrane to the nucleus

GENOME 553
Advanced Genetic Analysis

winter

CONJ 544
Protein Structure, Modification and Regulation

spring

BSTR 590
Cryo-electron microscopy of biological macromolecules and complexes

MCB 539
Biological Basis of Neoplasia

MCB 543
Logic Constructs and Methodologies of Biological Research

NEURO 548, PBIO 548
Molecular Mechanisms of Synaptic Plasticity

Dr. Hannele Ruohola-Baker works with students to understand the cellular signals for development

Understanding signals

From interpreting signals at the plasma membrane, to transducing them through the cytoplasm, to responding to them in the nucleus and other key organelles, Seattle MCB faculty are leading the way to understand cell signaling and interactions. Seattle MCB students are on the cutting-edge using innovative approaches to explore the wide gamut of physiological processes involved in the integration of signals and the subsequent cellular responses.

Faculty Area Directors: Sandra Bajjalieh

Student Area Directors: Amanda Bradley

Lab Openings

Rajan Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

Leptin, Calcium, neuron, adipocytes, fat, nutrient sensing

Paredez Lab:
Permanent Position

Giardia, parasite, actin, rac, Rho GTPase, signaling, evolutionary cell biology, cysts, trafficking, cytokinesis, microscopy, biochemistry

Bajjalieh Lab:
Autumn, Spring, Winter, Permanent Position

cell signaling, neuroscience, lipid signaling, synapse

Bornfeldt Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

Atherosclerosis, diabetes, glucose, immune cells, lipids

Berg Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

development, evolution, patterning, morphogenesis, Drosophila, cell signaling

Hague Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

Furlong Lab:
Spring

Crowder Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

Hypoxia, genetic screens, C. elegans, drug screens, ischemia, stroke, infarction, cell death, protein misfolding, protein aggregation, mitochondria

Moens Lab:
Spring, Summer, Winter, Permanent Position

zebrafish, genetics, developmental biology, neural development, planar cell polarity, neuroepithelial morphogenesis, neuronal migration.

Maly Lab:
Autumn, Spring, Winter, Permanent Position

Miller Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

Cooper Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

kinase, ubiquitin, proteasome, signal transduction, cell biology, cancer, molecular biology

Gardner Lab:
Autumn, Spring, Winter, Permanent Position

ubiquitin signaling nucleus

Gerner Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

Innate immunity, adaptive immunity, vaccine development, cancer, dendritic cells, T cells, microscopy, imaging, lymph nodes

Grady Lab:
Spring, Winter

Grundner Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

Mycobacterium tuberculosis, phosphosignaling, chemical proteomics, functional genomics

Gujral Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

Systems Biology Tumor microenvironment Metastasis Wnt pathway Kinase signaling Hippo pathway

Gumbiner Lab:
Spring, Summer, Winter, Permanent Position

Cell Adhesion,morphogenesis,metastasis,cadherin,catenin,epithelia,Wnt,Hippo,Yap

Ruohola-Baker Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

stem cells, adult stem cells, pluripotent stem cells, metabolites, epigenetics, microRNA, cardiomyocyte maturation, apoptosis

Bai Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

Brain, neuron, synapse, neurotransmitter, endocytosis, exocytosis, C. elegans,

Nemhauser Lab:
Spring, Winter, Permanent Position

Chamberlain Lab:
Autumn, Spring, Winter, Permanent Position

Gene therapy, muscular dystrophy, stem cells, CRISPR/Cas9, AAV vectors, lentiviral vectors, dystrophin, FKRP, DMD, LGMD, genome editing

Villen Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

proteomics, signaling, systems biology, mass spectrometry, phosphorylation, ubiquitin, protein turnover

Parrish Lab:
Autumn, Spring

Bomsztyk Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

epigenetics,transcription,disease, high throughput technologies

Cheung Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

collective invasion, tumor organoids, tumor cell clusters, metastasis

Torii Lab:
Autumn, Spring, Winter, Permanent Position

Kugel Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

Lagunoff Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

virus, Kaposi's Sarcoma, Kaposi's Sarcoma-associated herpesvirus, KSHV, viral oncogenesis, cancer, herpesvirus, virology, signal transduction, metabolism, metabolomics, transcriptomics, endothelial cell, viral immunology, KS,

Wang Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

membrane protein, ion channels, cryo-EM, structure, lipid environment

Ailion Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

C. elegans, neurobiology, genetics, speciation, neuromodulation, G protein, insulin, diabetes, signal transduction, hybrid incompatibility, mitochondria, selfish genes

McKnight Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

PKA, cAMP, obesity, hypothalamus, leptin, gene expression, memory, learning

Merz Lab:
Spring, Summer, Winter, Permanent Position

membrane, cell, organelle, endosome, lysosome, golgi, fusion, SNARE, Rab, tether, biophysics, genetics, yeast, Saccharomyces

Campbell Lab:
Spring, Winter, Permanent Position

Prlic Lab:
Spring, Winter, Permanent Position

Zheng Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

Ubiquitin, ubiquitin ligase, protein degradation, plant hormone, drug discovery, crystallography, structural biology, ion channel, transporter, circadian clock, cullin-RING ligases, F-box proteins,

Oberst Lab:
All Quarters

apoptosis, programmed necrosis, necroptosis, caspases, pyroptosis

Bermingham-McDonogh Lab:
Autumn, Spring, Winter, Permanent Position

Hair cell inner ear neurogenesis regeneration stem cells cochlea vestibular auditory

Liu Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

Signaling, Cardiac Remodeling, Heart Failure, Cardiomyocyte, Cell Death, Apoptosis, Necroptosis, Animal Models

Queitsch Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

gene regulation, chaperones, rDNA, microsatellites, STRs, protein folding, sequencing technologies, complex traits, epistasis, Hsp90, heat stress, natural variation, mutation penetrance

Yablonka-Reuveni Lab:

Tian Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

mitochondria, metabolism, energetics, AMPK, heart failure,

Scott Lab:
Spring, Winter

Hoppins Lab:
Autumn, Spring, Winter, Permanent Position

Mitochondria, membrane fusion, GTPase, apoptosis,

Saha Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

Parkhurst Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

wound healing, nuclear architecture, Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome, Rho GTPases, cytoskeleton, actin nucleation, Drosophila, nucleocytoplasmic trafficking, actin, microtubules, formins, actomyosin rings

Imaizumi Lab:
All Quarters

Circadian clock, flowering, developmental transition

Vasioukhin Lab:
Spring, Winter, Permanent Position

cancer, development, mouse models, cell polarity, cell-cell adhesion

Xu Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

structural biology, protein design, signal transduction, Wnt, Norrin, protein structure, PARylation, phosphorylation, cancer, regenerative medicine, eye diseases