We are the undisputed home of Dictyostelium research at UNCG - and the state of North Carolina for that matter!

Okay, we're the only Dictyostelium research lab in NC, but that's not really the point...

Research in my lab involves using the social amoeba, Dictyostelium discoideum, as a model system for exploring the complex molecular events leading to higly-coordinated changes in cell shape. More specifically, studies in my lab focus on understanding how myosin II-mediated cellular activities (i.e. cytokinesis and cellular migration) can be regulated in a nonmuscle cell context. By extension, we hope to provide further understanding of these processes can go awry in the context of cancer cells exhibiting uncontrolled cell division and metastasis. Our studies of the regulation of myosin II are also important for understanding how cellular migration is achieved in other contexts such as wound healing, chemotaxis, and metazoan development.

Click on the link in the top left table to learn more about the current research projects going on in the lab.