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Lab PageGraduate Student, Cellular and Molecular Biology Program
B.A. in Biology with Honors, Swarthmore College, 1993
Address: Howard Huges Medical Institute; Columbia University; 722 W. 168th St.; New York, NY 10032
Phone: 212/543-5243
Email: wr72@columbia.edu
Research Interests:
As part of the Hardin Lab, I am interested in understanding how epithelial sheets of cells migrate and how these migrations affect the formation of the body in developing embryos. I am using a genetic approach to identify molecules which play an important role in the enclosure of the C. elegans embryo by an epithelial sheet called the hypodermis.
I have focused on two molecular pathways required for the enclosure of the embryo in hypodermis.
1) The first involves components of the cadherin cell adhesion system. Mutations in hmr-1 (a cadherin), hmp-1 (an alpha-catenin), or hmp-2 (a beta-catenin homologue) all disrupt enclosure and the subsequent elongation of the embryo into worm shape.
2) The second pathway involves a CHO1/MKLP1 kinesin family member encoded by a zen-4 gene. In addition to its requirement for cytokinesis in dividing cells ZEN-4 protein is also required for successful hypodermal enclosure.
Recent Publications:
Raich, W., Moran, A., Rothman, J. and Hardin, J. (1998) Cytokinesis and Midzone Microtubule Organization in C. elegans Require the Kinesin-like Protein ZEN-4. Mol.Biol.Cell 8:.
Costa, M., Raich, W., Agbunag, C., Leung, B., Hardin, J.and Priess , J. (1998) A Putative Catenin-cadherin System Mediates Morphogenesis of the C. elegans Embryo. JCB, 141:297-308.
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