Role of integrins in the regulation of cell differentiation: Integrin signalling of cell differentiation events, particularly integrin-growth factor receptor coordinated signalling.

My laboratory studies how receptor-signaling pathways instruct a cell to obtain its differentiated phenotype and how aberrations in these signaling pathways lead to diseases.

Specific projects include:

• The role of the alpha6 integrin receptor as an upstream regulator of survival pathways that permit apoptotic-like pathways to function as a molecular switch to the signal the initiation of differentiation.
• How coordinate signaling between integrins and growth factor receptors provides specificity to integrin signaling in development.
• The mechanisms regulating integrin mediated cell-cell interactions and the interaction of adhesion molecules with the intermediate filament cytoskeleton.
• The role of cadherin junctions in regulating the reorganization of the actin cytoskeleton that drives morphogenesis during development.
• Integrin-cadherin cross-talk in cell differentiation.
• Mechanisms of wound healing and fibrosis in a mock cataract surgery model.

PhD, University of Pennsylvania (1978)