Monte was a graduate student in the lab and explored the role of calcineurin/NFAT signaling in the development and function of the immune system. He worked with Joel Neilson to demonstrate that signaling by calcineurinB1 was essential for positive selection of T lymphocytes and for immunogenic but not the tolerogenic role of B cells (Immunity […]
Karen used mice made by Kryn Stankunas in the lab, which contain a small-molecule regulated allele of GSK3b that could be rapidly stabilized to study the developmental roles of this protein. Her work defined a surprising function of GSK3b and was published in Nature 446,, 79-82, 2007. She along with Hank Bayle also showed that […]
Joe worked with Isabella Graef to define the role of Dyrk1a as the nuclear export kinase of NFATc family members, contributing to our understanding of the role of this kinase in producing the various phenotypes of Down Syndrome. He also studied mice containing the small molecule (MaRap) regulated allele of GSK3b made by Kryn Stankunas […]
Hank made alleles of genes that can be rapidly and reversibly regulated with small molecules. He built alleles of Pax6 and GSK3b and made mice by homologous recombination that allow regulated degradation of these proteins. Perhaps most exciting are mice having alleles of FKBP12 that have a nuclear export sequence knocked into them allowing rapid […]
Kirsten Cante’-Barrett was a grad student from the Netherlands and found that negative selection in the thymus required transcription of the bim gene through a pathway that likely involves PKC. She and her husband returned to the Netherlands for post doctoral work and she can be reached at: K.Cante-Barrett@lumc.nl
Julie Lessard carried out a detailed proteomic analysis of the ATP-dependent chromatin remodeling complexes in the nervous system which lead her to discover with Jiang Wu that the development of the vertebrate nervous system required a switch in chromatin remodeling complexes at mitotic exit. They showed that this switch from a neural progenitor or stem […]
Hai studied the role of calcineurin-NFAT signaling in the development of the vertebrate nervous system. He found that mice with mutations in the components of the pathway lack certain neuronal cell types and have cell fate transitions. This phenotype appears to reflect an intersection with the Hedghog pathway. He is settling into a new job […]
Shi-Chu investigated the role of calineurin-NFAT signaling in the development of the neural crest. She found that calcineurin is essential for the production of myleinating Schwann cells. It appears to assume specificity in the Schwann cells by cooperating with Sox10 and controlling genes such as Krox20, which in turn directly controls the myelination genes.. This […]
Elena elucidated a genetic circuit of T lymphocyte development governing positive selection. She found that an early signal through Calcineurin and NFAT leads to the activation of a raf regulator required for competence to respond to positive selection signals at the double-positive stage. The work was published in Nature 2007. In addition, she found that […]
Jiang Wu along with Julie Lessard discovered that the development of the vertebrate nervous system required a switch in chromatin remodeling complexes at mitotic exit. They showed that this switch from a neural progenitor or stem cell complex (npBAF) to a neuronal complex (nBAF) is required for a progression from neural stem cell self renewal […]