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Molecular Cell Biology, Genetics, and Development (MCGD) Track

MCGD Track Leadership

  • Andrew Xiao, PhD

    Director, Admissions, MCGD Track

    Associate Professor Tenure

    Research Interests
    • Chromatin
    • DNA Damage
    • Genetics
    • Histones
    • Stem Cells
    • Cellular Reprogramming
    Dr. Andrew Xiao is an associate professor in the Department of Genetics at the Yale University School of Medicine. He is a member of the Yale Stem Cell Center. Dr. Xiao’s laboratory focuses on epigenetic regulation in pluripotent stem cells, including embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotenct stem cells (iPSC). His laboratory has made significant contributions to the understanding of the maintenance of pluripotency, as well as the recent discovery of novel epigenetic mechanisms, i.e., N6-methyl-adenine, in mammalian genomes. Dr. Xiao received his Ph.D degree from Terry Van Dyke’s lab at UNC-Chapel Hill and postdoctoral training from David Allis’ lab at Rockefeller University. Since 2009, Andrew Xiao is a recipient of the NCI Howard Temin Award in Cancer Research (K99/R00) and in 2012, he received the New Scholar Award from the Ellison Medical Foundation. He is a recipient of the Outstanding Early Investigator Awards from the Ludwig Family Foundation since 2015.
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  • Shirin Bahmanyar, PhD

    Co-Director Academics, MCGD Track

    Assistant Professor of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology; Assistant Professor

    Research Interests
    • Endoplasmic Reticulum
    • Molecular Biology
    • Nuclear Envelope
    • Organelles
    • Caenorhabditis elegans
    • Lamins
    • Lipid Metabolism
    • Diseases
    Dr. Bahmanyar received her undergraduate degree from UC Berkeley and her Ph.D. from Stanford University.  She was a post-doctoral fellow with Dr. Karen Oegema at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research at UC San Diego where she recognized the advantages of the early C. elegans embryo as a tractable model system to dissect mechanisms that control nuclear envelope dynamics to ensure genome protection. Her post-doctoral work with elucidated an important new principle involving local regulation of phospholipid synthesis in specifying the nuclear envelope domain within the continuous endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Her work now is focused on elucidating mechanisms underpinning regulatory roles for lipid composition and dynamics in nuclear envelope and ER membrane remodeling and genome protection.
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  • C. Patrick Lusk, PhD

    Co-Director, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, MCGD Track

    Associate Professor of Cell Biology

    Research Interests
    • Nuclear Envelope
    • Nuclear Pore
    • Nuclear Pore Complex Proteins
    Dr. Lusk runs the joint LusKing laboratory with Megan King in the Department of Cell Biology. He is also the co-director of the MCGD graduate training track. He has a long standing interest in fundamental cellular mechanisms of compartmentalization with an emphasis on those that govern the biogenesis of the nuclear envelope and nuclear pore complexes (NPCs). He has been studying the nuclear envelope and nuclear transport since his graduate work at the University of Alberta in Canada and has been trained during his postdoctoral fellowship by Nobel Laureate Günter Blobel at The Rockefeller University. During this time, he (with collaborators/colleagues) has provided substantial insight into how nuclear transport is regulated and how the NPC is assembled. Moreover, he has helped to develop yeast as a model to study integral membrane proteins that reside at the inner nuclear membrane. While it is generally understood that these proteins are essential factors in gene regulation and genome organization, which is reflected by the discovery of the “nuclear envelopathies”, they remain challenging to study. Dr. Lusk is leveraging his expertise in yeast cell biology and genetics with super-resolution and proteomic approaches to illuminate function at the nuclear periphery.
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