Faculty & Staff

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.

Megan received her B.A. in Biochemistry from Brandeis University working with Dr. Susan Lowey and her Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics from the University of Pennsylvania working with Dr. Mark Lemmon. During her postdoctoral training with Dr. Günter Blobel at Rockefeller University, she discovered new mechanisms for the targeting and function of integral inner nuclear membrane proteins. Since founding her own group in 2009, Megan has continued to investigate the broad array of biological functions that are integrated at the nuclear envelope, from impacts on DNA repair to nuclear and cellular mechanics. Megan was named a Searle Scholar in 2011, is a recipient of the NIH New Innovator Award and is currently an Allen Distinguished Investigator.

Nick studies the cell biology of the nuclear envelope as a postdoctoral associate working with Dr. Patrick Lusk and Dr. Megan King. Nick is broadly interested in the various mechanisms cells employ to maintain compartmentalization. He did his doctoral work with Dr. Richard Youle and Dr. Wanda Kukulski on how mitochondrial membranes are reorganized during processes such as apoptosis and mitophagy using a variety of correlative light and electron microscopy (CLEM) approaches. When he's not doing science, Nick enjoys, biking, D&D, and baking.

Linda is an undergraduate student at Yale College. She is a Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry/Ethnicity, Race, and Migration double major. She studies the mechanisms that contribute to nuclear compartmentalization in cells. Outside of the lab, she is involved in various STEM Outreach programs, volunteering groups, and social/health justice organizations on campus and in New Haven.

Pia is an undergraduate student at Yale (Pierson '23) and is a pre-med, prospective MCDB and HSHM double major. She is currently working on a project exploring the relationship between chromatin movement and nuclear volume in S. pombe, specifically in cdc25ts mutants cells. Outside the lab, she works at the Asian American Cultural Center at Yale, a volunteer at Yale New Haven Hospital's Elder Horizons program, and is involved in Kasama: The Filipinx Club and the Asian American Students Alliance. She enjoys photography as a hobby, especially taking sunset photos, and loves to drink boba tea.