Ramona Graves Deal
Senior Research Specialist
1988 - present
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Jeff Franklin PhD
Research Assistant Professor
2000 - present
Jeff has had a broad set of experiences, ranging in focus from how carcinogenesis alters signaling in stem cells leading to cancer, to the role that cell secreted vesicles, called exosomes or extracellular vesicles (EVs), play in altering the tumor microenvironment and in driving metastasis. An integral area of his research concerns the function of EGFR ligands carried by EVs in regulating specialized EGFR signaling and the role that non-coding RNAs (miRNAs and long-non-coding, including circular ncRNAs) have in influencing stem cell and altered neoplastic signals. He has found that EVs and secreted nanoparticles called exomeres and supermeres carry numerous specific signaling protein cargos and miRNAs, mRNAs and long non-coding RNAs and their trafficking can be regulated by mutant oncogenic KRAS; some of these secreted RNAs and proteins have the ability to mediate drug resistance of tumors. Part of his work concerns the genes that control intestinal stem cell growth and differentiation and how abnormal signaling in CRC is associated with alterations in stem cell gene function. Regulation of the intestinal stem cell niche requires crosstalk between WNT and EGFR signaling pathways. He has found that a negative regulator of EGFR, LRIG1, is a tumor suppressor that controls intestinal stem cell function, defines a quiescent stem cell population and helps to establish the WNT/EGFR signaling homeostatic niche.
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Eliot T. McKinley PhD
Research Instructor
2013 - present
Acquisition, processing, and analysis of multiplexed immunofluorescence data.
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Dennis K. Jeppesen PhD
Research Assistant Professor
2014 - present
Extracellular vesicles and particles
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Nicholas O. Markham MD, PhD
Assistant Professor
2017 - present
Nick is interested in understanding how changes in the gastrointestinal microbiome affect colon health and disease. One area of investigation is C. difficile bacterial infection and toxin pathogenesis. Other projects focus on using transcriptomics and multiplex imaging to understand how host-microbe interactions contribute to colorectal cancer tumorigenesis.
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Sarah E. Glass BA
PhD candidate
2020 - present
Sarah is interested in the impact of sequence and isoform differences for one protein in particular, DPEP1, and their impact on localization, function, and overall role in colorectal cancer.
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Maxwell Hamilton
Graduate Student
2021 - present
The protein Naked2 is responsible both for the attenuation of Wnt signaling by targeted degradation of Dishevelled and the trafficking of transforming growth factor alpha to the basolateral membrane of polarized epithelial cells. I am working to better understand the role and mechanism of poly(ADP-ribosyl)ation of Naked2 by the poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase Tankyrase.
I am also working to identify and characterize a short form of Naked2 translated from an alternative Naked2 transcript. Preliminary data indicates that the short form of Naked2 may have unique localization and transcriptional regulation as compared to the canonical form, indicating a unique role in the cell.
EmailMatthew E. Bechard PhD
Research Instructor
2021 - present
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Eliana John BS
Research Assistant
2022 - present
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