The Fischer Lab

People

Janice Fischer
Principal Invesigator

Contact: jaf@mail.utexas.edu
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Susie Banks
Graduate Student
Recently, our laboratory found that an additional endocytic protein, Auxilin, is also essential for Delta internalization and signaling. Auxilin is required for clathrin dynamics at two stages during endocytosis: clathrin exchange prior to vesicle scission, and uncoating clathrin-coated vesicles. Auxilin may prove to be a valuable tool for determining why signaling cells need to internalize ligand. One popular model suggests that Delta exerts a pulling force on the Notch receptor, thereby inducing Notch cleavage and activation. In a second model, endocytosed Delta is recycled back to the plasma membrane in active form. So far, we have determined that Auxilin is required at least in part to maintain the pool of clathrin required for Delta endocytosis. We are performing experiments to determine why Auxilin is essential for Delta endocytosis and why Delta endocytosis is required for Notch activation.

Contact: sbanks@ mail.utexas.edu

Bomsoo Cho
Graduate Student
I'm screening modifiers of epsin mutant phenotype to understand the Epsin role in Delta signaling and also I'm studying the relationship between Epsin and Ral-GTPase in Delta signaling.

Contact: bomsoo@mail.utexas.edu

Ji-Hoon Lee
Graduate Student
Although vesicular trafficking has already been a fascinating topic for cell biologists, it is also an important source in regulating various signaling events happening in multi-cellular organisms to construct their whole body. I am interested in understanding how genes involved in vesicular trafficking contribute to the developing organism, in the context of signaling, using Drosophila as a model. Specifically, I aim to figure out the role of a gene called liquid facets-related. Using powerful fly genetics, I both test hypotheses formulated from the mutant phenotypes and screen dominant modifiers of a liquid facets-related mutant phenotype.

Contact: ol.jihoon @ gmail.com

Xuanhua Xie
Graduate Student
Notch signaling is involved in the development of essentially all tissues in metazoans. The Notch receptor and its ligands are transmembrane proteins. One remarkable feature of the Notch pathway is that ligand endocytosis into the signaling cells is a necessity in order to activate the Notch receptor on adjacent cells. Epsin is an endocytic protein that is critical for ligand endocytosis and Notch signaling. It is a multi-modular protein with an N-terminal ENTH domain and several protein-protein interaction motifs, UIMs, CBMs, DPWs, and NPF motifs. I aim to gain insight into why Epsin-dependent ligand endocytosis is necessary for signaling.

Contact: xuanhuaxie@mail.utexas.edu

Gerrit van der Ende
Graduate Student
Angelman Syndrome (AS) is a neurological disorder in humans characterized by severe mental retardation, epilepsy, and motor dysfunction. Patients with AS have lost activity of the E3 ubiquitin ligase Ube3a in certain regions of the brain. The disease likely results from the accumulation of one or several proteins that are targets of Ube3a mediated proteolysis. The identity of these Ube3a substrates is not known. Little progess in the treatment of the disease can be made without knowledge of the Ube3a substrates. Drosophila has a single homolog of Ube3a, Dube3a. My research is in using genetics in Drosophila to identify Dube3a substrate proteins that are relevant to Angelman Syndrome.

Contact: gvanderende at mail.utexas.edu

Sheila Bal
Graduate Student

 

 

 

 

 

Contact: sheilabal at mail.utexas.edu

Kristin Patterson
Postdoctoral Fellow

 

 

 

 

 

Contact:kpatterson at mail.utexas.edu

Former Lab Members

Markay Isaac
Undergraduate and Research Technician

Contact: markay.isaac@gmail.com

Stephen Fleenor
Undergraduate and Research Technician
Ji-Hoon and I have identified 42 dominant modifiers of the lqfR hypomorphic eye phenotype. I am testing these modifiers for complementation, and through meiotic mapping, working with Ji-Hoon to identify the specific loci of the complementation groups we have found.

Contact: stfleenor@mail.utexas.edu

Will Stoutt
Undergraduate Student
I am working with Susie.

Contact: kiba@mail.utexas.edu

Matt Glover
Undergraduate Student
I am working with Bomsoo.

Contact: mtg389@gmail.com

Alan Te
Undergraduate Student
I am working with Xuanhua.

Contact: alan.te@mail.utexas.edu

Martin Kracklauer
Former Graduate Student

Contact: martin.kracklauer@ gmail.com

Suk Ho Eun
Former Graduate Student

Contact: eun7615@hotmail.com

Yaning Wu
Former Graduate Student

Contact: yn_wu@yahoo.com

   
Xin Chen
Former Graduate Student

Contact: xchen32@ jhu.edu
View JHU faculty profile: http://www.bio.jhu.edu/Faculty/Chen/Default.html

Angelica Cadavid
Former Graduate Student
Kathleen Mosley-Bishop
Former Graduate Student
Qinghong Li
Former Graduate Student
Yongzhao Huang
Former Graduate Student

Lab News

  • Stephen Fleenor is on his way to graduate school at Oxford!
  • Markay Isaac is on her way to Vet School at A&M!

The Section of Molecular Cell and Developmental Biology is one of four units in the School of Biological Sciences. Other Sections are Integrative Biology, Molecular Genetics and Microbiology and Neurobiology.




Section of Molecular Cell and Developmental Biology School of Biological Sciences