November 26, 2021
Plotnikov lab finds key to reducing (cellular) stress is spikes of mDia1
When you’re dancing, running or even walking, fibroblast cells stretch and adapt to all your vigorous movements. What allows these dynamic cells in our bodies to keep their shape and position without being torn apart? Fernando Valencia in Sergey Plotnikov’s lab at Cell & Systems Biology has…
October 19, 2021
What Sits at the Centre of Wound Healing?
The science of rapid wound healing has new insights due to discoveries in fruit flies from the Fernandez-Gonzalez lab at University of Toronto. The results of their collaboration, community and perseverance were published in the journal Cell Reports as “p38-mediated cell growth and survival drive…
September 22, 2021
Sugar-coated cells’ surprise role in gastrulation
The way embryonic cells stick to each other is given a new twist by studies of the sugar coating around developing tissues. The Winklbauer lab has shown that the glycocalyx sugar coat mediates cell-cell attachment across significantly large distances between cells. These surprising results are…
August 27, 2021
Calarco Lab receives Connaught Award to map RNA binding proteins in the nervous system
Professor John Calarco has been granted a Connaught New Researcher Award to publish a detailed atlas of RNA binding proteins (RBPs), key regulators of gene expression, in the nervous system of the roundworm C. elegans. Mutations in RBP genes are thought to be associated with diseases including…
August 25, 2021
Push and pull – the forces that earn Sergey Plotnikov a prestigious CIHR grant
Prof Sergey Plotnikov studies how cell movement is guided by the stiffness of the tissue around the cell, and a new CIHR grant will allow his lab to continue pushing this work forward. Each day, cells in our body are continuously bombarded by a myriad of biological signals. As you are comfortably…
August 16, 2021
Hybrid receptor from Lumba lab suggests how parasitic plants evolve
Professor Shelley Lumba’s lab found out how benign plants develop the ability to become parasites on other plants in new research published in PNAS. Many plants release strigolactone hormones to promote beneficial interactions with soil fungi. Parasitic plants like witchweed can sense…
July 25, 2021
Alice DesRoches is 2021’s Nyman Scholar
Alice DesRoches has earned the 2021 Dr Leslie Paul Nyman Scholarship by demonstrating exceptional leadership skills in the community and a strong commitment to plant biology. DesRoches was an active peer member of her First and Second-Year Learning Communities (F/SLC) and is incoming Executive…
July 25, 2021
Finding Fulfillment in a Fine Lecture with Prof Kenneth Yip
Prof Kenneth Yip learned early in his career that he really enjoys teaching from giving classes as a post-doctoral researcher. “I love to see that students are excited about science and I enjoy hearing questions that show they understand the material and are eager to learn more. My favourite…
June 29, 2021
Congratulations to our new Faculty!
Cell & Systems Biology has Professors in three newly appointed posts starting on July 1, 2021! Professor Shelley Lumba has been appointed as Assistant Professor in Plant Systems Biology at Cell and Systems Biology. Lumba studies molecular mechanisms of dormancy and germination in plants in the…