Jeremy Nance
Position title: Professor; Associate Chair for Education and Training
Email: jfnance@wisc.edu
Address:
RESEARCH INTERESTS - C. elegans, embryogenesis, cell polarity, gastrulation, organogenesis, epithelial cells, germ cells, cancer, developmental genetics, stem cell biology
Education
B.S., 1993, North Carolina State University, Biochemistry
Ph.D. 1999, Universtiy of Arizona, Molecular & Cell Biology
Research
Our lab uses the embryo of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans as a simple model to understand how cell interactions and movements shape the developing body plan. As in many organisms, cells in the early C. elegans embryo polarize in response to cell–cell contacts. Polarity in early C. elegans cells provides a foundation for subsequent cytoskeletal asymmetries that direct the cell movements of gastrulation, which puts cells of the correct type in the appropriate position within the embryo. Following gastrulation, cells assemble together to form organs, which are sculpted into their final form.
We study each of these processes in our lab:
- Understanding how cell contacts induce polarity in early embryonic cells: we have identified a signaling pathway that translates cell contact cues into cell polarity by regulating the spatial activity of Rho GTPases.
- Learning how gastrulation movements are triggered in specific cells: we have found that primordial germ cells employ a unique “hitchhiking” mechanism, regulated by E-cadherin, that enables them to be pulled into the embryo during gastrulation.
- Uncovering how the various cell types of an organ assemble together: we have examined the assembly of the primordial gonad as a simple model for organogenesis. The primordial gonad contains two germ cells and two somatic gonad cells, which undergo an elaborate assembly process that includes migration, stopping, pseudopod extension, and wrapping. We have uncovered a surprising intercellular cannibalism event that helps to sculpt cells in the gonad.
- Investigating how epithelial cells and tubes form during organogenesis: we have identified roles for partitioning defective proteins PAR-3 and PAR-6 in epithelial cell polarization and junction assembly, and have shown that PAR proteins cooperate with the vesicle-tethering exocyst complex to regulate lumen formation in a single-celled tube.