Jay Pieczynski

Associate Professor
Department Chair

One of the major roles of the cytoskeleton is to act as the cellular interstate system, moving cargo efficiently over long distances. One of the most basic scientific questions is how proteins, cargos, and even the cytoskeleton itself move, change, and respond to facilitate signal transduction. Defects in microtubule-associated cell signaling dynamics can be directly implicated in such pathologies as cancer, neurodegenerative disease, infertility, and polycystic kidney disease. My research involves understanding the in vivo dynamics of microtubules and microtubule motor proteins in cell signaling and behavior. Using the model system Caenorhabditis elegans, I use a combined genetic, cellular, and organismal approach to studying these processes at physiologically relevant levels in the entire organism.

Education

BS, University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse, 2004
PhD, University of Michigan, 2010