Christopher Janetopoulos

Biography

We use human cancer cell lines, neutrophils, mice, Tetrahymena, and the social amoeba D. discoideum for these studies. Current projects include:  1) Investigate, using several sophisticated microscopy techniques, the signaling and cytoskeletal events that regulate motility and cell polarity. We are particularly interested in the influence of the plasma membrane phosphoinositides on the cytoskeleton. Most of the regulators we study have been implicated in cancer. 2) Develop new techniques for imaging cells in vitro and in living animals (intravital imaging). This work is being performed in collaboration with the University of Tennessee Space Institute (UTSI) and also with the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn).

Research Interest

Cytokinesis and cell migration are two processes that have been implicated in many disease states, including many forms of cancer. Research in my lab is focused on understanding how cells establish and maintain polarity during chemotaxis (directed cell migration) and also during cytokinesis (cell division). We have discovered that the underlying mechanisms regulating both processes are remarkably similar. In fact, the directed migration process likely biases the same machinery regulating morphological changes which take place during cell division. Microfluidics and advanced techniques in fluorescence microscopy are being used to visualize these proteins and their localization under various conditions in the living cell and in living animals.