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preovulatory follicle

preovulatory follicle after LH

follicle after ovulation

Research in the Department of Cell Biology is concerned with cells as well as how cells function in the context of the various tissues of the body. Our goal is to discover molecular and physiological mechanisms that underlie the treatment and prevention of human disease.

The department faculty participate in the first year medical and dental student curriculum, and the Foundations of Biomedical Science course for graduate students. Several faculty are also contributors to medical student textbooks.

The core of the department consists of former members of the Department of Physiology, which was chaired by Richard D. Berlin for over 30 years. He oversaw the change to Cell Biology, the addition of members from the former Departments of Pharmacology and Anatomy, and the formation of the Center for Vascular Biology (Linda Shapiro, Director) and the Center for Cell Analysis and Modeling (Pedro Mendes, Director). The Department of Cell Biology is also the academic home for basic science faculty members in the Pat and Jim Calhoun Cardiology Center (Christopher Pickett, Interim Director) and the Center for Quantitative Medicine (Pedro Mendes, Director). The department organizes the annual Richard D. Berlin lecture.

Cell Biology Retreat

Retreat photo

Cell Biology and Vascular Biology, 2017 retreat at the Pond House (photo by Charan Devarakonda)

Department News

New Faculty:

March 2024. Abhijit Deb Roy

Abhijit Del Roy joined CCAM and the Cell Biology Department as an assistant professor. His research concerns molecular signaling pathways and cytoskeletal dynamics involved in mechanobiology and cell migration. Directional cell migration plays critical roles during physiological processes such as development, angiogenesis and immune response, whereas dysregulation of cell migration is observed in pathologies such as cancer metastasis and atherosclerosis.

HeLa cells immunostained for alpha-Tubulin (gray), acetylated alpha-Tubulin (orange) and DNA (blue).

April 2024. Sarvenaz Sarabipour

Sarvenaz Sarabipour joined CCAM and the Cell Biology Department as an assistant professor.  Her research in computational systems biology focuses on developing experimental and computational methods to study mechanisms of signal transduction in cells and tissues. She is also active in initiatives to improve  research  culture.

Trafficking dynamics in human endothelial cells.

Seminars 2024

February 2, 2024
Ian Hitchcock, University of York. "Even better than the real thing? Unlocking the functional pleiotropy of thrombopoietin" (H. Oguro and V. Scanlon, Hosts) Joint seminar with Center of Regenerative Medicine & Skeletal Development. Hybrid

March 6, 2024
Swathi Yadlapalli, University of Michigan. "Structure and organization of circadian clocks" (Inaba Oguro, Host). Hybrid

March 13, 2024
Jamil R. Azzi, Harvard University. “From the bench to the clinic and back” (Terasaki, Host). Hybrid

May 20, 2024
Karin Sipido, University of Leuven, Belgium, “Arrhythmias in ischemic cardiomyopathy” (Yue and Papanno, Co-hosts). Hybrid

May 28, 2024
Molly Moravek, University of Michigan. "Mouse models to study reproductive effects of gender-affirming hormones" (Mehlmann, Host). Joint seminar with the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Hybrid

October 1, 2024
Elizabeth Chen, University of Texas Southwestern. Cell Biology Department Retreat.

October 17, 2024
Caleigh Mandel-Brehm, Yale, (Jaffe, Host). Joint seminar with Neuroscience and the graduate student organization. Hybrid

November 13, 2024
Nicole Valenzuela, UCLA (Murphy, Host). Hybrid

December 13, 2024
Tom Seegar, University of Cincinnati (Murphy, Host). Hybrid

Past Seminars