Awarded in 2024
Home Department: Structural Biology
Faculty Advisors: Jeff Axelrod (Pathology), Liang Feng (Molecular & Cellular Physiology), and Alexander Dunn (Chemical Engineering)

Research Title: Parsing molecular determinants of asymmetry in planar cell polarity signaling

Planar cell polarity signaling establishes a left/right-type of axis in a sheet of cells. This facilitates coordinated cell movements, which underpin processes like early heart and nervous system development. The molecular mechanisms of this signaling pathway –the sequences of events that lead to functional signaling – are poorly understood. Maiya's work integrates techniques across scales to better understand the earliest stages of how cells “decide” upon a lateral direction and communicate it to their neighbors. By looking at how these proteins interact using approaches from structural biology, we will be able to understand how information is signaled between cells, and we can complement this with tissue-scale experiments that probe how that signal is amplified. This will enable us to better understand both normal development and the developmental problems that are caused when this pathway is broken.