Home Department: Biology
Supported by: The Rose Hills Foundation
Mentor: Tobias Meyer, Professor of Chemical & Systems Biology

Ian Connolly is a Biomechanical Engineering major about to begin his senior year at Stanford. He is originally from Newport Beach, California and first became interested in cell migration after observing and learning from Meyer Lab post doc, Sean Collins, and graduate student, Feng-Chiao Tsai, last summer. This summer, Ian is researching the role of podosomes in the migration of invasive cancer cells. Specifically, he is attempting to modify a photoactivatable plasmid to artificially recruit podosomal proteins to the plasma membrane with the goal of artificially inducing the formation of these structures. Ian chose this project because, as an engineer, he enjoys creating things and because he is interested in bioengineering and cancer biology.

Poster presented at the Stanford Bio-X Interdisciplinary Initiatives Symposium on August 25, 2010:

The Role of Adaptor Proteins, Tks4 and Tks5, in Podosome Formation: A Photoactivation Approach

Ian Connolly, Sean Collins, Silvia Carrasco, Milos Galic, Samuel Bandara, Tobias Meyer
[Biology, Chemical & Systems Biology; Stanford University]