Wikramanayake, Athula - University of Miami

个人简介

2014-Present, Chair, Department of Biology, The University of Miami 2011-Present, Co-Instructor, Embryology: Concepts & Techniques in Modern Developmental Biology, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA 2009-Present, Editorial Board, EvoDevo 2009-Present, Professor, Department of Biology, The University of Miami 2007-2009, Associate Professor, Department of Biology, The University of Miami 2005-2007, Associate Professor of Zoology (with tenure), University of Hawaii at Manoa 2005, The National Academies Summer Institutes on Undergraduate Education in Biology, University of Wisconsin-Madison 2004-2005, President, Sigma Xi University of Hawaii at Manoa chapter 2001-2005 Assistant Professor of Zoology, University of Hawaii at Manoa 1998-2000, Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. 1997-1998, Research Associate: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. 1993-1997, Postdoctoral Fellow: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center 1993, Ph.D. in Zoology, University of California, Davis

研究领域

I am an evolutionary developmental biologist and my laboratory uses embryological, molecular, genomic and phylogenetic approaches to investigate the evolution of pattern formation in metazoan embryos. A major focus of my laboratory is to investigate the molecular basis for the evolution, specification and patterning of the animal-vegetal (AV) axis. The AV axis is a cytoplasmic/cytoarchitectural polarity that is present in most animal eggs, and is specified maternally by largely unknown mechanisms. This maternally deposited developmental information is used during embryogenesis to specify the primary germ layers. We use embryos of sea urchins, which are basal deuterostomes from the phylum Echinodermata, as a model system for our studies on AV axis specification and patterning. In parallel with these studies in sea urchins, we use this information in a phylogenetic context to gain insight into the mechanisms that may have led to the evolution of the AV axis and the evolution of the germ layers. For these comparative studies we use the new genomic cnidarian model system, Nematostella vectensis. Cnidarians are thought to be the sister group to the bilaterians, making Nematostella an excellent model system for gaining insight into the conserved developmental mechanisms shared by the last common ancestor to bilaterians and cnidarians. This phylogenetic approach has yielded important insight into the evolutionarily conserved role of the Wnt signaling pathway in early pattern formation in animal embryos. Additionally, these simple marine invertebrate embryos are proving to be excellent model systems for studying the regulation and evolution of the Wnt pathway, a pathway of considerable biomedical significance.

近期论文

查看导师最新文章（温馨提示：请注意重名现象，建议点开原文通过作者单位确认）

Peng, C. and Wikramanayake, A.H. (2013) Differential regulation of Disheveled in a novel vegetal cortical domain in sea urchin eggs: Implications for the localized activation of beta-catenin signaling in early embryos. PLoS ONE 8 (11), e80693. Byrum, C.A. and Wikramanayake, A. H. (2013) Nuclearization of beta-catenin in ectodermal precursors confers organizer-like ability to induce endomesoderm and pattern a pluteus larva. EvoDevo 4 (1) Kumburegama, S., Wijesena, N., Xu, X and Wikramanayake, A.H. (2011). Strabismus-mediated primary archenteron invagination is uncoupled from Wnt/beta-catenin-dependent endoderm cell fate specification in Nematostella vectensis (Anthozoa, Cnidaria): Implications for the evolution of gastrulation. EvoDevo 2:2 (Highly accessed; Evaluated by Faculty of 1000). Lee, P., Kumburegama, S., Marlowe, H., Martindale, M.Q. and Wikramanayake, A.H. (2007). Asymmetric developmental potential along the animal-vegetal axis in the anthozoan cnidarian, Nematostella vectensis, is mediated by Disheveled. Dev. Biol. 310, 169-186. Wikramanayake, A.H., Hong, M., Lee, P.N., Pang, K., Byrum, C.A., Bince, J.M., Xu, R. and M.Q. Martindale. (2003). An ancient role for nuclear beta-catenin in the evolution of axial polarity and germ layer segregation. Nature 426, 446-450 (Evaluated by Faculty of 1000) Wikramanayake, A.H. , Huang, L. and W. H. Klein. (1998). beta-catenin is essential for patterning the maternally specified animal-vegetal axis in the sea urchin embryo. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 95, 9343-9348.