AMY SHAUB MADDOX, Ph.D.
AWARDS & HONOURS
- Junior Investigator, Fonds de la recherche en santé du Québec, 2007-
- Instructor, Marine Biological Labs Embryology Summer Course, 2005-2007
- Postdoctoral Fellow, Giannini Family Foundation, 2004-2007
- Doctoral Fellow, NIH Molecular Biology Training Program, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1997-1998
TRAINING
- Postdoctoral training with Dr. Karen Oegema, Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, University of California, San Diego, 2003-2007
- Ph.D. in Cell Biology and Anatomy with Keith Burridge, Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1997-2003
- B.A. in Biology with David Borst (Illinois State University), Illinois Wesleyan University and Marine Biological Labs, Woods Hole, 1997
RESEARCH SUPPORT
- Fonds de la recherche en santé du Québec
- Canadian Cancer Society Research Institute
- Terry Fox Foundation
Dr. Amy Maddox is working to understand the molecular mechanisms of cell shape change during cell division and development. Cell shape change is fundamental to diverse processes including gastrulation, neuronal pathfinding, immune response, metastasis, and cytokinesis. All of these events require rearrangements of the actin cytoskeleton, but the molecular mechanisms underlying each of these processes are distinct and often involve specific actin-binding proteins.
For her graduate studies, Dr. Maddox was trained in Cell Biology and Anatomy at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She used mammalian cultured cells to investigate the mechanism of mitotic cell rounding in preparation for mitosis, a universal but poorly understood aspect of cortical dynamics in mitosis. She used biochemical, imaging and micromanipulation approaches to show that Rho and its effector, Rho-kinase, are required for proper cell rounding and cortical stiffness upon entry into mitosis.
During her postdoctoral work in the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in La Jolla, California, Dr. Maddox focused on cell shape changes during cytokinesis. In cytokinesis, a furrow cleaves through the cytoplasm between the segregated nuclei, dramatically changing the shape of the cell, and aiding the physical separation of the daughter cells. She developed live imaging-based dynamic cytokinesis assays using early embryos of the nematode C. elegans. Using her assays, Amy discovered novel aspects of cytokinesis, including the role of the conserved contractile ring proteins anillin and the septins in breaking symmetry of the actomyosin cytoskeleton.
Together with her team at IRIC, Dr. Maddox will continue to work towards elucidating the mechanisms of contractility and cell shape change during cell division. She will use the C. elegans early embryo, as well as other aspects of C. elegans biology and in vitro approaches to quantitatively describe cytokinesis and other cell shape changes.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Maddox AS, Lewellyn L, Desai A, Oegema K (2007) Anillin and the septins promote asymmetric ingression of the cytokinetic furrow. Dev Cell 12:827-835
Maddox AS, Habermann B, Desai A, Oegema K (2005) Distinct roles for two C. elegans anillins in the gonad and early embryo. Development 132:2837-2848
Audhya A, Hyndman F, McLeod IX, Maddox AS, Yates JR 3rd, Desai A, Oegema K (2005) A complex containing the Sm protein CAR-1 and the RNA helicase CGH-1 is required for embryonic cytokinesis in Caenorhabditis elegans. J Cell Biol 171:267-279
Maddox AS and Burridge K (2003) RhoA is required for cortical retraction and rigidity during mitotic cell rounding. J Cell Biol 160:255-265
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