Fluorescence Imaging Facility
Dr. McNally received his Ph.D. in Biophysics at the University of Chicago in the lab of Hewson Swift and Jack Cowan. He pursued postdoctoral studies with Ted Cox at Princeton University. He has developed image processing techniques for quantitative analysis of 3D cell locomotion within a living tissue, and applied these methods both to identify roles for myosin II in amoeboid cell motion and the routes of glioma cell invasion in the brain. Dr. McNally is Imaging Director in the Laboratory of Receptor Biology and Gene Expression, where his program interests currently include the role of myosin II in rear retraction, the molecular mechanisms of glioma cell invasion, and nuclear structure in relation to gene expression.
Research Interests
The long term objective of our current research is to understand the mechanisms by which cells move within a three-dimensional, multicellular mass. This movement is more complex than migration of an isolated cell on a flat substrate, because cells within a mass must gain traction on each other and also clear paths for themselves within and through the cell mass. We study such "3D cell motion" using time-lapse 3D microscopy which permits us to observe locomotion in living specimens over extended time periods. Two model systems are currently under study. The first is the movement of amoeboid cells within the multicellular mass of the slime mold Dictyostelium, and the second is the migration of tumor cells in rat brains. To identify which molecules are important for motion within a cell mass, we compare the movement of normal and mutant cells and/or study the effects of drugs which alter the motion. Current research focuses on the role of the myosin II molecule in Dictyostelium locomotion and the hyaluronase receptor in brain tumor cell locomotion.
Last revised on January 22,1999
by
Dawn Walker
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