Skip to main content

Professor
UNC-Chapel Hill

Education and Training

North Carolina State University, BS, 2001
Scripps Research Institute, PhD, 2006
Massachusetts Institute for Technology, Postdoctoral, 2006-2011

Areas of Interest

Integrity in axon guidance and axon branching is required for the functional organization of the nervous system. Both axon guidance and axon branching employ the same fundamental cellular machinery: a dynamic cytoskeleton produces the force to initiate axonal plasma membrane protrusion, while vesicle trafficking supplies phospholipids and membrane proteins to the dramatically expanding axonal plasma membrane. Extracellular guidance cues, such as netrin, likely coordinate cytoskeletal dynamics and vesicle trafficking to elicit specific neuronal responses. In my lab we are investigating the role of two neuronally-expressed ubiquitin ligases, TRIM9 and TRIM67, in netrin-dependent axon guidance and branching. We utilize a variety techniques including high resolution live cell microscopy, gene disruption, mouse models, microfluidics and biochemistry to understand the complex coordination of cytoskeletal dynamics and membrane trafficking driving neuronal shape change and growth cone motility in primary neurons and in the developing vertebrate mammalian nervous system.

Awards and Honors

MIT Koch Institute Image Award, 2011
Merck/MIT senior postdoctoral fellowship, 2010-2011
Fellow, Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund for Medical Research, 2006-2009
Merton R. Bernfield Memorial Award from the American Society for Cell Biology, 2005
Howard Hughes Medical Institute Predoctoral Fellowship, 2001-2006
Bachelor of Science, Magna cum laude, valedictorian, North Carolina State University, 2001

Affiliations

Cell Biology and Physiology Curriculum
American Society of Cell Biology, 2000-present
Society for Neuroscience, 2013-present
UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, 2011-present
UNC Neuroscience Center, 2011-present

Gupton, Stephanie