Michael Martinez
Michael.A.Martinez@stonybrook.edu
B.A., Biology 2014
University of Bridgeport
Exploring cell cycle regulation during development and cancer
In the Matus lab, we focus on the intersection between developmental biology and cancer cell biology while using high-resolution live-cell microscopy. We are very interested in understanding how cell cycle state determines cell fate. To accomplish this, we study a uterine-specific cell in C. elegans called the anchor cell (AC), a cell that is important in the development of the nematode reproductive tract. This cell has characteristics analogous to those displayed by metastatic cancer cells due to its ability to invade through intact basement membrane. Strikingly, many of the molecular programs used to perform this cellular behavior are shared between the AC and invasive cancer cells. What makes this cancer cell model attractive is that AC invasion can be visualized in vivo inside a living organism. For my thesis project I hope to identify the cell cycle control mechanism that determines how the AC exits the cell cycle to differentiate invasive activity, as previous research in our lab established a G0/G1 cell cycle exit requirement for the invasive AC. Also, using a neomorphic model of AC invasion, I hope to characterize cell cycle targets that are negatively regulated during tumorigenesis. The main goal of this research is to help identify combinatorial drug regimens for the treatment of metastatic cancer.
Recent Publications:
Martinez M.A.Q., Kinney B.A., Medwig-Kinney T.N., Ashley G., Ragle J.M., Johnson L., Aguilera J., Hammell C.M., Ward J.D., and Matus D.Q. 2019. Rapid degradation of C. elegans proteins at single-cell resolution with a synthetic auxin. bioRxiv doi: 10.1101/716837.
Penfield L., Wysolmerski B., Mauro M., Farhadifar R., Martinez M.A., Biggs R., Wu H.Y., Broberg C., Needleman D., and Bahmanyar S. 2018. Dynein-pulling forces counteract lamin-mediated nuclear stability during nuclear envelope repair. Molecular Biology of the Cell 29(7):852-868.
Chow R.D., Guzman C.D., Wang G., Schmidt F., Youngblood M.W., Ye L., Errami Y., Dong M.B., Martinez M.A., Zhang S., Renauer P., Bilguvar K., Gunel M., Sharp P.A., Zhang F., Platt R.J., and Chen S. 2017. AAV-mediated direct in vivo CRISPR screen identifies functional suppressors in glioblastoma. Nature Neuroscience 20(10):1329-1341.