May 2024
Dr. Park’s post defense celebration
April 2024
Welcome Mason!
Mason Schmidt -Graduate Student
April 2024
Dr. Anil Kumar Ganga joins the lab as a research scientist!
Anil Kumar Ganga – Research Scientist
April 2024
Dave, Will and Sandy at the Basement Membrane workshop in Manchester, England
May 2024
Welcome Jake Leyhr, our new postdoc!
Jake Leyhr – Postdoctoral Fellow
March 2024
Congratulations Dr. Kenny-Ganzert!!
March 2024
Dave at the Alport Syndrome workshop in Nicosia, Cyprus
November 2023
Postdoc Lena Basta joins the lab, Welcome Lena!
Lena Basta – Postdoctoral Fellow
August 2023
Welcome, Litong and Lian!!
Litong Yang – Graduate Student
Lian Wang -Graduate Student
July 2022
Lab party celebrating Dr. Payne and Dr. Garde!
July 2022
Aastha Garde’s defends her thesis on localized glucose transport and specialized lipid biogenesis driving cell invasion through basement membranes! Congratulations Dr. Garde!
Aastha starts her postdoc in the Jonikas Lab at Princeton next month!
May 2022
Siddharthan, a student from Biology, joins the lab! Welcome Sid!!
May 2022
Ranjay Jayadev’s paper on defining the network of basement membrane proteins is published in Science Advances! Sid has his second cover selected!
May 2022
Sara Payne starts her new job at BioAgilytix. Congratulations Sara!
March 2022
Aastha Garde’s paper on how localized glucose import powers cell invasion through the basement membrane comes out in Developmental Cell! Our talented rotation student – Siddharthan’s cover gets selected!
March 2022
Sara Payne defends her thesis on her germline stem cell niche and B-Link projects! Amazing work Dr. Payne!
October 2021
Dave’s review on how basement membrane remodeling guides cell migration and morphogenesis is published in Current Opinion in Cell Biology!
February 2021
Aastha Garde’s review on how cells fuel invasion through extracellular matrix is published in Trends in Cell Biology!
September 2020
Kacy Gordon’s paper on how stem cells leave the germ stem cell niche comes out in eLife with a digest article highlighting the work!
Dave attends the British Society of Matrix Biology Virtual Meeting and gives a talk on how basement membranes are linked together. A talented artist, Alex Cagan, made beautiful visual abstracts for all of the talks as they were being presented 
July 2020
William Ramos-Lewis who received his Ph.D working on Drosophila basement membrane repair in Andrea Page-McCaw’s lab at Vanderbilt joins the lab as a new post-doctoral scholar. Welcome Will!
Eric Hastie accepts an Assistant Teaching Professor Position at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Well done! UNC has recruited an amazing teacher and researcher.
May 2020
Sandy Srinivasan, a UPGG student joins the lab! Welcome Sandy
April of 2020
Two exciting papers from the lab are accepted:
Keeley, D.P., Hastie, E., Jayadev R., Kelley, L.C., Chi, Q., Payne, S.G., Jeger, J.L., Hoffman, B.D., Sherwood, D.R. (2020). Comprehensive endogenous tagging of basement membrane components reveals dynamic movement within the matrix scaffolding. Dev Cell. In Press.
Gordon, K.L., Zussman, J.W., Li, X., Miller, C., Sherwood, D.R. (2020). Stem cell niche exit in C. elegans via orientation and segregation of daughter cells by a cryptic cell outside the niche. eLife. In press.
January of 2020
David Sherwood gave a talk at Texas A&M Institute of Biosciences and Technology in Houston and had a wonderful visit seeing many friends–especially host David Reiner
December of 2019
Nice article on Eric Hastie’s work with undergraduate education: https://researchblog.duke.edu/2020/03/04/squirmy-science/
Eric Hastie published two papers with three undergraduates in the lab! One with Ryan Sellers and Bruno Valen on a scalable CRISPR based CURE with undergraduates in the J Microbiol Biol Educ. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6914349/) and one with David Chen on the locailzation of the C. elegans Septin in Micropublication biology (https://www.micropublication.org/journals/biology/micropub-biology-000200/)
Dave Sherwood gave at talk at the Department of Biochemistry at University of Washington Seattle (amazing faculty and students), and at the 2019 ASCB Meeting, The Cellular and Molecular Basis of Invasive Metastatic Cancer, “Fueling Cell Invasion through Basement Membranes”
November 2019
Dave Sherwood attends the 9th EMT international Association Meeting in Kumamoto City Japan and discusses how cell invasion adapts to the absence of MMPs.
Dave also gives a talk at the Duke CMB symposium: Cells in Action, Duke University, Cell and Molecular Biology Student Organized, Plenary Talk on Nov 21st, 2019.
Dan Keeley starts a new terrific position at UNC in the Neuroscience Microscopy Core as a Research Associate. UNC is so fortunate to have recruited Dan–the best of the best in microscopy and helping others.
October 2019
Dan Keeley successfully defends his thesis on the basement membrane toolkit and B-LINK projects!
August 2019
Ranjay’s paper revealing how distinct basement membranes are built by factors that promote tissue-specific activation of distinct integrins is published in the Journal of Cell Biology: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31387941
Lab party at Sandra’s Farm (Elodie Farms, https://www.elodiefarms.com/) to celebrate Ranjay’s Ph.D. and Kacy’s new job
July 2019
Kacy Gordon starts her new lab at UNC down the road. Well done Kacy! https://bio.unc.edu/faculty-profile/gordon-kacy/
Another inspiring summer at the MBL in Woods Hole-such generous and intelligent students, course assistants and faculty.
Embryology softball champs three years in a row!
May 2019
Ranjay Jayadev goes through graduation-newly minted Ph.D. His mom attends coming all the way from Singapore. Spectacular student & research. Well done!
April 2019
Rui heads back to China after a wonderful 8 month visit, leaving us all with amazing drawings of ourselves.
March 2019
Dave is plenary speaker at 2019 International C. elegans Conference
2019 International C. elegans conference
January of 2019
Lara Linden, Sara Payne, and Kacy Gordon’s paper on how ectopic germ cells induce niche like enwrapment from body wall muscle comes out in Current Biology. “Ectopic Germ Cells Can Induce Niche-like Enwrapment by Neighboring Body Wall Muscle” http://https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30799241
Laura Kelley’s amazing study on how invasive cells adapt and still invade through basement membrane in the absence of MMPs is published in Developmental Cell and is selected for the cover!. “Adaptive F-Actin Polymerization and Localized ATP Production Drive Basement Membrane Invasion in the Absence of MMPs.” Dev Cell 2019 Jan 23. pii: S1534-5807(18)31086-4.
December 2018
Lab Christmas Party
A terrific collaborative paper with Julie Plastino’s group from the Institut Curie in Paris is published in PNAS-go with the force! “Forces drive basement membrane invasion in Caenorhabditis elegans.” Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. Nov 6;115(45):11537-11542.
August 2018
Two fabulous students join the lab: Isabel Kenny from the UPGG program and Claire Gianakas from the Pharmacology Training Program.
July 2018
MBL Woods Hole Embryology…Amazing Year.
The class of 2018! So talented and curious….such a special time.
Nothing is better than the people and discussions at the MBL–Bob Goldstein, an amazing scientist, mentor, and friend
Beatson Meeting in Glasgow Scotland–“Talk to the Niche”
Three of my favorite scientists-Alissa Weaver, Danijela Vignjevic & Val Weaver
June 2018
European C. elegans meeting in Barcelona (with Paul Sternberg!)
May 2018
Dan Keeley’s elegant review paper, the first every on basement membrane-basement membrane adhesion is out. “Tissue linkage through adjoining basement membranes: The long and the short term of it.” Matrix Biol. May 24.
January 2018
Julie Pastino and my comprehensive review on cell migration in C. elegans comes out! Invading, Leading and Navigating Cell in Caenorhabditis elegans: Insights into Cell Movement In Vivo. Genetics Jan;208(1):53-78.
November 2017
Kaleb’s paper “Cell invasion in vivo via rapid exocytosis of a transient lysosome-derived membrane domain” is the featured article in Development Cell.
September 2017
Ranjay’s Dispatch comes out in Current Biology. Morphogenesis: Shaping tissues through extracellular force gradients. Curr Biol. 2017 Sep 11;27(17):R850-R852. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2017.07.040.
August 2017
Kaleb Naegeli begins new exciting post-doc at the UNC Catalyst for Rare Diseases–a research group at the Eshelman School of Pharmacy dedicated to understanding the basic biology of rare genetic conditions that interfaces with patient organizations to develop novel therapies for woefully understudied diseases.
June 2017
Lara Linden’s paper (with Kacy Gordon and Qiuyi Chi), “Identification of regulators of germ stem cell enwrapment by its niche in C. elegans” is accepted by Developmental Biology-a groundbreaking paper starting a new field looking at stem cell enwrapment in C. elegans.
May 2017
Laura Kelley, Zheng Wang and Elliot Hagedorn paper, “Live-cell confocal microscopy and quantitative 4D image analysis of anchor cell invasion through the basement membrane in C. elegans” is accepted by Nat. Protocols. The culmination of many long hours spent in the dark microscope room. Well done!
April 2017
Dave is promoted to Full Professor of Biology. Many thanks to the current members and alumni of the Sherwood group. It has been a wonderful journey with many more adventures to come.
March 2017
A hearty congratulations to Kaleb Naegeli for an amazing Ph.D. defense. Spectacular work and amazing seminar–the committee was blown away. Very proud of this young lad.
Congratulations to Dan Costa, Aastha Garde, and Sara Payne for passing their preliminary exams! What a productive and spectacular month. Well done!
Ranjay’s Primer “Basement Membranes” is Published in Current Biology. A beautiful summary of basement membranes.
January 2017
Undergraduate Youlie Li joins the lab. Working with Aastha and forming the dream team.
October 2016
Dan Keeley is awarded a prestigious fellowship to develop an internship program in the state of North Carolina pairing recent Ph.D.’s with state legislators!
Two Duke PhD Students Win Grant to Study Science & Technology Policy Fellowship Feasibility in NC
October 2016
Dave is appointed one of the new co-directors of the Embryology Course at the MBL in Woods Hole. MA: Duke Today, Regeneration Next Announcement.
Duke undergraduate Jay Zussman joins the lab for independent research.
September 2016
Shelly and Zheng’s paper “Boundary cells restrict dystroglycan trafficking to control basement membrane sliding during tissue remodeling” is published in eLife.
Recent star Duke graduate Jonathan Jeger joins the lab at a technician to work on genome editing of genes encoding basement membrane proteins.
Duke undergraduates Thomas Wang and Tanner Johnson join the lab for independent research.
Dave Returns home from summer sabbatical.
May 2016
Aastha Garde, Dan Costa and Sara Payne join the group from the CMB program as graduate students. Very excited about what these three will discover.
April 2016
Dave starts his sabbatical in Paris, France at the Institute Curie Institute as Mayent- Rothschild Fellow, see: Institut Curie
March 2016
Kacy and Eric receive post-doctoral fellowships-the Ruth L. Kirschstein Institutional National Research Service Award and the American Cancer Society postdoctoral award.
February 2016
Meghan, Ranjay and Qiuyi’s paper “SPARC Promotes Cell Invasion In Vivo by Decreasing Type IV Collagen Levels in the Basement Membrane” is published in PLoS Genetics.
Grace Lim receives an honorable mention at the 2016 Student Poster Competition at the AAAS Annual Meeting in Washington, DC, February 13-14 AAAS Student Meeting Winners
December 2015
The multi-talented Eric Hastie joins the lab as a post-doctoral scholar!
Lauren and Matt’s paper is accepted at PLOS Genetics!
Dave S receives the Mayent-Rothschild-Institut Curie Award to visit the Curie institute this coming summer.
November 2015
Matt starts his new position at CELLSCRIPT in Madison, WI.
August 2015
Lauren successfully defends her thesis!
Kaleb is awarded a Fellowship from the Biology Department!
Lauren starts her new position as a Clinical Pharmacology Associate/Project Manager at Nuventra in Research Triangle Park, NC
Meghan starts her post-doc at UCSF in Ron Vale’s lab.
Wei’s paper, “Rab-10-dependent transport is required for dendrite arborization” is accepted at PLOS Genetics.
Dave’s commentary, “A Developmental Biologist Outside-the-Cell Thinking” is published at the Journal of Cell Biology
July 2015
Dave speaks at the MMP Gordon Research Conference in Sunday River, Maine. https://www.grc.org/programs.aspx?id=12358
June 2015
Dave presents at “Imaging the Cell Meeting” in Bordeaux, France http://www.imagingthecell2015.com
May 2015
Meghan successfully defends her thesis!
February 2015
Meghan’s review article, “An active role for basement membrane modification and assembly in tissue sculpting” is published in the Journal of Cell Science. pubmed
January 2015
Kacy Gordon, a new post-doctoral fellow joins the lab. Kacy was a graduate student at the University of Chicago in Professor Ilya Ruvinsky’s lab, where she studied the evolution of transcriptional regulation.
Grace Lim, Troy Huffman-Devey and Catherine Blebea were all award URS independent study grants for their work in the lab
November 2014
Matt Clay was awarded a Damon Runyon postdoctoral fellowship for his project entitled, “Understanding how extrinsic signals direct a Rho GTPase switch to control cell invasion in vivo”.
Grace Lim was awarded a George Barthalmus Undergraduate Research Award.
Meghan and Dan’s (with Shelly and Elliott and Qiuyi) paper “B-LINK: A Hemicentin, Plakin, and Integrin-Dependent Adhesion System that Links Tissues by Connecting Adjacent Basement Membranes” is published in Developmental Cell.
October 2014
Lauren’s collaborative work with the Nance lab on a new targeted protein degradation system that can remove tagged proteins rapidly within individual cells is accepted in Development. “Repurposing an endogenous degradation system for rapid and targeted depletion of C. elegans proteins” Armenti, S.T., Lohmer, L.L, Sherwood, D.R., and Nance, J” pubmed
The Sherwood lab has been certified as a Gold Level Green Lab (https://sites.duke.edu/greenlabs/). Thank you Qiuyi for making this possible.
September 2014
Zheng’s paper, “UNC-6 (netrin) stabilizes oscillatory clustering of the UNC-40 (DCC) receptor to orient polarity” is published in the Journal of Cell Biology and is featured on the cover. pubmed
August 2014
Dave plays for the Duke faculty team against the senior undergraduates (coached by Grant Hill).
July 2014
A lab gathering/reunion at the SDB meeting in Seattle
Lauren Lilley is a best poster finalist at SDB meeting.
Adam Schindler is awarded a talk in the Hilde Mangold Postdoctoral Symposium at the SDB meeting.
June 2014
Matt Clay was awarded a Duke Cancer Biology Training Grant Postdoctoral Fellowship.
David Matus’ paper, “Cell division and targeted cell cycle arrest opens and stabilizes basement membrane gaps.” is published in Nature Communications. pubmed
Adam Schindler’s paper “Identification of late larval stage developmental checkpoints in Caenorhabditis elegans regulated by Insulin/IGF and steroid hormone signaling pathways.” is published in PLoS Genetics. pubmed
April 2014
Benjamin Lacroix from Amy Maddox’s lab publishes an in vivo imaging story of tubulin with help from Shinji in our group in Developmental Cell. “In situ imaging in C. elegans reveals developmental regulation of microtubule dynamics.” pubmed
March 2014
Zheng’s paper, ” MIG-10 (lamellipodin) has netrin-independent functions and is a FOS-1A transcriptional target during anchor cell invasion in C. elegans” is published in Development. pubmed
Laura and Elliott’s paper, “ADF/cofilin promotes invadopodial membrane recycling during cell invasion in vivo” is published in the Journal of Cell Biology. pubmed
Lauren’s paper, “Invadopodia and basement membrane invasion in vivo” is published in Cell Adhesion and Cell Migration. pubmed
February 2014
Laura Kelley’s review, “Traversing the basement membrane in vivo: a diversity of strategies” is published in the Journal of Cell Biology. pubmed
Matt Clay, a new post-doctoral fellow, joins the lab. Matt was a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin in Madison studying neural crest cell migration in zebrafish in Professor Mary Halloran’s laboratory.
Wei Zou begins new position as a post-doctoral fellow in Professor Kang Shen’s lab at Stanford University.
January 2014
David Matus begins new position as an Assistant Professor in the Biochemistry and Cell Biology Department at Stony Brook University. Dave’s website
Zheng Wang begins new position as a Clinician and Researcher at Wuhan Union Hospital, China.
