Nanette M Nascone-Yoder
North Carolina State University, NC·Biology
Most internal organs are not symmetric. The heart, gut and stomach each have a specific left-right shape and position.
- Fields
Biology
Genetics
Biomedical Engineering
- Topics
left-right asymmetry
heterotaxy
laterality
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Feb 2030
What they work on
- Identify which left-right asymmetries in the endoderm, mesoderm and extracellular matrix are required for stomach curvature, using tissue- and side-specific gene function tests and mechanical measurements in frog embryos.
- Determine which combinations of cell- and tissue-level left-right differences are enough to reproduce realistic stomach curvature, using computer simulations checked against nano-CT anatomy.
- Uncover the cell- and tissue-level causes of abnormal stomach curvature in heterotaxy by combining frog embryo experiments with computational models.
More about the research
When this left-right pattern goes wrong, a condition called heterotaxy, the result can be severe and often fatal birth defects. Scientists understand well how the early embryo first sets up its left and right sides. Much less is known about how each organ later builds its own asymmetric shape. The stomach, which curves to the left in all vertebrates, is a classic example. The lab has shown that this curve depends on cells in the endoderm, the stomach's inner lining layer, rearranging unevenly. This rearrangement thins and expands the left wall.
Why it matters
Heterotaxy causes complex and often fatal birth defects across many organs. Explaining how the stomach acquires its normal left-right curve, and what goes wrong in heterotaxy, could clarify how these defects arise. The findings could also inform how asymmetry forms in more complex organs, and show the value of computer modeling in organ development research.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Richard Harland
University of California-Berkeley, CA·Biology
Determine how members of the Plekhg family of Rho GTP exchange factors, proteins that switch on cell-shape signals, control specific cell behaviors during gastrulation and neurulation in Xenopus embryos, using CRISPR knockdown.
Kristen Curran
University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, WI·Biology
Define changes in gene expression and metabolism during dorsal mesoderm specification by comparing wild-type and bmal1 knockout Xenopus animal caps induced with activin, using RNA-seq plus measurements of oxygen consumption and NAD+/NADH ratios.
Bing He
Dartmouth College, NH·Biology
Determine how Rab11-mediated vesicle trafficking feeds back to reinforce the supracellular actomyosin network, the contractile actin-and-myosin meshwork spanning many cells, during apical constriction in Drosophila mesoderm precursors.
The school
North Carolina State University: 40 labs on PI Pages, $717M a year on research, 603 research doctorates a year.
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