“Unraveling The Cranial Neural Crest Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition”
Erica J. Hutchins, PhD
August 5th @ 12noon-1 pm CST
Dr. Erica Hutchins obtained her PhD in Biology in the lab of Dr. Ben Szaro, from the State University of New York at Albany in 2013. There, she worked on nervous system development in the frog, characterizing how post-transcriptional regulation and signaling pathways intersected to direct an important developmental process—axon outgrowth—in an intact, organismal context. Her graduate research generated novel and critical insights into the regulation of the RNA-binding protein, hnRNP K, and afforded her in-depth knowledge of post-transcriptional regulatory mechanisms at the cellular and molecular level, spawned several publications and attracted many awards including a Distinguished Doctoral Dissertation Award.
In 2014, Dr Hutchins continued her interest in how signaling pathways and post-transcriptional changes regulate complex cellular events during development, by moving to Caltech’s Division of Biology and Biological Engineering to join the lab of Dr. Marianne Bronner as a Postdoc. Dr. Hutchins examined the role of a canonical Wnt signaling antagonist, Draxin, in neural crest development. She uncovered a new molecular mechanism whereby transient Draxin expression controls cranial neural crest EMT through intermediate attenuation of canonical Wnt signaling. During the course of this study, she observed that Draxin was expressed in a brief pulse followed by a rapid down-regulation, a hallmark of post-transcriptional regulation.
As a graduate teaching assistant from 2005-2009 and through continuous involvement from 2015-2019 in several Pasadena Unified School District middle school science outreach initiatives through the Pasadena branch of the American Association of University Women (AAUW), Dr Hutchins demonstrates a strong sense of service to education and outreach. She continues that in her roles as Research Mentor to 6 PhD students, a graduate & undergraduate student, 2 technicians and a high school student during 2012 to the present time.
Throughout her postdoctoral career, Dr Hutchins has received numerous awards including:
• Postdoctoral Fellowship (American Heart Association), July 2014-June 2016
• NIH F32 Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA (NIDCR), July 2016-June 2019
• Educational Activities Grant (Society for Developmental Biology, in support of outreach), 2017-2018
• NIH Loan Repayment Program (LRP) Grant (NIDCR), July 2018-June 2020
Dr. Hutchins is currently funded by an NIH NIDCR K99/R00 and on the tenure-track job market.
It is our pleasure to have Dr. Erica Hutchins join the Oral and Craniofacial Sciences Virtual Seminar Series on August 5th to present her research on the post-transcriptional control mechanisms that underlie the epithelial—mesenchymal transition (EMT), cell migration, and pluripotency using cranial neural crest development in the Chick as a model. This is an understudied concept in neural crest cell biology and development. Dr Hutchins integrates single-molecule and live imaging approaches with classical embryology techniques to solve the cell biological mechanisms underlying these developmental processes.
For a preview of further upcoming OCS events see the 2020 Oral and Craniofacial Sciences Seminar Schedule.