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Cynthia D. Cooper |
Research Interests
My laboratory is interested in how black pigment cells, or melanocytes, develop and function. Black pigment cells reside throughout human skin, hair and eyes and are essential in providing color to those features as well as initiating the tanning response. Melanocytes (or melanophores in fish and frogs) are also present throughout the animal kingdom and serve a variety of purposes in different organisms, including mate choice in ducks, warning response in frogs and social behavior in fish. We use zebrafish melanophores as a model to ask questions regarding the cell biology and genetics of pigment/skin cell development. How do melanophores maintain their characteristic shape that is essential for their function? What genes are important for production of mature, healthy melanophores? We hope that answering these questions will help with understanding normal pigment cell development and shed light on mechanisms governing skin cell behavior and health.
Publications
Cooper, C.D., Solan, J.L., Dolejsi, M.K., Lampe, P.D. (2000) "Analysis of Connexin Phosphorylation Sites." Methods 20(2):196-204.
Cooper, C.D. and P.D. Lampe (2002) "Casein Kinase 1 Regulates Connexin43 Gap Junction Assembly." Journal of Biological Chemistry, 277(47):44962-44968
Lister J.A., Cooper C.D., Nguyen K, Modrell M, Grant K, Raible D.W. (2006) "Zebrafish Foxd3 is required for development of a subset of neural crest derivatives." Dev Biol 290:92-104.
Lampe P.D., Cooper C.D., King T. J. and Burt J.M. (2006) "Analysis of Connexin43 phosphorylated at S325, S328 and S330 in normoxic and ischemic heart." J Cell Sci 119:3435-42.
Cooper C.D. and D.W. Raible (2008) "Mechanisms for reaching the differentiated state: Insights from neural crest derived melanocytes." Sem Cell Dev Biol 2008 Sep 30. [Epub ahead of print]