2016 Scientific Report

ARTHUR S. ALBERTS, PH.D.
Dr. Alberts earned his degrees in biochemistry and cell biology
(B.A., 1987) and in physiology and pharmacology (Ph.D., 1993)
from the University of California, San Diego. He joined VARI in
January 2000, and he was promoted to Professor in 2009.
STAFF
SARAH VANOEVEREN, B.S., B.S.
STUDENT
ANDREW HOWARD, B.A.
VISITING SCIENTIST
JULIE TURNER, PH.D.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Our lab seeks to gain a full understanding of how cells spatially and temporally organize
the biochemical circuits that govern responses to injury, infection, and age. Our goal
is to use this information to guide the development of pharmacological agents that
block the acquisition of cancer traits. In 2015, we focused our translational research
on targeted therapies that reinforce and/or repair blood cell structure and function and
otherwise impair the ability of cancer cells to metastasize.
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
Vargas, Pablo, Paolo Maiuri, Marine Bretou, Pablo J. Sáez, Paolo Pierobon, Mathieu Maurin, Mélanie Chabaud, Danielle Lanakar,
Dorian Obino, et al. 2016. Innate control of actin nucleation determines two distinct migration behaviours in dendritic cells.
Nature Cell Biology 18(1): 43–53.
Arden, Jessica D., Kari I. Lavik, Kaitlin A. Rubinic, Nicolas Chiaia, Sadik A. Khuder, Marthe J. Howard, Andrea L. Nestor-Kalinoski,
Arthur S. Alberts, and Kathryn M. Eisenmann. 2015. Small molecule agonists of mammalian Diaphanous-related (mDia) formins
reveal an effective glioblastoma anti-invasion strategy. Molecular Biology of the Cell 26(21): 3704–3718.
Ercan-Sencicek, A. Gulhan, Samira Jambi, Daniel Franjic, Sayoko Nishimura, Mingfeng Li, Paul El-Fishawy, Thomas M. Morgan,
Stephan J. Sanders, Kaya Bilguvar, Mohnish Suri, et al. 2015. Homozygous loss of DIAPH1 is a novel cause of microcephaly in
humans. European Journal of Human Genetics 23(2): 165–172.
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Van Andel Research Institute | Scientific Report