Members

Graduate Student Lab Member

Cathryn Maienza

Research Summary:

Throughout my career as a biologist, I have always been fascinated by interactions between an organism’s external environment and consequent molecular responses to these stimuli. How do organisms adapt to and prepare for living in a nonconstant environment? What molecular machinery is responsible for an organism’s ability to recognize and fine-tune itself to external cues? My current research project, “Uncovering the molecular mechanisms of melatonin as a humoral zeitgeber in Neurospora crassa”, asks questions like these to address longstanding mysteries around melatonin signaling and conservation across Eukaryotes. While melatonin is naturally synthesized in almost all living organisms, melatonin secretion and signaling is closely coupled to external, cycling light conditions and an organism’s endogenous circadian rhythm. Using Neurospora, my works aims to characterize the circadian response to melatonin in cycling and constant conditions and uncover the molecular machinery responsible for melatonin-induced alterations to circadian phase and period length. Another major aspect of my research is to examine potential conservation of melatonin biosynthesis and signaling between higher and lower Eukaryotes. Through structural comparison of fungal GPCR’s to human melatonin receptors, I identified at least one melatonin-related receptor in fungi with similar downstream signaling responses to human receptors (Maienza et al., 2025). The hope I have for my project is to provide the field with substantial evidence that melatonin synthesis and signaling are conserved across Eukaryotes, and to present Neurospora crassa as a valuable model organism for melatonin pharmacology research.
 
 
 

Undergraduate Student Lab Member

Morgan Bartleson

Current Research

I am an undergraduate biology major with a growing interest in circadian biology and the development of innovative screening strategies for identifying circadian modulating drugs. My research addresses a pressing public health need for treatments regarding chronic sleep disorders, many of which stem from disruptions in the circadian clock, a ~24-hour internal timing system that regulates daily physiological and behavioral processes (including the sleep–wake cycle).

However, circadian phenotypes require continuous monitoring over multiple days; this is where most traditional single-endpoint drug assays are fundamentally incompatible with identifying compounds that alter clock function. To overcome this limitation, I am contributing to the development of a high-throughput, dual-assay platform that leverages drug repurposing by screening 2,600 FDA-approved small molecules in the Eukaryotic model organism Neurospora crassa. This work includes optimization of an FRQ-luciferase reporter assay driven by the frq promoter to record real-time bioluminescent rhythms, enabling sensitive detection of drug-induced changes in circadian period and phase. In parallel, I am implementing a Protoperithecia Production Assay to measure photoperiod-dependent developmental responses, providing a complementary readout of the organism’s ability to assess day length, a proposed additional function of the circadian clock. Together, these high-throughput assays create an efficient and unbiased platform for identifying small molecules that modulate circadian rhythmicity. Beyond supporting mechanistic clock research and repurposing existing drugs, this work contributes to broader efforts to develop strategies that may ultimately improve treatment options for sleep disorders and other circadian-linked health conditions.

View my research poster (PDF)

Aye Thinzar Htin Aung

Current Research

As a biology major, I have always been deeply interested in understanding how environmental factors influence the molecular mechanisms that regulate our normal biological functions, especially the circadian rhythm that governs daily physiological cycles. This curiosity led me to join a research project focusing on how the kinase stk-16 and phosphatase pzl-1 contribute to photoperiodic regulation in Neurospora crassa. Photoperiodism—the biological response to changes in day length—plays a crucial role in controlling reproductive and developmental processes in many organisms. To explore this, our lab developed a Protoperithecia Assay (PPA) to measure female reproductive structures in N. crassa grown under different photoperiod conditions. Our results revealed that the stk-16 kinase mutant lost its differential response to day length, while the pzl-1 phosphatase mutant maintained the wild-type pattern. These findings suggest that STK-16 kinase is essential for photoperiodic regulation, whereas PZL-1 phosphatase is not directly involved. Since kinase showed a significant effect, my current research aims to uncover the molecular mechanisms by which STK-16 influences clock regulation, particularly how it may interact with or modify clock proteins to mediate the organism’s response to environmental light cues. Understanding the molecular mechanisms behind this regulation could provide broader insight into how environmental cues affect circadian and seasonal rhythms in eukaryotes.

View my research poster (PDF)

 

Previous Lab Members (click to view)