Tiaira Porter
Email: tporter6@wisc.edu
In the Moore Lab, we focus on the mechanism behind asymmetric protein inheritance in neural stem cells during division, and how this inheritance relates to aging. When a neural stem cell divides, one daughter cell inherits protein cargoes that negatively affect proliferation (i.e. ubiquitinated proteins and the intermediate filament vimentin), while the other daughter cell remains “clean”. Interestingly, this inheritance is altered by aging and cellular stress. In addition, an endoplasmic reticulum membrane mediated diffusion barrier may play a role in limiting the movement of these cargoes between daughter cells during division. My research project specifically focuses on delineating the role of Nesprin-3, a nuclear envelope protein, in mediating asymmetric segregation and neural stem cell maintenance, as well as characterizing the role of cargo inheritance in vivo.