Cell Biology Newsroom

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Blanche Capel, PhD, has been selected to receive the Carl G. Hartman Award from the Society for the Study of Reproduction for outstanding contributions to the scientific discipline of reproductive biology.

Julia Dziabis, a postdoctoral fellow mentored in the Scott-Hewitt lab, will receive $25,000 in seed funding from the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences to launch bold, high‑risk ideas.

Jordan Green, a PhD student working with Chantell Evans, PhD, is one of the emerging young Duke researchers exploring how science can help us age with more resilience.

Duke researchers discovered an unexpected dual role for a protein called Hevin, revealing how three brain-cell types coordinate to shape early brain circuitry.

Two faculty from the Department of Cell Biology have been awarded distinguished professorships by Duke University.

Cell biologist Amy Gladfelter, PhD, has been intrigued by a fungus called Ashbya gossypii for 20 years. Made of branching strands, this mold consists of “giant” cells packed with multiple nuclei. In 2006, she showed that none of these nuclei divide at the same time. At the time, this independent division inside a single cell went against everything scientists thought they knew about how cells operate. Now Gladfelter’s team at the Duke University School of Medicine has shown how Ashbya keeps division and growth organized: by using tiny “popup” biochemical compartments made from a protein called Whi3.

A short piece of DNA that changed rapidly in humans compared with other mammals appears to act like a volume knob for brain growth.

Debra Silver, PhD, is pursuing one of neuroscience’s biggest questions: What makes a human brain human? She researches it with the same mix of precision and adventure she brings to her passion for scuba diving.

John F. Rawls, PhD, James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, has been named a Fellow of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA), the nation’s oldest and most prestigious medical society dedicated to disorders of the gastrointestinal tract.