Personnel

Stephen Lockett received the Ph.D. degree from the Department of Medicine, Birmingham University, England. His research interests include fluorescence microscopy and the development of analysis software for extracting quantitative information from images. He has published over 120 research papers and has received several international awards.

Coexpression of NOS2 and COX2 accelerates tumor growth and reduces survival in estrogen receptor-negative breast cancer.  Basudhar D, Glynn SA, Greer M, Somasundaram V, No JH, Scheiblin DA, Garrido P, Heinz WF, Ryan AE, Weiss JM, Cheng RYS, Ridnour LA, Lockett SJ, McVicar DW, Ambs S, Wink DA. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2017 Dec 5;114(49):13030-13035. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1709119114. Epub 2017 Oct 27. PMID: 29087320

Graphcut Based 3D Nuclear Segmentation in Optical Microscopy Tissue Images.  Kaustav Nandy, Rama Chellappa and Stephen J Lockett. IEEE Selected Topics in Signal Processing Special Issue on Advanced Signal Processing in Microscopy and Cell Imaging. 2016, Volume: 10, Issue: 1 Pages: 140 – 150, DOI: 10.1109/JSTSP.2015.2505148.

Quantitative Analysis of F-Actin Redistribution In Astrocytoma Cells Treated With Candidate Pharmaceuticals.  Stephen Lockett, Chrissie Verma, Alla Brafman, Prabhakar Gudla, Kaustav Nandy, Yoshihiro Mimaki, Philip L. Fuchs, Joseph Jaja, Karlyne M. Reilly, John Beutler, Thomas J. Turbyville.   Cytometry Part A, 2014 Jun;85(6):512-21.

3D Image Analysis of Thick Breast Cancer Specimens show High Cell-to-Cell Genetic Heterogeneity. Chin K, Ortiz de Solorzano C, Knowles D, Jones A, Chou W, Rodriguez EG, Kuo WL, Ljung BM, Chew K, Myambo K, Miranda M, Krig S, Garbe J, Stampfer M, Yaswen P, Gray JW, Lockett SJ.  Nature Genetics, 36:984-988,2004.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Lockett%20SJ%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=29087320

Valentin Magidson received his Ph.D. degree from the Department of Physics, Technion, Israel. Prior to joining the OMAL team, his research focused on laser-based microscopy techniques, which he applied to both the physics of semiconductors and the biology of cell division. His current focus is on optical super-resolution techniques, including the recently emerged tool of expansion microscopy.

Adaptive changes in the kinetochore architecture facilitate proper spindle assembly.  Magidson V, Paul R, Yang N, Ault JG, O’Connell CB, Tikhonenko I, McEwen BF, Mogilner A, Khodjakov A.  Nature Cell Biology 17(9): 1134-44, 2015

A The spatial arrangement of chromosomes during prometaphase facilitates spindle assembly.  Magidson V, O’Connell CB, Loncarek J, Paul R, Mogilner A, and Khodjakov. Cell 146(4):555-67, 2011

Regulation of cytokinesis by spindle-pole bodies.  Magidson V, Chang F, and Khodjakov A. Nature Cell Biology 8(8): 891-3, 2006

Fano-type interference in the Raman spectrum of photoexcited Si.  Magidson V and Beserman R. Physical Review B 66 (19): Art. No. 195206, 2002

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Magidson%20V%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=26258631

Will Heinz received his Ph.D. from the department of Biophysics and Biophysical Chemistry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. His research interests include biological atomic force microscopy and developing in vitro tools, microscopy techniques, and analytical methods to investigate the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. Before joining OMAL, he developed protein micropatterning techniques for cell-based applications, one of which he patented and commercialized.

An in vitro tumorigenesis model based on live cell-generated oxygen and nutrient gradients. Gilmore, A. C., Flaherty, S. J., Somasundaram, V., Scheiblin, D. A., Lockett, S. J., Wink, D. A., & Heinz, W. F. (2020). BioRxiv, 2020.08.24.264580.  https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.08.24.264580

Truncated Tetrahedral RNA Nanostructures Exhibit Enhanced Features for Delivery of RNAi Substrates. Zakrevsky, P., Kasprzak, W. K., Heinz, W. F., Wu, W., Khant, H., Bindewald, E., Dojsuren, N., Eric A, F., de Val, N., Jaeger, L., & Shapiro, B. A. (2020). Nanoscale, 12(4), 2555–2568. https://doi.org/10.1039/c9nr08197f

Inducible nitric oxide synthase-derived extracellular nitric oxide flux regulates proinflammatory responses at the single cell level. Somasundaram, V., Gilmore, A. C., Basudhar, D., Palmieri, E. M., Scheiblin, D. A., Heinz, W. F., Cheng, R. Y. S., Ridnour, L. A., Altan-Bonnet, G., Lockett, S. J., McVicar, D. W., & Wink, D. A. (2020). Redox Biology, 28, 101354. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.redox.2019.101354

Density of σ70 promoter-like sites in the intergenic regions dictates the redistribution of RNA polymerase during osmotic stress in Escherichia coli. Sun, Z., Cagliero, C., Izard, J., Chen, Y., Zhou, Y. N., Heinz, W. F., Schneider, T. D., & Jin, D. J. (2019). Nucleic Acids Research, 47(8), 3970–3985. https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkz159

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=heinz+wf&sort=date

David Scheiblin received his Ph.D. in 2014 in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Delaware, USA. He has 11 years of experience in the microscopy field working in biotechnology industry, government research, academic research, and non-profit research institutes. He has worked in three different multi-user bioimaging facilities. His research interests include the development of new optical microscopy techniques for cancer biology. Currently, his research includes the development of Multiplex Immunofluorescent techniques to look at targeted biological pathways of interest to study the tumor microenvironment. He has published or been acknowledged on over 10 peer reviewed papers and over 45 abstracts for international, national, and local conferences in his short career. He has also been awarded multiple grants and honors.

Coexpression of NOS2 and COX2 accelerates tumor growth and reduces survival in estrogen receptor-negative breast cancer.  Basudhar D, Glynn SA, Greer M, Somasundaram V, No JH, Scheiblin DA, Garrido P, Heinz WF, Ryan AE, Weiss JM, Cheng RYS, Ridnour LA, Lockett SJ, McVicar DW, Ambs S, Wink DA.  Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2017 Dec 5;114(49):13030-13035. 

The molecular mechanisms underlying lens fiber elongation.   Audette DS, Scheiblin DA, Duncan MK. . Exp Eye Res. 2017 Mar;156:41-49. 

Beta-1 integrin is important for the structural maintenance and homeostasis of differentiating fiber cells.  Scheiblin DA, Gao J, Caplan JL, Simirskii VN, Czymmek KJ, Mathias RT, Duncan MK.Int J Biochem Cell Biol. 2014 May;50:132-45.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/david.scheiblin.2/bibliography/public

Rebecca Moffat graduated from Southern Utah University with a B.S. in Biology. At SUU she worked in an ecology lab to create niche models of biotic and abiotic environmental factors found within BLM-owned land of Southern Utah and in a microbiology lab to determine paraoxon degrading abilities of bacteria in local soil. Rebecca also worked at the SUU STEM Center where community outreach helped her gain an appreciation for K-12 science education, particularly in rural and underserved communities. At OMAL she is using her niche modeling skills to further understand the function of cancer stem cells and their interactions with the environments surrounding them.

Giana Vitale graduated from the University of Miami magna cum laude with a B.S in Biomedical Engineering. As an undergraduate, she designed and implemented a microfluidic chip that produced a gradient of signaling molecules to differentiate inner ear organoids. At OMAL, Giana is investigating how hypoxic gradients influence epithelial-mesenchymal transition and the behavior of cancer stem cells in an in vitro model of the tumor microenvironment of triple negative breast cancer.