PennPORT

Education:

2009 B.S. Biochemistry – Clemson University, Clemson, SC

2016 Ph.D. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology – Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD

2016-2018 Postdoctoral researcher – Department of Neuroscience, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA

2018-Present PennPORT fellow – Department of Neuroscience – University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA  

Research mentor: Greg Bashaw, Ph.D. 

Research topic: I use Drosophila as a model to investigate whether the factors that specify motor neuron identity during early development are required to maintain that identity later in life. Additionally, I am working to establish the Drosophila ovary as a model to study the signaling cascades that control nervous system development.

Teaching interests: genetics, molecular biology, cell biology, and neuroscience 

Publications:

Laws, K.M. and Drummond-Barbosa, D. (2017). Control of germline stem cell lineages by diet and physiology. Results and Problems in Cell Differentiation, 59:67-99.

Laws, K.M. and Drummond-Barbosa, D. (2016). AMP-activated protein kinase has diet-dependent and –independent roles in Drosophila oogenesis. Developmental Biology, Dec 1;420(1):90-99.

Laws, K.M. and Drummond-Barbosa, D. (2015). Genetic mosaic analysis of stem cell lineages in the Drosophila ovary. Methods Molecular Biology, 1328:57-72.

Laws, K.M., Sampson, L.L., Drummond-Barbosa, D. (2015). Insulin-independent role of adiponectin receptor signaling in Drosophila germline stem cell maintenance. Developmental Biology, Mar 15;399(2):226-36.

E-mail: klaws@pennmedicine.upenn.edu