Allison Kao

Program: Computational and Systems Biology

Current advisor: Rotating in the lab of Rob Mitra, PhD

Undergraduate university: Harvard University

Research summary
This past summer I worked in the lab of Dr. Aaron DiAntonio, studying the role of the stathmin (STMN) family in Wallerian degeneration. It has been shown that STMN2 is an axonal maintenance factor whose loss permits the execution of injury-induced axon degeneration. Importantly, STMN2 is a labile protein and stabilizing STMN2 can delay axon degeneration. For my project, I studied the effect of stabilized STMN1, STMN3, and STMN4 on injury-induced axon degeneration.

Graduate publications