A partnership with Dalton Cardiovascular Research Center.
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"When you see a fork in the road, take it: Proliferation vs. differentiation decisions in skeletal muscle"

Speaker:
Dawn Cornelison, PhD
Professor of Biological Sciences and Molecular Microbiology and Immunology

Date: Monday, May 15, 2026, 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Location:
Roy Blunt NextGen Precision Health Building
Atkins Family Seminar Room

 Register Here

*Zoom option available 

Description

Skeletal muscle progresses through a one-way, linear developmental pathway from muscle progenitor cell to proliferating myoblast to terminally differentiated myocyte to fused multinucleated myofiber; the transitions between each of these states must be tightly regulated to in order to ensure appropriate population sizes at each step. Our lab has identified key signals regulating the transition from proliferating myoblast to differentiated myocyte, and has more recently explored manipulating them to either drive the transition (as differentiation therapy in cancer) or delay it (in primary stem cell culture). Current work is focused on identifying multiprotein signaling complexes at the cell membrane that respond to diverse extracellular signals to either promote or delay this transition.

About the Speaker

Dr. Cornelison received her BA from the University of Colorado- Boulder and her PhD in Barbara Wold’s lab at Caltech, where she first began working on muscle stem cells. She developed a protocol for isolating live single muscle fibers with their associated satellite cells from mouse limb muscles, identified the first satellite cell marker (c-Met), and developed a novel single-cell RT-PCR technique for analyzing expression of multiple myogenic genes in individual satellite cells. Following a postdoc at the University of Colorado- Boulder in Brad Olwin’s lab, where she identified the heparan sulfate proteoglycans syndecan-3 and syndecan-4 as markers and mediators of satellite cell function in vivo, she joined the Division of Biology and the Life Sciences Center at the University of Missouri. Notable work from the lab includes developing a timelapse imaging system to observe and evaluate satellite cell motility and other activities on single myofibers in culture and identifying Eph:ephrin signaling interactions as key regulators of satellite cell migration, myofiber:motor neuron “matching" at the NMJ to maintain muscle fiber type, and commitment to myogenic differentiation via the “community effect”. Current work includes investigating abnormal localization and activity of Eph:ephrins in rhabdomyosarcoma and molecular studies of syndecan-4 as a bifunctional switch promoting proliferation and differentiation.

About the Seminar Series

The goal of the NextGen Cardiovascular, Muscle & Metabolism Science Seminar is to highlight transdisciplinary precision research taking place in cardiovascular, muscle and metabolism fields; provide opportunities for collaboration among researchers to build their own research efforts; and promote clinical/researcher activity across the University of Missouri System and our partners.

For questions about this event, please reach out to Mackenzie Lynch.