Profiles people listing in a scrolling container.
  1. Home
  2. Faculty

Tina Tootle, PhD

Professor of Biology

Introduction

Prostaglandins are transiently acting lipid signals that are synthesized at their sites of action by cyclooxygenase (COX) enzymes, the targets of Aspirin and Advil, to mediate a variety of biological activities, including inflammation, sleep, reproduction, and cancer development. How do prostaglandins regulate these diverse, cellular events? To address this question we have developed Drosophila oogenesis as a new and powerful model for studying prostaglandin signaling. Using both pharmacology and genetics, we have discovered that prostaglandins mediate Drosophila follicle development, identified the Drosophila COX1 enzyme, Pxt, and revealed that genetic perturbation of prostaglandin signaling can be used to exam the function of prostaglandins. This research on prostaglandin signaling implicates it in modulating actin/membrane dynamics, cell migration, stem cell activity, and the timing of gene expression during Drosophila follicle development. The lab is currently pursuing how prostaglandin signaling regulates actin dynamics and invasive cell migrations during Drosophila follicle development. By using a multifaceted experimental approach that combines Drosophila genetics, cell biology, live imaging, and biochemistry to we can begin to work out the mechanisms by which prostaglandins regulate these processes, and provide general insight into how prostaglandins regulate the cytoskeleton and migration at a cellular level. Such mechanisms of prostaglandin action are likely to be reutilized throughout development, including mediating the changes that occur during cancer progression and metastasis.

The lab is currently pursuing how prostaglandin signaling regulates actin both within the cytoskeleton and in the nucleus to control Drosophila follicle development. Specific areas of interest include understanding prostaglandin action during invasive, collective cell migration, the relationship of prostaglandins and lipid droplets in control actin cytoskeletal remodeling, the functions of prostaglandins and nuclear actin in stem cell biology, and the roles of prostaglandins in controlling nuclear actin levels to regulate nucleolar functions during homeostasis and in the context of cellular stress.

Current Positions

  • Professor of Biology
  • Professor of Anatomy and Cell Biology

Education

  • BS in Microbiology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, United States
  • PhD in Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
  • Postdoctoral Fellow in Prostaglandin signaling, Carnegie Institution for Science, Department of Embryology, Washington D.C., United States

Graduate Program Affiliations

Center, Program and Institute Affiliations

Research Interests

  • Tootle Areas of Research Interest

Selected Publications