Laura Lowery, PhD
Associate Professor, Medicine
Biography
Professor Laura Lowery discovered her love of academia and biomedical research while an undergrad at the University of California, San Diego. In the lab of Dr. Bill Schafer, she studied the neural circuitry underlying worm egg-laying behavior. In 2008, Prof Lowery received her PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, working in the lab of Dr. Hazel Sive at the Whitehead Institute, where she pioneered research studying early brain ventricle morphogenesis. Prof Lowery then did post-doctoral research in the Department of Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School, in the labs of Dr. David Van Vactor and Dr. Gaudenz Danuser, where she became fascinated by the inner workings of the neuronal growth cone and axon guidance. She began as an Assistant Professor at Boston College in 2014, she was promoted to Associate Professor in 2018, and she moved to Boston University Medical Center in 2020.
Prof. Lowery leads a comprehensive, multi-faceted research program that investigates how cytoskeletal dynamics are regulated to drive cell motility in both normal and pathological conditions. Her lab uses this research focus as a platform to further the understanding of the cell biological defects that underlie neurodevelopmental disorders, various developmental disorders affecting other organ systems, as well as cancer metastasis, using Xenopus laevis as a model system. Her long-term goal is to continue to expand on this work, as well as collaborate with other cell and developmental biologists to elucidate mechanisms underlying complex cell biological processes.
The lab currently consists of one postdoctoral associate, one research technician, and several undergraduate students. We are a group of enthusiastic and motivated researchers excited about making a positive difference in the world. The lab’s research has been funded by multiple external grants from the NIH, NSF, American Cancer Society, the Ellison Foundation, and the March of Dimes foundation. Please check out the lab’s website (lowerylab.org) for more information.
Prof Lowery also serves as the Associate Chief for Faculty Affairs for the Section of Hematology and Medical Oncology.
In addition to her research interests, Prof Lowery is involved in service related to promoting anti-racism in the BU community. She is the Director of Diversity Equity and Inclusion for the Hem Onc Section, Chair of the Section Anti-Racism Steering Committee, the Hem Onc representative to the Racial Equity Champions Committee for BUMG, and a trained facilitator for the LIFT microaggression bystander training workshop. She was also a participant in the BU Mid-Career Faculty Leadership Program 2022-2023.
Education
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, PhD
- University of California, San Diego, MS
- University of California, San Diego, BS
Publications
- Published on 12/11/2023
Sabo J, Dujava Zdimalova M, Slater PG, Dostal V, Herynek S, Libusova L, Lowery LA, Braun M, Lansky Z. CKAP5 enables formation of persistent actin bundles templated by dynamically instable microtubules. Curr Biol. 2024 Jan 22; 34(2):260-272.e7. PMID: 38086388.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 11/20/2023
Hutchison A, Sibanda C, Hulme M, Anwar S, Gur B, Thomas R, Lowery LA. Re-examining the evidence that ivermectin induces a melanoma-like state in Xenopus embryos. Bioessays. 2024 Jan; 46(1):e2300143. PMID: 37985957.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 6/7/2022
Davidson LA, Lowery LA. Imaging Methods in Xenopus Cells, Embryos, and Tadpoles. Cold Spring Harb Protoc. 2022 Jun 07; 2022(5):pdb.top105627. PMID: 34244350.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 3/24/2022
Lasser M, Bolduc J, Murphy L, O'Brien C, Lee S, Girirajan S, Lowery LA. 16p12.1 Deletion Orthologs are Expressed in Motile Neural Crest Cells and are Important for Regulating Craniofacial Development in Xenopus laevis. Front Genet. 2022; 13:833083. PMID: 35401697.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 7/6/2021
Hahn I, Voelzmann A, Parkin J, Fülle JB, Slater PG, Lowery LA, Sanchez-Soriano N, Prokop A. Tau, XMAP215/Msps and Eb1 co-operate interdependently to regulate microtubule polymerisation and bundle formation in axons. PLoS Genet. 2021 07; 17(7):e1009647. PMID: 34228717.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 4/5/2021
Pizzo L, Lasser M, Yusuff T, Jensen M, Ingraham P, Huber E, Singh MD, Monahan C, Iyer J, Desai I, Karthikeyan S, Gould DJ, Yennawar S, Weiner AT, Pounraja VK, Krishnan A, Rolls MM, Lowery LA, Girirajan S. Functional assessment of the "two-hit" model for neurodevelopmental defects in Drosophila and X. laevis. PLoS Genet. 2021 04; 17(4):e1009112. PMID: 33819264.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 4/1/2021
Erdogan B, Bearce EA, Lowery LA. Live Imaging of Cytoskeletal Dynamics in Embryonic Xenopus laevis Growth Cones and Neural Crest Cells. Cold Spring Harb Protoc. 2021 04 01; 2021(4). PMID: 33272974.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 2/16/2021
Mills A, Bearce E, Cella R, Kim SW, Selig M, Lee S, Lowery LA. Corrigendum: Wolf-Hirschhorn Syndrome-Associated Genes Are Enriched in Motile Neural Crest Cells and Affect Craniofacial Development in Xenopus laevis. Front Physiol. 2020; 11:644596. PMID: 33664672.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 7/6/2020
Erdogan B, St Clair RM, Cammarata GM, Zaccaro T, Ballif BA, Lowery LA. Investigating the impact of the phosphorylation status of tyrosine residues within the TACC domain of TACC3 on microtubule behavior during axon growth and guidance. Cytoskeleton (Hoboken). 2020 07; 77(7):277-291. PMID: 32543081.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 3/15/2020
Ori-McKenney K, Lowery LA. Regulation of cytoskeletal dynamics and transport. Mol Biol Cell. 2020 03 15; 31(6):406. PMID: 32163351.
Read at: PubMed
View 36 more publications: View full profile at BUMC