Get to know the TAGC 2020 Keynote Speakers through our interview series.
Abby Dernburg
Abby Dernburg investigates how genetic information is transmitted from parents to progeny through the specialized cell division of meiosis. She received the Larry Sandler Memorial Award (from GSA’s Annual Drosophila Research Conference) for her graduate work with John Sedat at UCSF, where she explored diverse questions in chromosome biology. Her postdoctoral work with GSA Medal recipient Anne Villeneuve helped to establish C. elegans as a leading model organism for molecular genetic analysis of meiosis. Since 2001 she has led a research group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and UC Berkeley, where she was also an undergraduate. She has been an HHMI Investigator since 2008.
What research are you most excited about right now, and why?
There’s a question I’ve always wanted to answer that we’re finally making progress toward, which is the very long-standing mystery of how chromosomes recognize each other during meiosis. We had to wait until we had both the technology and the conceptual framework to enable us to address the question. I think those are both there now, finally letting us attack the question head on. So much is still unknown, but that makes it fun for me because I don’t know what we’ll find.
What do you like about working with C. elegans?
I see myself more as a chromosome person than someone who works with a particular organism. That’s one reason I’m very excited about TAGC: the opportunity to interact with lots of different model organism people. There’s a lot of synergy between what you can do in different systems. We mostly work with C. elegans, but we’re also developing a secondary model by developing tools to study recombination and meiosis in P. pacificus, which shows surprising differences in what we think of as core aspects of this process. By comparing these different nematodes, we see how plastic these mechanisms are by how they are modified during evolution. It helps to avert an absolutist mindset.
Is there anything about yourself or the field that made you feel like you didn’t belong in science? What would you say to early career scientists struggling with the same feeling?
I didn’t know if I was going to go on in academia—or if I even had the potential—until very late in grad school. I worry that students today feel pressure to sort it out too early. I was relatively comfortable with the ambiguity, which I realize was a kind of privilege. Obviously, I did decide to go on, but not with great conviction or certainty. It just never became the wrong path. I sometimes feel funny when I’m asked for career advice. In a way, you become an academic by not making choices, so I haven’t really experienced other potential futures.
TAGC aims to foster collaboration between communities and disciplines. Can you give an example of a collaboration that really helped your work?
When I started grad school, I wanted to become a crystallographer. I left that path early on when I fell in love with microscopy and chromosomes. But my most exciting collaboration in recent years has been with a crystallographer: Kevin Corbett, who I knew when he was a PhD student at Berkeley. He became a structural biologist with a focus on meiosis, which is what we work on, so it was a nice convergence of interests that led us to collaborate. It’s been a very productive collaboration, and I hope to do more of this in the future.
One thing that’s really changed in genetic research and model organism studies is the ability to do genome editing. We can now do much more detailed structure/function studies in model organisms than we have been able to do in the past, and having structural information about the proteins we work on enables us to develop specific hypotheses and test them in vivo. That’s a lot of fun.
Select Publications from the Dernburg Lab
A compartmentalized signaling network mediates crossover control in meiosis
Zhang L, Köhler S, Rillo-Bohn R, Dernburg AF
Elife. 2018 Mar 9;7. pii: e30789. doi: 10.7554/eLife.30789
Superresolution microscopy reveals the three-dimensional organization of meiotic chromosome axes in intact Caenorhabditis elegans tissue
Köhler S, Wojcik M, Xu K, Dernburg AF
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2017 Jun 13;114(24):E4734-E4743. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1702312114
The synaptonemal complex has liquid crystalline properties and spatially regulates meiotic recombination factors
Rog O, Köhler S, Dernburg AF
Elife. 2017 Jan 3;6. pii: e21455. doi: 10.7554/eLife.21455
The auxin-inducible degradation (AID) system enables versatile conditional protein depletion in C. elegans
Zhang L, Ward JD, Cheng Z, Dernburg AF
Development. 2015 Dec 15;142(24):4374-84. doi: 10.1242/dev.129635
The Chromosome Axis Mediates Feedback Control of CHK-2 to Ensure Crossover Formation in C. elegans
Kim Y, Kostow N, Dernburg AF
Dev Cell. 2015 Oct 26;35(2):247-61. doi: 10.1016/j.devcel.2015.09.021
Scientific Editor and Programs Manager. Genetics and Molecular Biology PhD. Find me on Twitter: @_sbay
View all posts by Sarah Bay »Read more in
-
Early Career Leadership Spotlight: Julio Molina Pineda
We’re taking time to get to know the members of the GSA’s Early Career Scientist Committees. Join us to learn more about our early career scientist advocates. Julio Molina Pineda Policy and Advocacy University of Arkansas Research Interest My research interests focus on using model organisms to genetically dissect complex traits related to human disease. My…
-
Early Career Leadership Spotlight: Peiwei Chen
We’re taking time to get to know the members of the GSA’s Early Career Scientist Committees. Join us to learn more about our early career scientist advocates. Peiwei Chen Accessibility Subcommittee California Institute of Technology Research Interest Far from a harmonious place, the genome is a battleground, where every bit of DNA fights for inheritance and…
-
#Dros23 GSA Poster Award winners
We are pleased to announce the GSA Poster Award winners from the 64th Annual Drosophila Research Conference! Undergraduate and graduate student members of the GSA were eligible for the awards, and a hard-working team of postdocs volunteered their time as judges. Congratulations to all! Undergraduate Students 1st Place: Sofia Karter Lopez, University of Toronto “Rab11 mediates E-cadherin recycling during…
-
Congratulations to the Fall 2022 DeLill Nasser Awardees!
GSA is pleased to announce the recipients of the DeLill Nasser Award for Professional Development in Genetics for Fall 2022! Given twice a year to graduate students and postdoctoral researchers, DeLill Nasser Awards support attendance at meetings and laboratory courses. The award is named in honor of DeLill Nasser, a long-time GSA supporter and National Science Foundation…
-
New editors join GENETICS, G3 editorial boards
Several new editors are joining the GSA Journals. We’re excited to welcome Ricardo Zayas to the GENETICS editorial board under the Molecular Genetics of Development section, and on the G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics board, we welcome Polly Campbell, Kevin Vogel, Joe Parker, and Ricardo Mallarino. Ricardo Zayas Associate Editor Ricardo Zayas is a Professor of Biology at…
-
Worms and Flies Provide Key Clues to Medical Mystery
This article is part of a series of posts outlining the history and impact of research in experimental organisms. The series is developed in collaboration with the GSA Public Communications and Engagement Committee. By the time Bertrand Might was six months old, it was clear something was amiss. His muscles weren’t developing normally; he was…
-
Congratulations to the 2023 Early Career Leadership Program Cohort!
The Genetics Society of America (GSA) is excited to announce the latest cohort of student, postdoc, and early-career research leaders joining the Early Career Leadership Program. Participants receive training and mentoring while serving on committees charged with understanding the needs, interests, concerns, and challenges of early career scientist members of the GSA. As part of…
-
GSA LOCI: Local Outreach Community Initiatives @ GSA Conferences
Highlights: Local Outreach Community Initiatives (LOCI): The Genetics Society of America is committed to supporting the communities of the host cities of our conferences. This new year, we are excited to reconnect with our GSA community in meaningful ways within and beyond our existing programming. The GSA membership has created a caring and supportive environment…
-
New members of the GSA Board of Directors: 2023–2025
We are pleased to announce the election of five new leaders to the GSA Board of Directors: 2023 Vice President/2024 President Mariana Wolfner Distinguished Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics and Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellow My research has focused on the genes and pathways that mediate sexual development and reproduction, primarily in Drosophila. From…
-
Lance David Miller: Lighting Your Own Fire by Finding the Right Resources
By Daniel J. Gironda In the Paths to Science Policy series, we talk to individuals who have a passion for science policy and are active in advocacy through their various roles and careers. The series aims to inform and guide early career scientists interested in science policy. This series is brought to you by the…
-
Graça Almeida-Porada: The Importance of Communication in a Technologically Advancing World
By Daniel J. Gironda In the Paths to Science Policy series, we talk to individuals who have a passion for science policy and are active in advocacy through their various roles and careers. The series aims to inform and guide early career scientists interested in science policy. This series is brought to you by the…