معرفی
Aaron McKenna serves as an Assistant Professor of Molecular and Systems Biology at the Geisel School of Medicine of Dartmouth College, where he runs an active research laboratory focused on cell lineage tracing and developmental biology. His lab is affiliated with both the Geisel School of Medicine and the Dartmouth Cancer Center, with laboratory space located at the Williamson Translational Research Building in Lebanon, NH.
Dr. McKenna's research program centers on understanding how cells grow and divide to form complex structures, from zygote to adult human or from transformed cells to tumor masses. His lab develops innovative technologies to trace cell division patterns, recovering cellular lineages that can be combined with single-cell transcriptomic data to create comprehensive pictures of cellular decision-making during development and disease. His work bridges experimental and computational approaches to cell fate determination.
The McKenna lab has published extensively on cell lineage tracing methodologies, particularly using CRISPR-based technologies. His recent publications reveal a strong focus on cancer development, neural development, and computational approaches to lineage reconstruction. His work has demonstrated how cells occupy continua of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition states in cancer, with metastatic potential peaking in rare hybrid states. His lab also investigates developmental processes in model organisms like zebrafish.
Dr. McKenna mentors graduate students through Dartmouth's Molecular and Cellular Biology (MCB) and Quantitative Biomedical Sciences (QBS) graduate programs. His lab actively recruits new members interested in tackling problems at the intersection of developmental biology, cancer research, and computational genomics.
