Kimberly D. Tremblay

Kimberly D. Tremblay is a Professor and Honors Program Director in the Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She leads the Tremblay Lab, which is dedicated to understanding endoderm differentiation and organogenesis in mammalian embryos, with a focus on liver and pancreas development. Her research integrates molecular, genetic, and morphological approaches using mouse models.

Research Interests: Her work centers on the mechanisms of definitive endoderm formation, including fate mapping of foregut organ progenitors, bipotency of hepatoblasts, and heterogeneity in early liver development. She investigates how signaling pathways and tissue interactions drive organogenesis in vivo, aiming to inform improved in vitro differentiation protocols for regenerative medicine.

Collaborative Research: Dr. Tremblay is actively involved in the NIH-funded Knock-Out Mouse Project (KOMP), where her lab characterizes embryonic lethal alleles affecting organogenesis. Her team uses conditional ES cells to study gene function in both embryonic and extra-embryonic endoderm development.

Teaching and Leadership: She teaches courses such as Genetics (ANIMLSCI 311), Genes and Development (ANIMLSCI 687), and directs the departmental honors thesis program. She also co-leads a journal club on Cells, Genes, and Development.

Awards and Recognition:

• No specific scientific awards mentioned in the text.

Advising and Research Support: She currently mentors two graduate students and a research technician. Her lab is supported by an NICHD R01 grant focused on characterizing novel KOMP alleles with organogenesis defects. Her prior collaborative work on embryonic lethality has laid the foundation for ongoing investigations into gene function during early development.

Lab and Team: The Tremblay Lab is based in the Integrated Sciences Building and employs a combination of ex vivo embryo culture, genetic fate mapping, and small molecule manipulation to study developmental processes. The team includes graduate students and technical staff working on projects related to endoderm lineage specification and gene annotation.