Laura Gammill, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Development

E-MAIL: [email protected]


Research Interests:

Neural crest cells arise in the developing vertebrate central nervous system, but become disconnected from their neighbors and migrate over long distances to form surprisingly diverse derivatives, including the peripheral nervous system, pigment cells, the outflow tract of the heart, and the craniofacial skeleton. The goal of the Gammill laboratory is to define the molecular mechanisms that regulate the formation and migration of neural crest cells. Through genetic manipulation of chick and mouse embryos, we have characterized a number of factors that are essential for early neural crest development, including an antiphosphatase, a tetraspanin, and a protein methyltransferase. Collectively, these factors indicate that post-translational regulation of protein activity is crucial in the neural crest. We are currently studying putative targets of these post-translational regulators in order to better understand the mechanisms by which neural crest cells become migratory and coordinate their motility.


Selected Publications:

(For a comprehensive list of recent publications, refer to PubMed, a service provided by the National Library of Medicine.)

  • Roffers-Agarwal J, Lidberg KA, Gammill LS. The lysine methyltransferase SETD2 is a dynamically expressed regulator of early neural crest development. Genesis. 2021 Sep 9:e23448.
  • Jacques-Fricke BT, Roffers-Agarwal J, Hussein AO, Yoder KJ, Gearhart MD, Gammill LS. Profiling NSD3-dependent neural crest gene expression reveals known and novel candidate regulatory factors. Dev Biol. 2021 Jul;475:118-130.
  • Gammill LS, Jacques-Fricke B, Roffers-Agarwal J. Embryological and genetic manipulation of chick development. Methods Mol Biol. 2019;1920:75-97.
  • Jacques-Fricke BT, Gammill LS. Neural crest specification and migration independently require NSD3-related lysine methyltransferase activity. Mol Biol Cell. 2014;25:4174-4186.
  • Fairchild CL, Conway JP, Schiffmacher AT, Taneyhill LA, Gammill LS. FoxD3 regulates cranial neural crest EMT via downregulation of tetraspanin18 independent of its functions during neural crest formation. Mech Dev. 2014;132:1-12.
  • Vermillion KL, Lidberg KA, Gammill LS. Expression of actin binding proteins and requirement for actin depolymerizing factor in chick neural crest cells. Dev. Dyn. 2014;243:730-738.
  • Vermillion KL, Lidberg KA, Gammill LS. Cytoplasmic protein methylation is essential for neural crest migration. J Cell Biol. 2014;204:95-109.
Laura Gammill