The Arkansas Integrative Metabolic Research Center will host Adam Paré, assistant professor of biology at the U of A, at 10:45 a.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 1, in Bell Engineering 2267. Paré's research identifies the fundamental mechanisms that mold tissues during animal development. In this talk, he will discuss epithelial remodeling during development and the role that mitochondrial dynamics play in that development.

Abstract: Remodeling simple sheets of cells (epithelia) into complex tissues is a fundamental aspect of animal development. Defects in epithelial remodeling are responsible for many common birth defects, and the genes that regulate developmental remodeling are also important for wound healing, inflammation and cancer. The Drosophila embryo is an excellent model for studying epithelial remodeling because it starts out as a simple epithelial sheet that undergoes several dramatic rearrangements to form the basic structure of the embryo. Paré's lab found that mitochondrial dynamics (both fission and fusion) are necessary for embryo elongation, and the data suggest that the proper placement of mitochondria within cells is necessary for optimal epithelial remodeling. Using FLIM microscopy and other techniques, the lab has shown that mitochondrial networks are relatively fragmented and glycolytic during early embryogenesis. These data suggest that optimal ATP generation is not necessary for dynamic cell rearrangements, and Paré's lab is now exploring alternative hypotheses to explain why mitochondrial dynamics are required for early embryo development.

Biography: Paré is an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the U of Ar, and his lab uses the Drosophila embryo to understand how patterned gene expression controls embryo structure during development. Combining genetic engineering with high-resolution fluorescence microscopy in live embryos, the Paré lab studies how highly conserved cell-surface proteins (e.g., Toll-like receptors and components of the adherens junction) allow large groups of cells to coordinate spatial information with their neighbors to drive changes in cell shape and tissue geometry. Paré received his B.S. from Cornell University, his Ph.D. from UC San Diego, and he did his postdoctoral training at Sloan Kettering Institute. This work was funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIGMS).

This event is supported by NIGMS of the National Institutes of Health under award number P20GM139768. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Please contact Kimberley Fuller, fullerk@uark.edu, for more information.

For those unable to attend in person, this seminar will also be available via Zoom.