Position Title
Associate Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology
Kassandra Ori-McKenney received her Bachelor's degree in Neuroscience and Behavior from Vassar College, before joining the laboratory of Richard Vallee at Columbia University, New York, for her PhD. She moved to the University of California, San Francisco, for her postdoctoral training with Yuh-Nung Jan on the role of the microtubule cytoskeleton in neuronal development in Drosophila. In 2016, Kassandra became an Assistant Professor at the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis).
Dr. Ori-McKenney's research aims to understand the complex interplay between microtubule-associated proteins (MAPs) that regulate a number of cytoskeleton-based processes during neuronal development and maintenance. Microtubules are dynamic polymers that not only provide structural support, but also serve as intracellular tracks for dynein and kinesin motors that must efficiently transport cargoes for the establishment and maintenance of cellular organization and function. However, these motors encounter numerous non-enzymatic MAPs on the lattice that can dictate when and where motor progression can occur within a cell.