Assistant Professor
Publications | Research | Faculty
Background:
Maria J Garcia is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics. She received a B.S. degree in Biology from Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (Spain) in 1994. In 1999, she received a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at CBM Severo Ochoa (Madrid. Spain) for her studies on the patterning of the sensory system of the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster. She then joined Dr. Kathryn V. Anderson at Sloan-Kettering Institute (New York) as a postdoctoral fellow, where she worked on the identification and characterization of mouse ENU mutants affecting early embryogenesis.
Our laboratory is interested in understanding how cellular movements are regulated during development and how they contribute to generate the shape of embryonic tissues and ultimately the adult animal. We use mouse as a model organism, and forward genetics as our experimental approach to isolate mutations that disrupt cell migration during embryogenesis. We also use fly genetics and cell culture analysis to characterize the functions of the genes that we isolate in the mouse. For more details on our research projects, please visit our lab webpage at: http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/mjg75/
Teaching:
Maria J. Garcia teaches BioGD450 Vertebrate Development. This course explores the developmental mechanisms employed by vertebrate organisms. Topics include the detailed analysis of the genetic, molecular and cellular events underlying development in frogs, fish, mice and humans. For more information about this course please visit the BioGD450 website here. http://courses.cit.cornell.edu/biogd450/
Caspary, T., García-García, M.J., Huangfu, D., Eggenschwiler, J.T., Wyler, M.R., Rakeman, A.S., Alcorn, H. and Anderson, K.V. (2002) “Mouse Dispatched homologue1 is required for long-range but not juxtacrine Hh signaling” Curr. Biol.17, 1628-1632.
García-García, M.J. and Anderson, K.V. (2003) “Essential role of glycosaminoglycans for Fgf signaling during mouse gastrulation” Cell114, 727-737.
Merrill, B.J., Passoli, H.A., Polak, L., Rendl, M., García-García, M.J., Anderson, K.V. and Fuchs, E. (2004) “Tcf3: a transcriptional regulator of axis induction in the early embryo” Development131 (2), 263-274.
García-García, M.J. , Eggenschwiler, J.T., Caspary, T., Alcorn, H.L., Wyler, M.R., Huangfu, D., Rakeman, A.S., Lee, J.D., Feinberg, E.H., Timmer, J.R. and Anderson, K.V. (2005) "Analysis of mouse embryonic patterning and morphogenesis by forward genetics" Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA102(17), 5913-5919.