Meet Tingting Duan of the University of Iowa. She is a postdoctoral fellow in Pamela Geyer’s lab within the Department of Biochemistry. This week, Tingting was with us at the Germ Cells virtual meeting where she presented a poster titled “Integrity of a mitotic nuclear lamina is required in germline stem cells”.

Tell us about your research.
Progeria, or the pre-maturing ageing syndrome is caused by mutations in various nuclear lamina components and is linked to defects in stem cell homeostasis. My research focusses on understanding how nuclear lamina components promote stem cell survival and regulates stem cell mitosis in Drosophila.

How did you decide to focus on this area/project?
I am interested in understanding mechanisms required to regulate stem cells maintenance and differentiation.

What and/or who is the inspiration behind your scientific journey?
I trained to be a physician; however, during medical school, I realized that while great strikes have been made on many diseases, such as cancer and progeria, there is still a lack of deep understanding. I decided to become a scientist to understand the fundamental disease mechanism and contribute to the development of better therapy.

Where do you see yourself in five years?
Producing better publications and getting ready to start my own lab.

What do you love most about being a researcher?
Satisfying my curiosity: From doing experiments and reading others’ work, learning the explanation behind every observation.    

What drew you to attend this meeting?
It is a great opportunity to learn and meet people in the community.

What is your key takeaway from the Meeting; and how do you plan to apply it to your work?
The most interesting thing was the mutation in the stonewall gene seems to phenocopy the germline phenotypes of the mutant (ote) I am interested in. I think I may look more into it after the meeting and maybe look at stonewall expression in my mutant.    

What feedback or advice would you share with someone considering to participate in this meeting?
Consider taking a couple of days off for the meeting and find a quiet place to listen to the talks because it can be difficult to become fully involved with the meeting while you are in the lab. I missed a number of the talks I wanted to hear because I decided to keep up with work and normal lab activity.

What’s the most memorable thing that happened during the Meeting?
I joined the Meet the Speakers session with Geraldine Seydoux and Rui Martinho where I had the chance to ask questions and gained insight. 

Thank you to Tingting for being this week's featured visitor. To meet other featured researchers - and discover the wide range of science that takes part in a CSHL meeting or course - go here.

Images provided by Tingting Duan