Dr Gabrielle Kardon
Dr. Gabrielle Kardon is a professor at the University of Utah whose lab studies skeletal muscle development, regeneration, response to viral infection, and evolution. Always interested in evolution, she initially studied geology and paleontology at Yale University and then at the University of Michigan. After learning about the important role of Hox genes in regulating development and evolution, she switched her research focus to developmental biology. At Duke University, with mentorship from David McClay and Stephen Wainwright, she completed her PhD on the development of limb muscle and tendons, using the chick as a model system. She did postdoctoral training with Cliff Tabin at Harvard Medical School, where she began investigating the role of interactions between muscle and muscle connective tissue fibroblasts in the development of limb muscle. Since 2004, she has had an independent lab at the University of Utah. The lab studies the development of the essential mammalian muscle, the diaphragm, and the genetic and cellular causes of the common birth defect, Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernias. The lab also investigates the cellular and molecular processes regulating adult muscle regeneration after acute, sterile injury. Finally, we have also expanded our research into discovering how infection by mosquito-borne alphaviruses – a major and growing health concern – causes acute and chronic muscle weakness.