Athula Wikramanayake
Professor and Chair,
Department of Biology
College of Arts and Sciences
athula@miami.edu
I am an evolutionary cell and developmental biologist, and my lab studies the evolution of the highly conserved Wnt/-catenin signal transduction pathway and its roles in early embryonic patterning and in the evolution of complex animal body plans. Our research utilizes marine invertebrate taxa from key nodes in the animal tree of life allowing us to decode how this ancient pathway evolved and how it shaped the complex body plans we see today. In addition, we use “simple” marine invertebrate embryos as models to gain insight into key steps in Wnt/-catenin signal transduction that remain poorly understood. While our work is rooted in evolutionary and comparative biology, it has deep biomedical implications. In humans, the misregulation of Wnt signaling is a primary driver of numerous diseases, including various cancers, bone disorders, and neurodegenerative conditions. By mapping the precise molecular steps that regulate this pathway in diverse organisms, my lab seeks to uncover the fundamental rules of life—and the specific points where those rules break down in human disease. .
