Dr. Allen received a PhD in molecular biology and behavioural genetics from the University of Toronto. Working under the supervision of Prof. Marla Sokolowski, this work focused on the molecular genetics of feeding behaviour in the invertebrate genetic model system Drosophila melanogaster, decoding the cis-regulatory elements of the foraging gene underlying its pleiotropy. Since then, Dr. Allen has been a postdoctoral fellow at the Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour at the University of Oxford, working with Prof. Stephen Goodwin. Dr. Allen’s primary research focus is on the fundamental biological processes that drive sex differences in the development and maintenance of the brain in Drosophila melanogaster. Even though sexual dimorphism is a common feature in many organisms, research into these differences is often overlooked. Dr. Allen uses state-of-the-art techniques, such as single-cell transcriptomics and neuroconnectomics, to answer questions about sex differences in the neurobiology and behaviour of the fly at single-cell resolution.

I am a fourth-year undergraduate Honours Biology student at Mount Saint Vincent University. Under the supervision of Dr. Lori Borgal, my research uses Drosophila melanogaster as a model organism to study the gene abnormal spindle (asp) and its protein product Asp, which is involved in spindle microtubule assembly and cell proliferation. My project focuses on investigating interactome differences when the subcellular localization of Asp is altered due to point mutation. This research aims to better understand how changes in Asp localization affect protein interactions and cellular function.

Dr. Borgal received a PhD from the University of Cologne, Germany, in the lab of Dr. Bernhard Schermer & Dr. Thomas Benzing (Nephrolab Cologne), where she used human cell culture as a model system to study how a cellular “antenna” called the primary cilium influences response to cell proliferation signals. Dr. Borgal then received Royal Society funding to pursue postdoctoral research at the University of Exeter, UK, hosted by Dr. James Wakefield, where she used Drosophila melanogaster as a model system to study how the mitotic spindle forms in different stem cell populations. Dr. Borgal now leads the Cell Proliferation Lab at MSVU in Halifax, NS, using both human cell culture and Drosophila as model systems to investigate how stem cell progeny are able to proliferate at a “just right” amount to maintain adult tissue, and how disrupting this molecular control may contribute to cancer.