Scott Atwood, PhD

My research focuses on protein kinase regulation of signaling pathways involved in cell fate and cancer. Specific areas of investigation include Hedgehog signaling, hair follicle development, transcription factor function, and basal cell carcinoma. Protein kinases are essential to many signaling processes and serve as reversible switches that phosphorylate specific substrates. Spatial and temporal control of kinases is achieved through differential localization, substrate specificity, and modulation of the catalytic domain. Kinases provide attractive therapeutic targets in cancer as they are integral to cell proliferation and migration. My work has discovered novel roles of kinases in neural stem cell self-renewal and differentiation, primary cilia structure and signaling, hair follicle cycling, and basal cell carcinoma progression. How kinases achieve these diverse functions are an ongoing area of investigation.