Speakers

Rytis Prekeris
(University of Colorado, Denver)

Education: B.S. in Physiology. Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania (1984 - 1991), Ph.D. in Cell Biology. East Carolina University School of Medicine, Greenville, NC, USA.Mentor: Dr. David Terrian (1993 - 1997).

Employment:
1997-2001 - Post-doc. Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA. Mentor: Dr. Richard Scheller.
2001- 2007 - Assistant Professor. Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, School of Medicine, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO, USA.
From 2007- Associate Professor. Tenured since 2009. Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of Colorado Denver, Anschutz Medical Campus, School of Medicine, Aurora, CO, USA.

Research Interests: cellular and molecular machinery regulating the establishment and maintenance of cell polarity. The especial focus is regulation of endocytic membrane transport and cytoskeletal dynamics. Laboratory works on three main projects: the molecular machinery mediating epithelial cell polarization and loss of that polarity during cancer formation, deciphering the mechanisms of invadopodia formation and localized extracellular matrix remodeling during cancer cell metastasis, regulation of asymmetric cell division and midbody inheritance, as well as the role of midbody inheritance and accumulation during stem cell differentiation and maintenance.