Keith Breau

PhD Candidate CellBiology & Physiology candidate, Elston and Magness labs

kbro9@email.unc.edu
I am interested in stem cell differentiation, cell polarity, and collective migration. I study the human intestinal epithelium, where a dedicated pool of rapidly-dividing stem cells transition into migrating differentiated cells in one of the most expansive examples of directed collective cell migration in the adult body. Specifically, I seek to understand the role of WNT signaling and the non-canonical planar-cell polarity (PCP) pathway in directing this process. Co-mentored by Scott Magness, my current projects include modeling the WNT/PCP pathway and developing gene-edited reporter lines of cultured primary human intestinal stem cells.