Associate Professor @ UNLV, cell and developmental biologist, cell shape change, mechanosensing, EMT, membraneless cell compartment!

Joined April 2022
25 Photos and videos
WengFlyLab retweeted
So much fun at the last dinner of #Dros25 @GeneticsGSA with @WengFlyLab and @JosephCampanale and our trainees. It was such a great meeting!
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21 Mar 2025
A very energetic talk about energid from my second year student Chase Yezzi šŸ˜Ž#DROS25
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21 Mar 2025
UNLV is massively represented at #DROS25 Another colleague of our fly squad!
Proud of the Meiselman lab mentees who are presenting 3 posters (568F, 571F, and 587S) at #DROS25, come stop by and see our work!
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21 Mar 2025
My brand new colleague @JosephCampanale presenting follower cells doing rear wheel drive in collective cell migration at my favorite fly meeting workshop Development Mechanics organized by Rodrigo Fernandez-Gonzalez @MartinLabMIT @TanentzapfLab
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WengFlyLab retweeted
Fly Bayou groups at #Dros25 @GeneticsGSA! Great to see many people in person. From a small, local joint lab meeting, we've grown to >30 labs in 11 states. Amazing fly community!
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20 Mar 2025
Weng lab members are presenting one talk and four posters at #DROS25. Come to see our new research from ventral furrow mechanics, to anterior midgut, to polarity protein Baz, to energid compartment. If you don’t know what ā€œenergidā€ is, come to Chase’ talk Friday 9AM Ballroom A/B.
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18 Mar 2025
Tenure was never the goal. Doing interesting science and raising future scientists are always the goals. Still, receiving a beautiful cake and sharing it with the lab during our energetic lab meeting, is a sweet feeling😌 Thank you everyone who believed in me.
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18 Mar 2025
It’s a great opportunity! I’ve been to DU for a seminar and was thoroughly impressed by the great scientists, interesting science, motivated students, and supportive environment. Don’t miss out!
Our MCBP Biophysics PhD program still has a few PhD positions open... (see below)
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21 Dec 2024
Had the most hilarious holiday gift exchange thanks to the diverse choices of gifts. After some chaos and crisis, everything, from bathroom wire organizer to resurrection plant, seems to find its rightful owner. Pleasant surprise after crisis is what we scientists strive foršŸ˜‰.
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21 Dec 2024
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WengFlyLab retweeted
From MBoC @WengFlyLab demonstrates that not only the presence but the level of adherens junctions is critical for apical constriction, and establishing specific patterns of junction levels promotes proper shape and boundary of epithelial folding. doi.org/10.1091/mbc.E24-04-0…
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27 Aug 2024
Brought my younger students Chase, Durlin and Yasong to SCDB to see the ā€œbigger worldā€. Thank you @scdb2024 for the travel awards and of course the fantastic meeting! So much to learn no matter which stage of career you are in!
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27 Aug 2024
Also thank @UNLVGPSA for the support!
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14 Aug 2024
Published: our study on a new Drosophila gene Moat shows strong polarity-based junctions allow weak myosin to promote productive apical constriction, leading to ectopic folding of ectodermal anterior midgut (ectoAMG). The ectopic folding requires Baz/Par3. molbiolcell.org/doi/full/10.…
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14 Aug 2024
Very proud of this work. Many lab members worked on it including undergrads and postbac technicians, and postdoc Kun @gu_lingkun2024 brought it to a new direction and the eventual publication.
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It took a long time to get the award notice: our lab has received the NSF CAREER award! I thank those who provided guidance and more than anything I thank my lab for providing all the data. It may seem that the PI supports the lab but it’s the lab that supports the PI with data.
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22 Jun 2024
I’m beyond excited to have Joe as my new neighbor!!!
Humbled, thrilled, anxious and overjoyed to share that the Campanale Lab will open @unlv in January 2025 where we will investigate the cellular mechanisms of how cells build tissues collectively. #newPI #prideinSTEM #Daretodream
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11 Mar 2024
3/n We took advantage of a novel gene moat we recently identified. Loss of moat leads to abnormally high levels of Bazooka/Par3-dependent adherens junctions, providing a testing ground for the role of adherens junction levels in cell shape changes.
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11 Mar 2024
8/n The ectopic apical constriction is not restricted to ectoAMG but also occurs in flanking mesoderm, leading to uncoordinated and prolonged infolding of ventral furrow.
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11 Mar 2024
9/n Our model may be a general developmental strategy: embryo could upregulate adherens junctions to promote pronounced shape changes in cells with only low levels of myosin, or downregulate adherens junctions to restrict cell shape changes to cells with strong myosin.
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