Elizabeth Allen, PhD

I joined the Valdez lab to investigate molecular mechanisms of neuromuscular junction maintenance using both in vivo and in vitro models. I got my start in neurobiology as an undergrad when I worked part time as a technician in Marc Freeman’s laboratory at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, where I worked on a forward genetic screen to identify molecular mechanisms of axon degeneration. I stayed at UMass to earn my PhD in Eric Baehrecke’s lab through the Cancer Biology Program. There I used a combination of in vivo genetic tools in fruit flies and molecular approaches in mammalian cell lines to investigate the role of a myotubularin-related phosphatase in autophagy.