People / Graduate Students

Michelle Tangredi

Michelle is interested in the internal circadian clocks that drive rhythmic behavior in animals in synchrony with diurnal environmental cues such as light. This rhythm is dependent upon the molecular oscillations of several central clock proteins in the brain that are tightly controlled by biochemical feedback loops. Posttranslational regulators such as kinases play a major role in the controlled timing of these loops.  The mechanistic and molecular features of circadian clocks are highly conserved between mammals and Drosophila, making the fruit fly a powerful model system in which to elucidate the molecular mechanisms controlling circadian rhythms. Michelle uses the fruit fly as a model to investigate how the regulatory kinases S6KII and CK2 affected the timing of the central clock.