Janel Cabrera
Assistant Professor of Biology
Office Hours
Administration Building, Room 433
Office hours: Wednesdays, 3-4:30 p.m.; Thursdays, 11:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m.; by appointment also
Education
Ph.D., Florida State University; B.S, Villanova University
Bio
My goal as a teacher is to promote science literacy among undergraduate students, as stem cells, genome editing, and sequencing are becoming increasingly influential, from the lab bench to the clinic. I hope to foster critical thinking and problem-solving strategies in the classroom in order to help students develop learning skills in real-life situations.
What I Love About Emmanuel:
I love the inclusive and open community here at Emmanuel College. It is really unique and I believe that it is what makes it a wonderful place for students to learn and build strong relationships with faculty and fellow peers.
Courses I Teach
- BIOL 1105 Introduction to Cellular and Molecular Biology
- BIOL 1106 Introduction to Organismic and Evolutionary Biology
- BIOL 2115 Determinants of Health and Disease
- BIOL 2135 Anatomy & Physiology I
Publications
- Miller, D.H., Jin, D.X., Sokol, E.S., Cabrera, J.R., Superville, D.A., Goreloy, R.A., Kuperwasser, C., Gupta, P.B. BCL11B drives human mammary stem cell self-renewal by inhibiting basal differentiation. Stem Cell Reports. 2018 Mar 13;10(3):1131-1145.
- Lauriol, J., Cabrera, J.R., Roy, A., Keith, K., Hough, S.M., Damilano, F., Wang, B., Segarra, G.C., Flessa, M.E., Miller, L.E., Bronson, R., Lee, K., and Kontaridis, M.I. Aberrant Endothelial-Myocardial Crosstalk Causes Cardiac Hypertrophy in Noonan Syndrome with Multiple Lentigines. Journal of Clinical Investigation. 2016 Aug;126(8):2989-3005
- Cabrera, J.R. Olcese, U., and Horabin, J.I. Heterochromatin protein 1a collaborates with Polycomb/Trithorax group proteins to regulate Drosophila transcription. Epigenetics & Chromatin. 2015 Apr 30;8:17
- Mulvey, B.M., Olcese, U., Cabrera, J.R., and Horabin, J.I. An interactive network of long non-coding RNAs facilitates the Drosophila sex determination decision. BBA: Gene Regulatory Mechanisms. 2014 Sep;1839(9):773-84
My research focuses on understanding the dynamic process of cell differentiation. I am particularly interested in studying how epigenetic modifying complexes are involved in regulating gene expression during the early stages of embryonic development using Drosophila melanogaster (fruit fly) as a model organism. Using biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology techniques we are able to dissect the mechanism by which genes are activated or repressed for proper cell differentiation.
