Dr. Cassandra Extavour

Biography

Cassandra Extavour is a Timken Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard University, where she also serves as an investigator for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Her research focuses on understanding the mechanisms that specify germ cells, a central challenge in developmental and evolutionary biology. Her work utilizes model organisms, such as Drosophila melanogaster and various arthropod systems, to explore the evolutionary and developmental processes underlying germ cell specification. Extavour's selected publications detail her findings on the role of maternal determinants and inductive signals in germ cell specification, helping to elucidate how these processes have evolved across different species. Through functional genetic analyses, she studies the embryonic development of reproductive systems, aiming to enhance insights into the mechanisms of basal arthropods and the broader metazoan lineage.

Research Interests