Dr. Marianne Bronner

Biography

Marianne Bronner is the Edward B. Lewis Professor and Director of the Beckman Institute at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). She has been a faculty member since 1996, holding positions such as Ruddock Professor and Distinguished Professor. Her research focuses on cellular and molecular studies of neural crest development. Currently, she is exploring the signaling and transcriptional interactions involved in neural crest formation at a tissue molecular level, utilizing gain- and loss-of-function approaches paired with transcriptome and regulatory analysis bioinformatics. Additionally, she investigates the molecular basis underlying the formation and specification of ectodermal placodes, emphasizing their induction and lineage decisions. Bronner's work extends to studying the evolution of neural crest cells and ectodermal placodes, isolating regulatory regions of neural crest marker genes. She employs various cell labeling techniques and confocal time-lapse microscopy to characterize the nature and dynamics of neural crest cell migration. Her contributions are pivotal in understanding the roles these cells play in vertebrate embryonic development and potential cancer mechanisms tied to neural crest derivatives.

Research Interests