Connie Yan

@connieyan.bsky.social

Cell biology PhD @ UCSF - Wallace Marshall Molecular, Cell & Development bio B.S. @ UW Interested in how cells evolve and adapt to function and persevere in an ever changing world. Looking for post-doc opportunities!

[1/n] Our preprint-in-progress on RNA regionalization in Stentor is no longer in progress! Now @pnas.org 🥳 Turns out a single cell isn't a homogenous soup… it has molecular geography, including things like regionalized transcription factors. Think bicoid, but in a ciliate.

Genome-wide analysis of mRNA regionalization in a giant single cell | PNAS

The molecular mechanisms that produce cell structure are poorly understood. The giant ciliate Stentor coeruleus is a unicellular model organism who...

pnas.org

The giant ciliate Stentor has a macronucleus that undergoes a dramatic shape change during cellular regeneration. In poster 038 at CellBio2025 Monday Dec 8, I present work by Isabella Ibalio showing that histone modifications correlate with these dramatic nuclear shape changes.

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Stentor is a single cell that can regenerate missing pieces, but how does it know when something is missing? In poster 406 at CellBio2025 Monday Dec 8, Connie Yan shows that conserved cell cycle machinery plays a key role in triggering cellular regeneration.

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Stentor is a single cell with a complex cortical pattern showing anterior/posterior polarization In poster 410 at CellBio2025 Monday Dec 8, Yina Hudnall shows a role for posterior-enriched mRNA that encoding DNA binding proteins.

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