Christina Daly is a PhD candidate in the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. She graduated with university and departmental honors, summa cum laude, with her bachelor’s degree in Cell/Molecular Biology from Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina (2013). Her undergraduate thesis work was establishing zebrafish as a model organism for Vibrio cholerae infection under the guidance of Drs. Ece Karatan and Ted Zerucha. She remained at Appalachian State University to earn her master’s degree in Cell/Molecular Biology in the laboratory of Dr. Darren Seals. Her master’s thesis focused on molecular pathways underlying cancer cell invasion and extracellular matrix degradation using fluorescent microscopy and biochemistry. She graduated summa cum laude in 2016.
Christina worked as a Research Technician III at Wake Forest University studying B Cell Immunology using a mouse model in the laboratory of Dr. Karen Haas (2016-2018). In 2018, Christina moved to Memphis, Tennessee, to pursue a PhD at the St. Jude Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. In 2019, she joined the laboratory of Dr. Ryan Potts, employing a mouse model to study the role of tissue-specific gene reactivation in breast cancer as a driver of tumor progression and metastasis. Following Dr. Potts' institutional departure in 2020, she transitioned to the laboratory of Dr. Stacey Ogden, where she currently studies Sonic Hedgehog (SHH) morphogen transport via specialized filopodia termed “cytonemes”. She combines bioimaging, biochemistry, and mouse model techniques to better understand cellular communication through cell surface extensions during embryonic development and tissue patterning.
