David Ward
Alisa Piekny, PhD
- Professor, Biology
- Associate Dean Research and Infrastructure, School of Health
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Sign in to editResearch areas: cell division, cell migration, gene editing, cancer, drug discovery, nanoparticle uptake
Contact information
Email:
Biography
Education
PhD (University of Calgary)
Post-Doc (IMP, Vienna, Austria; and University of Chicago)
Research interests
The aim of my research is to gain a stronger understanding of how the cytoskeleton is regulated during cell division, migration and polarity. I am interested in how microtubules and actomyosin control these events during cell division, and how they are hi-jacked in cancer cells. This includes an in depth molecular analysis of anillin, a highly conserved protein that is required for cytokinesis and crosslinks key components of the cell. I use cultured human cells including cancer cell lines and iPSCs as model systems. I also collaborate with other groups to develop delivery and diagnostic tools for cancer cells, and to develop anti-cancer drugs.
Teaching activities
Cell Physiology
Advanced Cell Biology
Biology of Cancer
Research activities
Funding
NSERC
Funding agency - committee service
NSERC - Group Leader, 1501
CIHR - University Delegate
Publications
Recent Publications (since 2020)
Plissonneau, C., Tam, B.T.K., Garneau, P.Y., Morais, J.A., Piekny, A. and S. Santosa. (2026) Physiological Reports (accepted)
Brancheriau, C.R., Larocque, K., Schick, G., Tountas, I., Perlman, A. and A. Piekny (2026). Importin-beta1 functions as a chromatin sensor to position the contractile ring for cytokinesis. Current Biology (in-print) doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2026.05.005.
Proulx, M., Clapperton-Richard, P., Potvin-Trottier, L., Piekny, A. and T. Gervais. (2025). Open-space microfluidics as a tool to study signaling dynamics. Lab on a Chip 25: 5592-5605. doi: 10.1039/d5lc00521c.
Clermont-Paquette, A., Fuoco, G., Brancheriau, C., Piekny, A. and R. Naccache. (2025). Surface Charge Dictates the Mechanism of Cellular Uptake of Fluorescent Amine Passivated Carbon Dots. RSC Advances 15: 28770 – 28782.
Bairagi, K., Shamekhi, M., Tountas, I., Letourneau, N., Peslherbe, G.H., Piekny, A. and J.K. Oh. (2025) Development of dual acid-visible light-degradable core-crosslinked nanogels with extended conjugate aromatic imines for enhanced drug delivery. Journal of Materials Chemistry B. 6: 9512-9525.
Hu, X., Larocque, K., Piekny, A., Oh, J.K. (2025). Dual acid/glutathione-responsive core-degradable/shell-sheddable block copolymer nanoassemblies bearing benzoic imines for enhanced drug release. RCS Applied Polymers 3: 196-208.
Clermont-Paquette, A., Larocque, K., Piekny, A. and R. Naccache. (2024). Shining a light on cells: amine-passivated fluorescent carbon dots as bio imaging nanoprobes. Materials Advances doi: 10.1039/DSMA007.
Husser, M.C., Pham, N.P., Law, C., Araujo, F.R.B., Martin, V.J.J. and A. Piekny. (2024). Endogenous tagging using split mNeonGreen in human iPSCs for live imaging studies. eLife eLife92819.2.
Adedapo, A., Clermont-Paquette, A., Piekny, A. and R. Naccache. (2023). Advances in the design and use of carbon dots for analytical and biomedical applications. Nanotechnology 35: 012001.
Clermont-Paquette, A., Mendoza, D.A., Sadeghi, A., Piekny, A. and R. Naccache. (2023). Ratiometric sensing of glyphosate in water using dual fluorescent carbon dots. Sensors 23: doi: 10.3390/s23115200.
Ozugergin, I. and A. Piekny (2022) Diversity is the spice of life: an overview of how cytokinesis regulation varies with cell type. Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology 10: doi: 10.3389/fcell2022.1007614.
Husser, M.C., Ozugergin, I., Law, C., Resta, T., Martin, V.J.J. and A. Piekny (2022) Cytokinetic diversity in mammalian cells is revealed by characterization o endogenous anillin, Ect2 and RhoA. Open Biology 12: doi: 10.1098/rsob. 220247.
Zaroubi, L., Ozugergin, I., Mastronardi, K., Imfeld, A., Gelinas, Y., Piekny, A. and B. Findlay (2022) The ubiquitous terpene geosmin is a warning chemical. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 88: e0009322.
Ozugergin, I., Mastronardi, K., Law, C. and A. Piekny (2022) Diverse mechanisms regulate contractile ring assembly for cytokinesis in the two-cell Caenorhabditis elegans embryo. Journal of Cell Science 135: 1-16.
Kashani, A.S., Larocque, K., Piekny, A. and M. Packirisamy (2022) Gold nano-bio-interaction to modulate mechanobiological responses for cancer therapy applications. ACS Applied Bio Materials 5: 3741-3752.
Jaunky, D.B., Larocque, K., Husser, M.C., Liu, J.T., Forgione, P. and A. Piekny (2021) Characterization of a recently synthesized microtubule-targeting compound that disrupts mitotic spindle poles in human cells. Scientific Reports 11: 1-18.
Husser, M.C., Skaik, N., Martin, V.J.J. and A. Piekny (2021) CRISPR-Cas9 tools to study gene function in cytokinesis. Journal of Cell Science 134: 1-12.
Koh, S., Pham, N.P. and A. Piekny (2021) Seeing is believing: tools to study the role of GTPases during cytokinesis. Small GTPases 18: 1-14.
Liu, J.T., Larocque, K., Jaunky, D.B., Chen, F., Sirouspour, M., Mckibbon, K., Taylor, S., Shafeii, A., Campbell, D., Braga, H., Piekny, A. and P. Forgione (2021) Design, structure-activity relationship study and biological evaluation of thin[3,2-c]isoquinoline scaffold as a potential anti-cancer agent. Bioorganics and Medicinal Chemistry Letters 52: 1-19.
Ozugergin, I. and A. Piekny (2021) Complementary functions for the Ran gradient during division. Small GTPases 12: 177-187.
Grimbert, S., Mastronardi, K., Richard, V., Christensen, R., Law, C., Zardoui, K., Fay, D. and A. Piekny (2021) Multi-tissue patterning drives anterior morphogenesis of the C. elegans embryo. Developmental Biology 471: 49-64.
A. Piekny (2020) Anillin controls the Rho zone. Bioessays 42: e2000193.
Kashani, A.S., Piekny, A. and M. Packirisamy (2020). Using intracellular plasmonics to characterize nano-morphology in human cells. Microsystems and Nanoengineering 6: 1-14.
Kashani, A.S., Badilescu, S., Piekny, A. and M. Packirisamy (2020) Differing affinities of gold nanostars and nanospheres toward HeLa and HepG2 cells: implications for cancer therapy. ACS Applied Nano Materials 3: 4114-4126.
Beaudet, D., Pham, N., Skaik, N. and A. Piekny (2020) Importin binding mediates the intramolecular regulation of anillin during cytokinesis. Molecular Biology of the Cell 31: 1124-1139.