Kevin Nyberg Graduate Student Advisor: Dr. Alexa Bely Program in Biology 1210 Biology/Psychology Bldg University of Maryland College Park, MD 20742 USA email: phone: office: lab: kevingnyberg at gmail.com (301) 405-0239 / -0453 (labs) 0249 Biology/Psychology bldg 0249 Biology/Psychology bldg

Previous Education:

B.S., Biology, Duke University, 2004.

Research Interests:

I am interested in how and why regeneration processes are gained, maintained, and lost during evolution. The subfamily Naidinae, a group of aquatic annelid worms, is a great natural system to study evolutionary loss of regeneration ability because of multiple, independent losses of anterior regeneration. I primarily am focused on comparisons between two species of naidines, the regenerating Pristina leidyi and the non-anterior regenerating Paranais litoralis. I am currently investigating differences in wound healing and deployment of major developmental signaling pathways after amputation in these two species. I am also working to develop molecular techniques like RNAi and genome resources for the naidines.

In situ hybridization shows that beta-catenin, a downstream signal mediator in the Wnt signaling pathway, is highly expressed in blastema cells during anterior regeneration in P. leidyi.

Publications:

Li, Q., M.R. Nance, R. Kulikauskas, K. Nyberg, R. Fehon, P.A. Karplus, A. Bretscher, and J.G. Tesmer. 2006. Self-masking in an intact ERM-merlin protein: an active role for the central α-helical domain. Journal of Molecular Biology. 365: 1446-1459.

Nyberg, K.G., C.N. Ciampaglio, and G.A. Wray. 2006. Tracing the ancestry of the great white shark, Carcharodon carcharias, using morphometric analyses of fossil teeth. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 26(4): 806-814.

Presentations:

Ciampaglio, C.N., K. Nyberg, and G.A. Wray. 2004. Tracing the ancestry of the great white shark using morphometric analyses of fossil teeth. Presented at Geological Society of America conference, Nov. 9, 2004.