Luke

Messer

Courses Taught

• BIO 1010: Principles of Biology
• BIO 1011: Principles of Biology Laboratory
• BIO 1030: Basic Life Functions
• BIO 1031: Basic Life Functions Laboratory
• BIO 2015: Laboratory Methods in Biology
• BIO 3140: Developmental Biology

Research Interests

Genetic pathways underlying organ development in the Drosophila hindgut

Modeling the genetic and environmental interactions contributing to epilepsy using the seizure prone Drosophila mutant, bas(1)

Recent Publications

Messer, C. L., Burghardt E, McDonald JA. (2025). A deficiency screen of the X chromosome for Rap1 GTPase dominant interacting genes in Drosophila border cell migration. G3 (Bethesda). 2025 Feb 24:jkaf040. doi:10.1093/g3journal/jkaf040. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 39993182.

Messer, C. L. and Fox, D.T. (2024). Broken chromosomes heading into mitosis: More than one way to patch a flat tire. J Cell Biol. Apr 1;223(4):e202401085. doi: 10.1083/jcb.202401085. Epub 2024 Mar 13. PMID: 38477879; PMCID: PMC10937182.

Messer, C. L. and McDonald, J. A. (2023). Rap1 promotes epithelial integrity and cell viability in a growing tissue. Developmental Biology 501, 1–19.

Messer, C. L. and McDonald, J. A. (2023). Expect the unexpected: conventional and unconventional roles for cadherins in collective cell migration. Biochemical Society Transactions BST20221202.

Y. Chen, N. Kotian, G. Aranjuez, L. Chen, C.L. Messer, A. Burtscher, K. Sawant, D. Ramel, X. Wang, and J.A. McDonald. (2020). Protein Phosphatase 1 activity controls a balance between collective and single cell modes of migration. Pre-print bioRxiv (October 20, 2019). eLife. 2020 May 5;9: e52979. doi: 10.7554/eLife.52979. PMID: 32369438.

E.C. Partridge, S. Chhetri, J. Prokop, R. Ramaker, C. Jansen, S. Goh, M. Mackiewicz, K. Newberry, L. Brandsmeier, S. Meadows, C.L. Messer, A. Hardigan, C. Coppola, E. Dean, S. Jiang, D. Savic, A. Mortazavi, B. Wold, R. Myers, E. Mendenhall. (2020). Occupancy maps of 208 chromatin-associated proteins in one human cell type. Nature 2020 Jul;583(7818):720-728. doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2023-4. PMCID: PMC7398277.