Joshua D. Currie

Assistant Professor of Biology

Ph.D., University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Postdoc: Center for Regenerative Therapies; Dresden, Germany

email: curriej at wfu.edu

Areas of Interest

Animal development, regenerative processes

 

Research Focus

Animal development is a breathtaking process whereby a single cell gives rise to all of the body’s specialized cells and tissues. How would you reverse engineer parts of this process to re-create tissue if it’s lost or damaged? That’s exactly what happens during limb regeneration in salamanders – an assortment of complex tissues must generate and organize progenitors to re-development lost structures. Our primary research aim is to understand how intrinsic and microenvironmental extrinsic signals orchestrate cells and tissue to perfectly reconstruct missing parts. We study regeneration using a type of salamander called the Mexican axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum), a well-established regenerative model that can re-grow its limbs, tail (including spinal cord), and parts of its brain, lungs, gills, and heart We combine live-imaging of regenerating, transgenic axolotls, ex vivo cell biology, and molecular biology (including CRISPR/Cas genome editing) to understand the molecules and cell behaviors that underlie tissue regeneration. We also work to apply what we learn in the axolotl to improving regeneration and wound healing in humans using experimental mammalian models such as mice and human cells.

Biology “First Person” interview @ Biology Open

Selected Publications

Currie JD, Grosser L, Murawala P, Schuez M, Michel M, Tanaka EM, Sandoval-Guzmán T. The Prrx1 limb enhancer marks an adult subpopulation of injury-responsive dermal fibroblasts. Biol Open. 2019 Jul 18;8(7). doi: 10.1242/bio.043711. PubMed PMID: 31278164; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6679413.

Sandoval-Guzmán T, Currie JD. The journey of cells through regeneration. Curr Opin Cell Biol. 2018 Dec;55:36-41. doi: 10.1016/j.ceb.2018.05.008. Epub 2018 Jul 19. Review. PubMed PMID: 30031323.

Gerber T, Murawala P, Knapp D, Masselink W, Schuez M, Hermann S, Gac-Santel M, Nowoshilow S, Kageyama J, Khattak S, Currie JD, Camp JG, Tanaka EM, Treutlein B. Single-cell analysis uncovers convergence of cell identities during axolotl limb regeneration. Science. 2018 Oct 26;362(6413). doi: 10.1126/science.aaq0681. Epub 2018 Sep 27. PubMed PMID: 30262634; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6669047.

Kaucka M, Zikmund T, Tesarova M, Gyllborg D, Hellander A, Jaros J, Kaiser J, Petersen J, Szarowska B, Newton PT, Dyachuk V, Li L, Qian H, Johansson AS, Mishina Y, Currie JD, Tanaka EM, Erickson A, Dudley A, Brismar H, Southam P, Coen E, Chen M, Weinstein LS, Hampl A, Arenas E, Chagin AS, Fried K, Adameyko I. Oriented clonal cell dynamics enables accurate growth and shaping of vertebrate cartilage. Elife. 2017 Apr 17;6. doi: 10.7554/eLife.25902. PubMed PMID: 28414273; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5417851.

Currie JD, Kawaguchi A, Traspas RM, Schuez M, Chara O, Tanaka EM. Live Imaging of Axolotl Digit Regeneration Reveals Spatiotemporal Choreography of Diverse Connective Tissue Progenitor Pools. Dev Cell. 2016 Nov 21;39(4):411-423. doi: 10.1016/j.devcel.2016.10.013. Epub 2016 Nov 10. PubMed PMID: 27840105; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5127896.

Fox JC, Howard AE, Currie JD, Rogers SL, Slep KC. The XMAP215 family drives microtubule polymerization using a structurally diverse TOG array. Mol Biol Cell. 2014 Aug 15;25(16):2375-92. doi: 10.1091/mbc.E13-08-0501. Epub 2014 Jun 25. PubMed PMID: 24966168; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4142611.

Murawala P, Tanaka EM, Currie JD. Regeneration: the ultimate example of wound healing. Semin Cell Dev Biol. 2012 Dec;23(9):954-62. doi: 10.1016/j.semcdb.2012.09.013. Epub 2012 Oct 8. Review. PubMed PMID: 23059793.

Currie JD, Stewman S, Schimizzi G, Slep KC, Ma A, Rogers SL. The microtubule lattice and plus-end association of Drosophila Mini spindles is spatially regulated to fine-tune microtubule dynamics. Mol Biol Cell. 2011 Nov;22(22):4343-61. doi: 10.1091/mbc.E11-06-0520. Epub 2011 Sep 30. PubMed PMID: 21965297; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3216660.

Currie JD, Rogers SL. Using the Drosophila melanogaster D17-c3 cell culture system to study cell motility. Nat Protoc. 2011 Sep 29;6(10):1632-41. doi: 10.1038/nprot.2011.397. PubMed PMID: 21959242; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4104172.

Zhang D, Grode KD, Stewman SF, Diaz-Valencia JD, Liebling E, Rath U, Riera T, Currie JD, Buster DW, Asenjo AB, Sosa HJ, Ross JL, Ma A, Rogers SL, Sharp DJ. Drosophila katanin is a microtubule depolymerase that regulates cortical-microtubule plus-end interactions and cell migration. Nat Cell Biol. 2011 Apr;13(4):361-70. doi: 10.1038/ncb2206. Epub 2011 Mar 6. PubMed PMID: 21378981; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3144748.

Schimizzi GV, Currie JD, Rogers SL. Expression levels of a kinesin-13 microtubule depolymerase modulates the effectiveness of anti-microtubule agents. PLoS One. 2010 Jun 30;5(6):e11381. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0011381. PubMed PMID: 20614032; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC2894863.

Bryce NS, Clark ES, Leysath JL, Currie JD, Webb DJ, Weaver AM. Cortactin promotes cell motility by enhancing lamellipodial persistence. Curr Biol. 2005 Jul 26;15(14):1276-85. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2005.06.043. PubMed PMID: 16051170.