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Néva Meyer is an associate professor in the Biology Department at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA. Her research addresses questions of annelid and spiralian development with the goal of gaining a better understanding of how animal body plans evolved and diversified, particularly nervous systems, which are animal innovations. Currently, it is not known if a centralized nervous system (brain and nerve cord) evolved once, early during animal evolution, or if centralized nervous systems evolved multiple times. Her current research addresses this broad question by examining cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying central nervous system development in a phylogenetically important and understudied group of animals, the annelids, using techniques such as fate mapping, blastomere isolation, imaging, gene and signaling pathway manipulation and RNAseq.
Dr. Meyer earned a B.S. with honors in Molecular Biology from Purdue University and a Ph.D. from the University of Washington. For her Ph.D, she worked in Dr. Henk Roelink’s lab on understanding how different types of neurons are patterned along the dorsal-ventral axis of the spinal cord in chick and mouse, which was funded by an HHMI predoctoral fellowship. She also was involved in the Science Education Partnership, which integrates science into the community through outreach activities. As a result of her graduate studies, Dr. Meyer became interested in the broader question of how nervous systems evolved. She began to address this question as a postdoctoral researcher in Dr. Elaine Seaver's lab at Kewalo Marine Lab, University of Hawaii and is continuing this research at Clark University. She is also actively engaged in making science more inclusive and supportive for everyone through a variety of activities.
Courses offered:BIOL 102 Intro Biology (theme: opioid epidemic)
BIOL 143 Neuroscience
BIOL 221/321 Developmental Biology with lab
BIOL 239/339 Evo Devo
BIOL 240/340 Comparative and Human Physiology with lab
Degrees:Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA, 2005
B.S. in Molecular Biology, Purdue University, W. Lafayette, IN, USA, 1998Degrees
- Ph.D. in Molecular & Cellular Biology, University of Washington, 2005
- B.S. in Molecular Biology, minor in Spanish, Purdue University, 1998
Affiliated Department(s)
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Scholarly and Creative Works
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Capitella teleta gets left out: possible evolutionary shift causes loss of left tissues rather than increased neural tissue from dominant-negative BMPR1
Neural development
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2024
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Vol. 19
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Issue #1
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Population-level immunologic variation in wild threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus)
Fish & shellfish immunology
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2024
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The timing and development of infections in a fish-cestode host-parasite system
Parasitology
May
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2022
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Nature or nurture: autonomous or conditional specification of the nervous system of annelids
80th Annual Society for Developmental Biology meeting
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Virtual
July
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2021
Sponsored by Society for Developmental Biology
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One cell at a time: ventral nerve cord specification in Capitella teleta during early development
80th Annual Society for Developmental Biology meeting
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Virtual
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2021
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Nature or nurture: autonomous or conditional specification of the nervous system in spiralians
Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology Annual Meeting
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Virtual
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2021
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Role of BMP signaling during early development of the annelid Capitella teleta
Developmental Biology
October
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2021
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Resolving transcriptional states and predicting lineages in the annelid Capitella teleta using single-cell RNAseq
Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution
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2021
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Investigating cellular and molecular mechanisms of neurogenesis in the annelid Capitella teleta shed light on the ancestor of Annelida.
BMC Evolutionary Biology
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2020
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Vol. 20
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The role of BMP signaling in early development of the spiralian Capitella teleta
79th Annual Society for Developmental Biology meeting
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Virtual
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2020
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The role of BMP signaling in early development of the spiralian Capitella teleta
3rd Biennial meeting for the Pan-American Society for Evolutionary Developmental Biology
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Miami, FL
August
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2019
Sponsored by Pan-American Society for Evolutionary Developmental Biology
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Formation of the dorsal-ventral axis and the ventral nerve cord are decoupled in the annelid Capitella teleta
78th Annual Society for Developmental Biology meeting
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Boston, MA
July
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2019
Sponsored by Society for Developmental Biology
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Developmental architecture of the nervous system in Themiste lageniformis (Sipuncula): New evidence from confocal laser scanning microscopy and gene expression
Journal of morphology
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2019
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Vol. 280
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Issue #11
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Awards & Grants
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Lekas Endowed Chair in Biology , which started June 2020
Biology Department, Clark University
2020
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Strong Advocate Award
Girls, Inc. of Worcester
2024
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