Rate My Professor Jean Wilson

Jean Wilson, PhD, is Professor of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at The University of Arizona, where she also serves as Director of the Willed Body Program. She holds additional appointments as Professor in the BIO5 Institute, Cancer Biology Graduate Interdisciplinary Program, and Neuroscience Graduate Interdisciplinary Program. Her research centers on epithelial development and polarity, with a particular emphasis on membrane trafficking to junctions and the apical membrane. She investigates the tight junctions and associated polarity complexes that are essential for selective permeability and the maintenance of epithelial polarity. This work explores how epithelial cells function as selective barriers to pathogens while facilitating nutrient absorption. The Wilson laboratory specifically examines the establishment and maintenance of intestinal integrity through the regulation of membrane trafficking to the apical plasma membrane domain. Her studies also address the cell biology of epithelial tissues and the regulation of membrane trafficking in both polarized and non-polarized cells, extending to epithelial cells and neurons.

Representative publications from her research include Blum et al., 'Rab22a regulates the establishment of epithelial polarity' (Small GTPases, 2020); Jamwal et al., 'Intestinal Epithelial Expression of MHCII Determines Severity of Chemical, T-Cell-Induced, and Infectious Colitis in Mice' (Gastroenterology, 2020); Engevik et al., 'Loss of myosin Vb promotes apical bulk endocytosis in neonatal enterocytes' (Journal of Cell Biology, 2019); Cox et al., 'The Endosomal Protein Endotubin Is Required for Enterocyte Differentiation' (Cellular and Molecular Gastroenterology and Hepatology, 2018); Lu and Wilson, 'Rab14 specifies the apical membrane through Arf6-mediated regulation of lipid domains and Cdc42' (Scientific Reports, 2016); Cox et al., 'Endosomal regulation of contact inhibition through the AMOT:YAP pathway' (Molecular Biology of the Cell, 2015); Lu et al., 'PKCι interacts with Rab14 and modulates epithelial barrier function through regulation of claudin-2 levels' (Molecular Biology of the Cell, 2015); Lu et al., 'Scaffolding protein GOPC regulates tight junction structure' (Cell and Tissue Research, 2015); Parker et al., 'Competing molecular interactions of aPKC isoforms regulate neuronal polarity' (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2013); Kitt et al., 'Rab14 regulates apical targeting in polarized epithelial cells' (Traffic, 2008). She maintains an office in Life Sciences North 459.