Rate My Professor Seth Blair

Seth Blair is a Professor and Associate Chair in the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he also serves as Faculty Director for introductory biology courses 151/3-152 and 151 Lecturer. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1982, followed by postdoctoral research at the University of Washington and Harvard Medical School. Blair is a trainer in the Genetics PhD Program, Neuroscience Training Program, and Zoology graduate program. His research centers on the developmental genetics of patterning and cell signaling in Drosophila melanogaster, focusing on imaginal and gonadal precursors that form wings, the male reproductive tract, and testes. His lab analyzes mutants disrupting pattern formation and intercellular signaling, identifying novel regulators of Hedgehog and BMP pathways. A major emphasis is on the protocadherin-mediated signaling pathway involving Dachsous and Fat, which regulates organ growth through the Hippo pathway, proximodistal patterning, and planar cell polarity in Drosophila epithelia. These in vivo molecular genetic studies are complemented by biochemical analyses of protein binding and modifications using Drosophila cell culture. Blair's work elucidates molecular patterning mechanisms shared across developing animals.

Blair received the 2013 Wisconsin Alumni Association Faculty Distinguished Teaching Award. Key publications include Schleede and Blair (2015), 'The Gyc76C receptor guanylyl cyclase and the Foraging cGMP-dependent kinase regulate extracellular matrix organization and BMP signaling in the developing wing of Drosophila melanogaster' in PLOS Genetics; Zhang et al. (2016), 'The novel SH3 domain protein Dlish/CG10933 mediates Fat signaling in Drosophila by binding and regulating Dachs' in eLife; Blair (2017), 'Developmental compartments' in eLS; Blair and McNeill (2018), 'Big roles for Fat cadherins' in Current Opinion in Cell Biology; and Wang et al. (2019), 'Fat-regulated adaptor protein Dlish binds the growth suppressor Expanded and controls its stability and ubiquitination' in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. His contributions have advanced understanding of cell signaling and developmental patterning.