Nicole Najor

Degrees

• Postdoctoral Fellowship at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
• Ph.D. Pharmacology and Interdisciplinary Biological Sciences from Wayne State University School of Medicine
• B.S. University of Detroit Mercy

Biography

Dr. Najor graduated from University of Detroit Mercy with a Bachelor of Science in 2005 and had a few key formative experiences at Detroit Mercy that helped shape her decision to pursue academia. Following her B.S., she pursued a Ph.D. at Wayne State University School of Medicine where she studied the mechanisms that governed the transition of meiotic G1 to S phase in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Dr. Najor completed her Ph.D. in 2010 and began working as a post-doctoral fellow at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, where she spent a bulk of her research understanding human skin morphogenesis. Dr. Najor believes that the breadth of her experience was built upon the strong foundation that Detroit Mercy helped provide early in her career as a budding teacher and scientist.

Publications:

Najor NA, Weatherford L, Brush GS. Prevention of DNA re-replication through a meiotic recombination checkpoint response. G3-Genes Genomes Genetics. 2016 Dec 7;6(12): 3869-3881.doi: 10.1534/g3.116.033910.

Samuelov L, Li Q, Bochner R, Najor N, Albrecht L, Malchin N, Goldsmith T, Grafi-Cohen M, Vodo D, Fainberg G, Meilik B, Goldberg I, Warshauer E, Rogers T, Edie S, Ishida-Yamamoto A, Burzenski L, Erez N, Murray SA, Irvine AD, Shultz L, Green K, Uitto J, Sprecher E, Sarig O. SVEP1 plays a crucial role in epidermal differentiation. Experimental Dermatology. 2016 Nov 28. Doi: 10.1111/exd.13256.

Johnson JL, Najor NA, Green KJ. Desmosomes: Regulators of Cellular Signaling and Adhesion in Epidermal Health and Disease. Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Medicine. 2014 Nov 3;4(11):a015297. doi: 10.1101/cshperspect.a015297. Review.

Dubash, AD, Koetsier JL, Amargo EV, Najor NA, Harmon RH, and Green KJ. The GEF Bcr regulates RhoA/MAL signaling in keratinocytes and differentiation via Desmoglein-1.  J. Cell Biol. 2013 Aug 19;202(4):653-66. doi: 10.1083/jcb.201304133.

Harmon RM, Simpson CL, Johnson JL, Koetsier JL, Dubash AD, Najor NA, Sarig O, Sprecher E, Green KJ. Desmoglein-1/Erbin interaction suppresses ERK activation to support epidermal differentiation. Journal of Clinical Investigations. 2013 Apr;123(4):1556-70. doi: 10.1172/JCI65220.

Brush GS, Najor NA, Dombkowski AA, Cukovic D, Sawarynski KE. Yeast Ime2 functions early in meiosis upstream of cell cycle-regulated SBF and MBF targets. PLoS One. 2012;7(2):e31575. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0031575.

Brush GS and Najor NA. Keeping a good rep in meiosis: mind the CDK.Cell Cycle. 2009 May 1;8(9):1299-300.

Najor NA, Sawarynski KE, Kepsel AC, Brush GS. Sic1-induced DNA rereplication during meiosis.  Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2009 Jan 6;106(1):232-7. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0809731105.

Grants and Awards:

• UDM College of Engineering and Science Faculty Grant Incentive Program (FGIP)- 2017
• UDMPU Faculty Research Award- 2017
• National Institute of Health Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Award F32-AR066465-01A1-2015