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Brief Biography
Krystal was fascinated by science and medicine at an early age and combined that with a love of animals which drove her to pursue Veterinary Medicine. While studying at her undergraduate institution, she rediscovered her passion for science and decided that she wanted to do research as well. It was then that Krystal decided to apply to the Dual Degree Program at Cornell. She is now in her fourth year of the program, which places her in the second year of her veterinary training. Krystal is currently working hard at being a full time veterinary student while continuing to be an active member of a research laboratory. In her spare time Krystal enjoys investigating the role of the GnRH Receptor in the neuroendocrine signaling pathways regulating reproduction in mammals, reading, dancing and practicing her orthopedic exam skills on a very tolerant pet cat.
Education
BS in Animal Science from
Cal Poly Pomona
Research Interests
I began by researching the biochemical aspects of intracellular signaling downstream of the GnRH receptor, focusing around the enzyme, Pyk2. As this project was moving rather slowly and not yielding much useful data my advisor and I decided to shift the focus of my project from signaling to trafficking. I am currently working on determining the intracellular trafficking pathway of the GnRH receptor and its component signaling proteins to determine where these proteins reside within the cell, how efficiently they are produced and trafficked to their site of activation and where they go once activated. I have generated several fusion proteins linking the fluorophore, Dendra, (a GFP-like protein) to the GnRH receptor, a downstream signaling protein, ERK2, as well as Actin and Tubulin. Currently I am observing these fusion proteins in an over-expression scheme in alpha T3-1 cells under a confocal microscope and tracking these molecules upon hormone activation. I am also beginning to use a protein, produced by Vimal in the Travis lab, which combines domain 4 from perfringotoxin (of Clostridium perfringens) with GFP as a fluorescent marker of cholesterol enriched membrane microdomains with an aim to colocalize the GnRH receptor with this marker.
Publications & Presentations
Jianjun Xie, Krystal H. Allen, Amy Marguet, Kathie A. Berghorn,Stuart P. Bliss, Amy M. Navratil, Jun Lin Guan and Mark S. Roberson. Analysis of the calcium-dependent regulation of proline-rich tyrosine kinase 2 by gonadotropin-releasing hormone. In Press: October 2008 issue of Molecular Endocrinology.
Poster Presented at Graduate Student Recruitment 2005, and at the Vertebrate Genomics Symposium 2005: "Pyk2 Activation in Response to GnRH and Interactions with Calmodulin", Krystal Allen, Jianjun Xie, Kathie Berghorn, and Mark Roberson
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