Dr. Leah Williams, who recently received her PhD in the Gilmore Lab in the Cell & Molecular Biology PhD program in Biology, was lead author on a paper published in December 2021 in the Nature journal Communications Biology. The study, entitled “Comparison of NF-kappaB from the protists Capsaspora owczarzaki and Acanthoea spectabilis reveals extensive evolutionary diversification of this transcription factor,” presents the first functional characterization of transcription factor NF-kappaB in single-celled organisms. The results provide a basis for understanding the evolutionary origins of this key protein and have implications for the origins of regulated immunity in higher animals, including humans.
