Justin Kumar

Modulating the levels and activity of the retinal determination network is sufficient to induce the specification of distinct tissue fates in Drosophila Summary: Modulation of members of the retinal determination gene regulatory network and their co-factors in Drosophila eyes reveals that differential expression of transcription factors is sufficient ...

Excited to announce that the newest paper from my lab on the Drosophila visual system is out today!

Modulating the levels and activity of the retinal determination network is sufficient to induce the specification of distinct tissue fates in Drosophila url: journals.biologists.com/dev/article-...

The retina’s rhythm Calcium waves facilitate the emergence of sight

Check out my Perspective article “The Retina’s Rhythm” which accompanies an exciting paper by Claude Desplan in Science. I highlight his discovery that waves of calcium are required to finalize the honeycomb-like structure of the Drosophila retina.

www.science.org/doi/epdf/10....

Thanks Shubham for the kind words. I am really glad that you liked our paper!

Patience is a virtue! I have been a season ticket holder at my home institution, Indiana University, for 23 years. I have seen a lot of bad football games. My perseverance through the pain and suffering is finally paying off. We are ranked #3 in the country. Upwards and onwards!

The Lacefield Lab won second place in the great pumpkin derby! @dartmouthbcb.bsky.social @mcbdartmouth.bsky.social

Nice job Pallivi! Glad to see that your research is going well!

Very proud of former Kumar lab PhD student, Alison Ordway, for receiving a K99 award from the National Eye Institute on her work describing photoreceptor patterning in Drosophila and mosquito compound eyes. Keep your eyes out for Alison when she goes out on the job market.

A persistent intracellular bridge and cell cycle misregulation enable polar body cell divisions and tumor formation in Mos-deficient eggs Mammalian female meiosis is uniquely regulated to produce a developmentally competent egg capable of supporting embryogenesis. During meiosis I, homologous chromosomes segregate, with half extruded in...

Check out our new manuscript on biorxiv on the role of MOS in mammalian oocyte meiosis: www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...
With @schindlerlab.bsky.social @giselacairobaza.bsky.social @muhammad-haseeb.bsky.social

Great department with fantastic colleagues!

The lab kicked off the start of the fall semester at Indiana University by having lunch at Lennie's Brewpub.

As my laboratory begins its 24th year at Indiana University I am grateful to all of the past and present PhD students, research associates, and postdoctoral fellows that have joined me in my quest to discover how the compound eye of Drosophila develops.

Just finished teaching another year of CSHL Yeast Genetics and Genomics with a fantastic group of students as usual! @cshlcourses.bsky.social

Hope all of you tenure stuff goes smoothly

Thank you!

Differential regulation of eye specification in Drosophila by Polycomb Group epigenetic repressors Highlighted Article: Distinct gene sets are differentially expressed in response to the knockdown of Polycomb Group (PcG) members, suggesting that multiple avenues may exist for the eye to be transfor...

My lab's newest research paper on the Drosophila eye is published in Development today. Thanks to the editorial staff for writing a research highlight and interviewing us about our work.

journals.biologists.com/dev/article-...

YouTube video by Marty Jencius Associate Professor means "less than"

To all of my university faculty friends, as tenure and promotion season is just around the corner I thought I would share a little academic humor with you. Enjoy!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNih...

Happy to have had high school students Robyn Pate and Joy Sweeny (front row) spend the week with us learning about my lab and Drosophila eye development. Thanks to graduate students Ren Wilson and Mie Kusupholnand for serving as their research mentors.

Haha

Happy 4th of July from the Kumar lab!

A portion of my lab took a break from their experiments and joined me at our local Strawberry Shortcake Festival in Bloomington, Indiana.

Super excited to post our new publication on the role of MOS/MAPK signaling in maintaining the egg transcriptome. Great collaboration with Britt Goods lab! rep.bioscientifica.com/view/journal...

Very late in posting...many thanks to my friend and host Markus Friedrich for an awesome visit to the Departments of Biological Sciences and Ophthalmology at Wayne State University. Great catching up with an old friend, talking science, and presenting our newest story on Drosophila eye development.

Me too!

Congrats on the awesome score!!!!!!

Soni Lacefield Named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Soni Lacefield, PhD, a professor of biochemistry and cell biology at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine, has been named a 2025 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (…

Super excited that my superstar friend Soni Lacefield @lacefieldlab.bsky.social is a AAAS fellow! See how her creative research is making an impact on our understanding of meiosis and infertility.

geiselmed.dartmouth.edu/news/2025/so...

Another awesome paper from the Lacefield lab @lacefieldlab.bsky.social

Hope your lab had a great Valentine's Day!

Great opportunity to work with an incredible mentor and scientist!

Kumar lab - very lucky to be exploring the world of eye development with these amazing researchers!

Feeling very lost today with the news of the passing of my undergrad advisor Scott Hawley. He had a huge impact on the field and on me personally. He was the first person to see me as a scientist and gave me the confidence to apply to grad school. I am so grateful to be a part of his legacy.