Camerron Crowder

University of Alabama at Birmingham | UAB · Hugh Kaul Precision Medicine Institution & Department of Neurobiology

There are over 6,000 di􀀀erent rare diseases estimated to impact 300 million people worldwide. As genetic testing becomes more common practice in the clinical setting, the number of rare disease diagnoses will continue to increase, resulting in the need for novel treatment options. Identifying treatments for these disorders is challenging due to a l...

The recent emergence of a novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, has led to the global pandemic of the severe disease COVID-19 in humans. While efforts to quickly identify effective antiviral therapies have focused largely on repurposing existing drugs 1–4 , the current standard of care, remdesivir, remains the only authorized antiviral intervention of COV...

Estrogens regulate vertebrate development and function through binding to nuclear estrogen receptors alpha and beta (ERα, ERβ) and the G protein-coupled estrogen receptor (GPER). Studies in mutant animal models demonstrated that ERα and ERβ are required for normal ovary development and function. However, the degree to which GPER signaling contribut...

Estrogens regulate vertebrate development and function through binding to nuclear estrogen receptors alpha and beta (ERα, ERβ) and the G protein-coupled estrogen receptor (GPER). Studies in mutant animal models demonstrated that ERα and ERβ are required for normal ovary development and function. However, the degree to which GPER signaling contribut...

Androgens act through the nuclear androgen receptor (AR) to regulate gonad differentiation and development. In mice, AR is required for spermatogenesis, testis development and formation of external genitalia in males and oocyte maturation in females. However, the extent to which these phenotypes are conserved in non-mammalian vertebrates is not wel...

Transcription factor NF-κB plays a central role in immunity from fruit flies to humans, and NF-κB activity is altered in many human diseases. To investigate a role for NF-κB in immunity and disease on a broader evolutionary scale we have characterized NF-κB in a sea anemone (Exaiptasia pallida; called Aiptasia herein) model for cnidarian symbiosis...

Significance Flexibility in the endosymbiotic Symbiodinium community could provide reef-building corals with the capacity to survive environmental change, but this may be restricted to compatible host-symbiont combinations. Therefore, determining the underlying molecular, cellular, and physiological processes of symbiont compatibility is of critica...

Androgens act through the nuclear androgen receptor (AR) to regulate gonad differentiation and development. In mice, AR is required for spermatogenesis, testis development and formation of external genitalia in males and oocyte maturation in females. However, the extent to which these phenotypes are conserved in nonmammalian vertebrates is not well...

Reproductive timing in brooding corals has been correlated to temperature and lunar irradiance, but the mechanisms by which corals transduce these environmental variables into molecular signals is unknown. To gain insight into these processes, global gene expression profiles in the coral Pocillopora damicornis were examined (via RNA-Seq) across lun...

Many non-model species exemplify important biological questions but lack the sequence resources required to study the genes and genomic regions underlying traits of interest. Reef-building corals are famously sensitive to rising seawater temperatures, motivating ongoing research into their stress responses and long-term prospects in a changing clim...

Reproductive timing in corals is associated with environmental variables including temperature, lunar periodicity, and seasonality. Although it is clear that these variables are interrelated, it remains unknown if one variable in particular acts as the proximate signaler for gamete and or larval release. Furthermore, in an era of global warming, th...