Press Release
21 June 2022
Inside the jellyfish’s sting: exploring the micro-architecture of a cellular weapon
An ancient stinging organelle that evolved to deliver toxins could inspire the design of new medical delivery devices
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Sean's Profile
Sean McKinney, Ph.D., joined the Stowers Institute in 2009 as the group head of Optics Development. He was named manager of Microscopy in 2015, head in 2019, and in 2023 he was appointed Head of Computational Imaging.
Prior to joining Stowers, McKinney was a Research Specialist at the Janelia Farm Research Campus. McKinney and his team automate imaging with robotics and image analysis through deep learning which allows researchers to perform customized large-scale imaging screens.
After graduating from the University of Missouri, Rolla with a B.S. in physics and computer science, McKinney earned his Ph.D. studying DNA conformations at the single molecule level using fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
Featured Publications
wtf4 meiotic driver utilizes controlled protein aggregation to generate selective cell death
Nuckolls NL, Mok AC, Lange JJ, Yi K, Kandola TS, Hunn AM, McCroskey S, Snyder JL, Bravo Nunez MA, McClain M, McKinney SA, Wood C, Halfmann R, Zanders SE. eLife. 2020;9:e55694. doi: 55610.57554/eLife.55694.
Yeast centrosome components form a noncanonical LINC complex at the nuclear envelope insertion site.
Chen J, Gardner JM, Yu Z, Smith SE, McKinney S, Slaughter BD, Unruh JR, Jaspersen SL. J Cell Biol. 2019;218:1478-1490.
Zeng A, Li H, Guo L, Gao X, McKinney S, Wang Y, Yu Z, Park J, Semerad C, Ross E, Cheng LC, Davies E, Lei K, Wang W, Perera A, Hall K, Peak A, Box A, Sánchez Alvarado A. Cell. 2018;173:1593-1608.e20.
