2026 Midwest Zebrafish Meeting

Rebecca Burdine is a full professor in the Department of Molecular Biology at Princeton University. Her lab focuses on understanding the developmental mechanisms that control organ morphogenesis and underlie structural birth defects and rare genetic disorders. Dr. Burdine graduated summa cum laude from Western Kentucky University, majoring in Recombinant Gene Technology with a minor in Chemistry. She received her Ph.D. from Yale University in Cell Biology followed by postdoctoral research at NYU – Skirball Institute for Biomolecular Medicine. She was named the 44th Mallinckrodt Scholar for the Edward Mallinckrodt Jr. Foundation and received a Scientist Development Career Award from the American Heart Association in 2003. She was elected as fellow to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 2018 and to the Society for Developmental Biology Academy in 2024. She recently served on the Boards of the Genetics Society of America, the International Zebrafish Society and the International Society of Differentiation. She currently serves on the boards for the Society of Developmental Biology and the Coalition for the Life Sciences. Dr. Burdine has a daughter with Angelman Syndrome and serves as the Chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee and on the Board for the Angelman Syndrome Foundation.

Dr. Mayssa Mokalled is an Associate Professor in the Department of Developmental Biology, the Hope Center for Neurological Disorders and the Center of Regenerative Medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in Saint Louis, USA. Dr. Mokalled grew up in Lebanon where she pursued undergraduate studies at the American University of Beirut. She then moved to the U.S. and completed her Ph.D. at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas studying neuromuscular development and regeneration using mouse models. As a postdoc at Duke University, she pioneered studies of spinal cord regeneration in zebrafish. Adult zebrafish possess an elevated regenerative capacity and lack the anti-regenerative complications displayed after mammalian nervous system injuries. The Mokalled Lab leverages repair strategies employed by zebrafish to engineer pro-regenerative cell states in mouse and human models. Dr. Mokalled’s work has been recognized by multiple awards including the first Rising Star Award from the Society of Regenerative Biology and the Junior Faculty Award for Excellence from the Zebrafish Disease Modeling Society.

Stem cells give rise to every cell type in the human body and play important roles in health and disease. Dr. Stephanie Grainger seeks to understand how these special cells develop, how they are maintained and how they can become cancerous, with the goal of developing new strategies for combating cancer.