VELIA M. FOWLER, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair,
Biological Sciences
Phone: (302) 831-4296 Fax: (302) 831-2281
Email: vfowler@udel.edu
Office: 118 Wolf Hall Lab: 341 Wolf Hall
Address: Department of Biological Sciences
105 The Green,118 Wolf Hall
Newark, DE 19716
B.A. Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH 1974
Ph.D. Harvard University, Cambridge, MA National Science Foundation Predoctoral Fellow, 1980
Postdoctoral Jane Coffin Childs Postdoctoral Fellow, National Institutes of Health and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 1980-1984
Assistant Professor Harvard Medical School, 1984-87
Assistant, Associate and Full Professor The Scripps Research Institute,1987-2019
Chair and Professor University of Delaware, 2019-present
Read more about Dr. Fowler from her interview in Cytoskeleton.
Lab Members
Sepideh Cheheltani
PhD Candidate, Biological Sciences
Sepideh is a third year PhD/MBA dual degree graduate student. She holds a bachelor’s degree in cell and molecular biology from Alzahra University and a Master of Science degree in Cell Biology from Villanova University. She is currently studying the role of Cap2, an actin cytoskeleton regulatory protein, in biomechanical properties of the ocular lens.
Megan Coffin
Lab Manager, Fowler Lab
Megan obtained her Bachelor of Science Degree in Animal Science with a minor in Biology from the University of Delaware. Along with managing the lab, she also is investigating the role of F-actin in human erythroblast enucleation.
Dimitri Diaz
PhD Student, Biological Sciences
Dimitri is a PhD student from Hampton, Virginia, and has completed a Bachelors of Arts in Biology and Classics at the University of Virginia. In the Fowler Lab, he is currently investigating the role of Tensin 1, an actin-binding protein, in the enucleation of human erythroblasts during erythropoiesis.
Sadia Islam
PhD Candidate, Biological Sciences
Sadia T Islam is a 5th year PhD student in the Department of Biological Sciences (Concentration: Molecular Biology & Genetics). Sadia earned her B.S. in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she completed her honor’s thesis project on the role of environmental pollutants in zebrafish pancreas development. Currently, her PhD project focuses on the role of non-muscle myosin IIA in mouse ocular lens epithelial cell differentiation and morphogenesis.
Heather Malino
PhD Student, Biomedical Engineering
Heather is a 2nd year PhD student in the Biomedical Engineering department. In the Fowler lab, Heather is studying the biomechanical properties of the ocular lens. Stiffening of the lens during aging has been shown to contribute to presbyopia, or far-sightedness. Heather is using dynamic mechanical analysis and other techniques to better understand the intrinsic material properties of the lens across species which is key to our understanding of the underlying biological mechanisms of lens development.
Undergraduate Researchers
Jack Mason
Heather Boliver
Marin Herrick
Maria Chihuahua-Perez