Associate Professor of Biology
PhD University of Wisconsin-Madison
BA St. Olaf College
Tel: 269.337.7161; Office: Dow 311
Email: Amanda.Wollenberg@kzoo.edu
- 2019-present Associate Professor of Biology, Kalamazoo College, MI
- 2014-2019 Assistant Professor of Biology, Kalamazoo College, MI
- 2011-2013 Postdoctoral Fellow, Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Boston MA
- 2004-2011 PhD Candidate, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Program in Cellular and Molecular Biology, Madison WI
Research Interests
My lab studies molecular interactions between nematodes and bacteria. Using the well-studied model nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, we are characterizing innate immune responses to bacterial pathogens. Using the less-famous nematodes Steinernema carpocapsae and Heterorhabditis bacterophora, which parasitize insects with the help of symbiotic bacteria that they carry in their guts, we are studying how the immune system can be trained to tolerate non-pathogenic bacteria.
Current Courses
BIOL246 Cell and Molecular Biology with Lab
BIOL360 Immunology and Human Health with Lab
BIOL488 TOPICS: The Symbiotic Habit
Selected Grants and Awards
2013: Research Exchange Visit Award, NemaSym Research Coordination Network
2008-2011: NIH Molecular Biosciences Trainee
2005-2008: NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
Selected Publications
(* denotes undergraduate coauthor)
*Hoinville, M.E. and Wollenberg, A.C. (2018) Changes in Caenorhabditis elegans gene expression following exposure to Photorhabdus luminescens strain TT01. Developmental and Comparative Immunology. 82: 165-176.
Wollenberg, A.C., *Jagdish, T., Slough, G., *Hoinville, M.E., and M.S. Wollenberg. (2016) Death Becomes Them: Bacterial Community Dynamics and Stilbene Antibiotic Production in Cadavers of Galleria mellonella Killed by Heterorhabditis and Photorhabdus spp. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 82(19); 5824-37. PMID 27451445.
Settembre C., De Cegli R., Mansueto G., Saha P.K., Vetrini F., Visvikis O., Huynh T., Carissimo A., Palmer D., Jürgen Klisch T., Wollenberg A.C., DiBernardo D., Chan L., Irazoqui J.E. and Ballabio A. 2013. TFEB controls cellular lipid metabolism through a starvation-induced autoregulatory loop. Nature Cell Biology doi: 10.1038/ncb2718.
Luhachack L.G.1, Visvikis O.1, Wollenberg A.C.1, Lacy-Hulbert A., Stuart L.M. and Irazoqui J.E. 2012. EGL-9 controls C. elegans host defense specificity through prolyl hydroxylation- dependent and -independent HIF-1 pathways. PLoS Pathogens 8: e1002798.
1these authors contributed equally
Wollenberg A.C. and Amasino R.M. 2012. Natural variation in the temperature range permissive for vernalization in accessions of Arabidopsis thaliana. Plant, Cell & Environment 35: 2181-2191.
Wollenberg A.C., Strasser B., Cerdan P. and Amasino R.M. 2008. Acceleration of flowering during shade-avoidance in Arabidopsis thaliana alters the balance between FLOWERING LOCUS C-mediated repression and photoperiodic induction of flowering. Plant Physiology 148: 1681-1694.