Meet the PI

Meet the Principal Investigator

Daniela Nicastro, Ph.D.

Daniela Nicastro, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Cell Biology and Biophysics

Email

Ph.D. (2000) Ludwig Maximilians University, Munich,Germany

Curriculum Vitae

Education and Positions

1995:  Dipl. Biol. (equivalent of M.S.) in Biology, Ludwig Maximilians University, Munich, Germany

1996-2000: Ph.D. study in Biology, Ludwig Maximilians University and Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry, Munich, Germany

2000-2001: Postdoctoral research in Structural Biology with Dr. Wolfgang Baumeister, MPI for Biochemistry, Munich, Germany

2001-2006: Postdoctoral research in Structural Cell Biology with Dr. Richard J. McIntosh, Univ. of Colorado, Boulder

2006-2013:  Assistant Professor of Biology, Brandeis University, Massachusetts

2013-2015: Associate Professor of Biology, Brandeis University, Massachusetts

2015 July - present: Associate Professor of Cell Biology and Biophysics, UT Southwestern

Honors

1996-1998: Graduate scholarship for Junior Scientists, Ludwig Maximilians University and Bavaria, Germany.

1998-2000: Graduate scholarship, Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science, Germany.

2000-2001: Postdoctoral scholarship, Max Planck Society, Germany.

2007-2011: Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences

2008: Strage Award for Aspiring Young Science Faculty

2008: WM Keck Foundation Research Excellence Award

2008 - present: LAS (Local Affiliated Societies) tour speaker for the Microscopy Society of America

2009 - 2012: W.M. Keck Foundation Science and Engineering Research Grants Award

2014: Keith R. Porter Fellow

2015: "Rising Star" scholarship from the Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT)

2016: Leadership Emerging in Academic Departments (LEAD): 1-year leadership program, capstone project was selected for presentation to the UTSW leadership and has been implemented institutionally. 

2020: WICB Mid-Career Aware for Excellence in Research by the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB)

2020: Pew Innovation Fund Investigator

Other Experience and Professional Memberships

Editorial Board member: Cytoskeleton

Reviewer of grant proposals: National Science Foundation

Reviewer for journals: Journal of Structural Biology, Journal of Molecular Biology, Nature, PNAS, Cytoskeleton

Membership: American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB), Microscopy Society of America (MSA)

Conference Session Chairs: Tomography Session at the Microscopy and Microanalysis Conference, San Antonio, TX (2003); “Isolated Proteins and Filaments” at the GRC on 3D Electron Microscopy, New London, NH (2007); Tomography Session at the Microscopy and Microanalysis Conference, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida (2007); Mini-symposium on “Molecular Motors: Alone and in Groups” at the 47th Annual Meeting of the ASCB (2007); Tomography session at the GRC on 3D Electron Microscopy, Lucca, Italy (2008); Chair of Tomography Session at the Microscopy and Microanalysis Conference, Phoenix, AZ (2012); Session chair at the 7th International Electron Tomography Conference, Cancun, Mexico (2014); Chair of the Motility Session at the FASEB meeting: “Biology of Cilia”, Snowmass, CO (2015); Chair of the “Motor Assemblies” Session at the GRC meeting: “Muscle and molecular motors”, Mt Snow, VT (2016); Session chair at the Gordon Research Conference on Three Dimensional Electron Microscopy, Diablerets, Switzerland (June 2017); Co-chair of the GRC Connects (Gordon Research Conference) for Three Dimensional Electron Microscopy (Sept. 2020) [virtual meeting due to COVID-19]; Co-chair (2021) of the Gordon Research Conference on Three Dimensional Electron Microscopy, Waterville Valley, NH; Chair of the Gordon Research Conference on Three Dimensional Electron Microscopy, Spain (6/2022); Program Planning Committee for the Protein Society 2023 meeting, Boston, MA

Invited Speaker Events: International Conference of Molecular and Cell Biology, Jena, Germany (2000); Tomography Colloquium, Amsterdam, Netherlands (2001); European Conference on Crystallography, Krakow, Poland (2001); Gordon Conference on Three Dimensional Electron Microscopy, Bristol, RI (2001); 15th International Congress on Electron Microscopy, Durban, South Africa (2002); XIX–Congresso da Sociedade Brasileira de Microscopia e Microanalise, Caxambu, Brasil (2003); Gordon Conference on Three Dimensional Electron Microscopy, New London, NH (2003); Electron Tomography Workshop at the EMBL, Heidelberg, Germany (2003); Third International Congress on Electron Tomography, Rensselaerville, NY (2004); International Workshop on Structural Analysis of Supramolecular Assemblies By Hybrid Methods, Lake Tahoe, CA (2004); American Society for Cell Biology Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2005); International Workshop Dynein, Kobe, Japan (2005); Microscopy & Microanalysis Conference, Honolulu, HI (2005); High-pressure freezing conference in Dresden, Germany (2006); Microscopy & Microanalysis Conference (3 talks & 1 tutorial), Chicago, IL (2006); Mini-Symposium on Molecular Machines, Albany, NY (2007); FASEB Summer meeting “The Biology of Cilia & Flagella” (2007); Annual Symposium of the Protein Society; San Diego (2008); Pew Meeting for Biomedical Scholars (2008); 2nd International Symposium on Bio-Nano-Systems, Tokyo, Japan (2008); Carolina Biophysics Symposium, Chapel Hill, NC (2008); Gordon Research Conference on Cilia, Mucus, and Mucociliary Interactions, Italy (2009); Invited Attendee of the Kavli Frontiers of Science symposium organized by the National Academy of Sciences (2009); Microscopy & Microanalysis Conference, Richmond, Virginia (2009); DZG Tagung, Regensburg, Germany (2009); International workshop “Dynein 2009: Molecular mechanisms of axonemal and cytoplasmic dyneins,” in Kobe, Japan (2009); Ringberg Symposium (Kuehlbrand), Schloss Ringberg, Germany (2010); FASEB Summer Meeting “The Biology of Cilia & Flagella” (2010); Microscopy & Microanalysis Conference, Portland, OR (2010); Iowa Microscopy Society Fall Meeting, Iowa City, Iowa (2010); Pew Meeting for Biomedical Scholars (2011); Gordon Research Conference on Cilia, Mucus, and Mucociliary Interactions, Ventura, CA (2011); Emory BCMB Cilia Symposium, Atlanta, Georgia (2011); Sixth International Congress on Electron Tomography, Heidelberg, Germany (2011); Southeastern Microscopy Society Annual Meeting, Decatur, Georgia (2011); Gordon Research Conference on Three Dimensional Electron Microscopy, New London, NH (2011); Satir Symposium, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, NY (2011); EMBO Meeting “Microtubules: Structure, Regulation and Functions”, Heidelberg, Germany (2012); Michigan Microscopy & Microanalysis Meeting, MI (Nov. 2012); New England Society for Microscopy, Boston, MA (Febr. 2013); Southern California Society for Microscopy & Microanalysis, Los Angeles, CA (March 2013); American Chemical Society Meeting, New Orleans (April 2013); 2nd International CAESAR Conference, Bonn, Germany (May 2013); FASEB Meeting “Biology of Cilia & Flagella”, NY (June 2013); Plenary lecture at the DZG (German Zoological Society) Annual Meeting, Munich, Germany (Sept. 2013); International workshop “Dynein 2013” in Kobe, Japan (Nov. 2013); World Conference on Electron Tomography in Cancun, Mexico (Nov. 2014); Gordon Research Conference on Cilia, Mucus, and Mucociliary Interactions, Galveston, TX (Feb. 2015); American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) Annual Meeting 2015 in Boston, MA (March 2015); Gordon Research Conference on Three Dimensional Electron Microscopy, New London, NH (June 2015); FASEB Meeting “Biology of Cilia & Flagella”, NY (July 2015); 5th International CAESAR Conference, Bonn, Germany (Oct. 2015); Australian Conference on Microscopy and Microanalysis (Feb. 2016); 2016 Annual Meeting of the Biophysical Society, CA (Feb. 2016); 2016 Gordon Research Conference on “Muscle & Molecular Motors”, West Dover, VT (July 2016); 2016 Oklahoma Microscopy Society fall meeting, Tulsa, OK (Nov. 2016); 2016 EMBO Conference “Molecular Machines: Integrative Structural and Molecular Biology” (Nov. 2016); Invited talk at the symposium “Cilia and Centrosomes: current advances and future directions” at the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology (CDB) in Kobe (Nov. 2016); Keynote session speaker, Gordon Research Conference on Cilia, Mucus, and Mucociliary Interactions, Galveston, TX (Feb. 2017); Keynote speaker, 25th annual Texas Protein Folding & Function meeting, Retreat Artesian, TX (April 2017).; Invited symposium speaker:The future of integrative structural biology, Clemson University, SC (April 2017); Invited speaker at the 22nd Structural Biology Symposium 2017 at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, TX (May 2017); Invited speaker at the 16th annual Saltiel Life Sciences Symposium at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (Sep. 2017); International workshop Dynein 2017, Awaji Island, Japan (Oct. 2017); Invited speaker at the 2018 Keystone Symposia on Cryo-EM from Cells to Molecules: Multi-Scale Visualization of Biological Systems; at Granlibakken, Tahoe, California (Feb. 2018); Invited speaker at the 53rd meeting of the Texas Society for Microscopy in Denton. TX (Feb. 2018); Third Coast Workshop on Biological Cryo-EM, Chicago, IL (May 2018); Gordon Research Conference on Three Dimensional Electron Microscopy, Newport, RI (June 2018); Princeton-Nature Conference: Frontiers in Electron Microscopy for the Physical and Life Sciences, Princeton, NJ (July 2018); Invited speaker at the 8th International Conference on Electron Tomography, Les Diablerets, Switzerland (Sept. 2018); Invited speaker at the Symposium on Advances in Cryo-Electron Microscopy, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN (Nov. 2018); Invited speaker at the Heraeus seminar on the "Physics and the physiology of cilia", Bad Honnef, Germany (Jan. 2019); Invited speaker at the Royal Society Theo Murphy meeting on "Unity and diversity of ciliary systems in locomotion and transport”, Chicheley, UK (March 2019); Invited speaker at the annual meeting of Chinese Society of Cell Biology, Beijing, China (April 2019); Invited speaker at the Gordon Research Conference on Fertilization and Activation of Development, Holderness, NH (July 2019); Invited speaker at FASEB Conference “The Biology of Cilia and Flagella”, Snowmass, CO (August 2019); Invited speaker at the UT Austin MBS Symposium 2019 "Keeping it Cool in Austin: Cryo-EM Comes to UT" (August 2019); Invited speaker in the session “Recent Developments in Structural Biology” at the 2019 ACS National Meeting, San Diego, CA (August 2019); Invited speaker at the American Society for Cell Biology annual meeting (virtual, Dec. 2020); Invited speaker at the George Witman Symposium (virtual, Jan. 2021); Invited speaker in the 2021 Keystone Symposia on Frontiers in Cryo-Electron Microscopy (virtual, Feb. 2021); HIV Structural Biology Virtual Meeting (NIAID) (virtual, June 2021); Invited speaker at the Win Sale Symposium at Emory University, Atlanta GA (March 2022); Invited speaker at the 6th Annual Symposium of The Protein Society, San Francisco, CA (July 2022); Invited speaker at the 9th International Conference on Electron Tomography, Egmond aan Zee, The Netherlands (September 2022); Invited speaker at the EMBO Cilia 2022, Cologne, Germany (Oct. 2022); Invited speaker at the 58th meeting of the Texas Society for Microscopy (March 2023)

Departmental Seminars: NIAMS/NIH, Bethesda, MD (2000); Zoological Colloquium, Munich, Germany (2000); National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research, San Diego, CA (2001); Boulder Laboratory for 3-Dimensional Electron Microscopy of Cells, Boulder, CO (2001); Wadsworth Center, Albany, NY (2001); EMBL, Heidelberg, Germany (2003); Brandeis University, Boston, MA (2003); University of California at Berkeley, CA (2004); MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK (2005); University of Texas Medical School, Houston, TX (2005); University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX (2005); University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada (2006); Brandeis University, Boston, MA (2006); Boston University, Boston, MA (2007); University of Minnesota, MN (2008);Osborn Lecture at the University of Connecticut Health Center, CT (2008); Rudolf Virchow Center, University of Wuerzburg, Germany (2009); University of Wisconsin – Madison, WI (2009); University of Massachusetts Medical School – Worcester, MA (2010); Rocky Mountain Laboratories/NIAID/NIH, Hamilton, MT (2011); Danforth Plant Science Center, St. Louis, MO (2011); Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD (2011); University of Pennsylvania – Philadelphia, PA (2012); Pulmonary Center at Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA (2013); Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR (2013); University of Vermont, VT (2013); Seminar at HHMI Janelia Farm (2013); Seminar at Purdue, IN (2014); Seminar at University of Pennsylvania – Philadelphia, PA (May 2014); Seminar at University of Texas South Western Medical Center, TX (2014); Seminar at University of Colorado in Boulder; Seminar at University of Georgia, Atlanta, GA (September 2014); Seminar in the Cellular Dynamics seminar series, Harvard, MA (March 2015); Invited speaker at the inaugural symposium of the cryo-EM facility at UTSW (April 2016); Seminar at the Cell Biology Physiology Center at the NIH, Bethesda, MD (May 2016); Invited speaker at the inaugural symposium of the cryo-EM facility at UMass (Oct. 2016); Seminar at University of Illinois, Chicago (January 2017); Seminar at University of Vienna, Austria (June 2017); Seminar at UT Southwestern Medical Center, Microbiology Dept., TX (Sept. 2017); Seminar at the University of Freiburg, Germany (Jan. 2018); Seminar at the ETH Zuerich, Switzerland (Jan. 2018); Seminar at Yale University, New Haven, CT (Oct. 2018); Seminar at the Texas Woman’s University, Biology Department, Denton TX (Nov. 2018); Seminar at UT Southwestern Medical Center, Green Center for Systems Biology, Dallas, TX (Febr. 2019); Seminar at the School of Life Sciences at Tsinghua University, Beijing, China (April 2019); Seminar at the Florida State University, Department of Biological Science, Tallahassee, FL (Febr. 2020); Seminar at the Rosalind Franklin Institute, Harwell, UK (virtual, Oct. 2021); President's Lecture at UT Southwestern (virtual, Oct. 2021); Seminar at University of Massachusetts (virtual, Nov. 2021); Seminar at Harvard Medical School, BCMP Department, Boston, MA (virtual, Nov. 2021); Seminar at Columbia University, New York, NY (virtual, Feb. 2022); Seminar at IGBMC, Illkirch, France (Oct. 2022); Invited David Mitchell Endowed Lecture, SUNY, Upstate Medical University, MY (May 2023)

Instructional activities: IMOD workshop, Boulder, Colorado (2003, 2004); Cryo-EM Workshops at the Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California (2003); Guest lecturer at Cold-Spring Harbor Laboratories (2006); Workshop Speaker at the CBS/Imaging Center and MRSEC at the University of Minnesota (2008); EMBO electron tomography workshop in Leiden, Netherlands (2009); Workshop on 3D Solutions in Cryo-Electron Microscopy in Barcelona, Spain (2013)