Kim Arena
I’m Kim, a postdoctoral fellow in the Appel lab who is passionate about developmental and regenerative biology, zebrafish, teaching, mentoring, and outreach! My love for science started out in my hometown of Cold Spring Harbor, NY. I discovered the amazing zebrafish model as an undergraduate research assistant in the Bagnat lab at Duke University studying vacuole inflation during spinal cord development. Staying in zebrafish but shifting towards regeneration, I completed my PhD in Dr. Sarah Kucenas’ lab at the University of Virginia where I studied the molecular mechanisms that drive perineurial glial bridging after motor nerve injury. Taking my backgrounds in development and regeneration, I am focusing my postdoctoral work on investigating cell fate specification in oligodendrocytes in the developing and regenerating spinal cord. Specifically, I am interested in what factors regulate the switch from neurogenesis to gliogenesis during development. In the future, I hope to determine whether these same pathways are sufficient to enhance gliogenesis following spinal cord injury. Outside of science, you can find me running through the mountains, climbing rocks, snowboarding, hanging out with friends and family, and cheering on Duke basketball!