Aging
Rising Investigator Appointed to MDI Bio Lab Faculty
- June 13, 2024
Emily Spaulding, Ph.D., is establishing a new research laboratory at MDI Biological Laboratory. After four years doing her post-doctoral work in the research group of MDI Bio Lab’s Dustin Updike, Ph.D., she has now been hired as an Assistant Professor.
“MDI Bio Lab is a special place with state-of-the-art resources, a remarkable history and an incredibly supportive scientific community,” Spaulding says. “It is a privilege to start my laboratory at such an institute and in my home state of Maine.”
The native of Rockland, Maine earned her Ph.D. at the University of Maine while embedded in the Jackson Laboratory. During her post-doc at MDI Bio Lab, she was recognized by the National Institutes of Health as an “Outstanding Scholar in Neuroscience”.
“Dr. Spaulding is an extraordinary young pioneer in biomolecular research, and she is a pleasure to work with” says MDI Bio Lab President Hermann Haller, M.D.
“We are honored to make a scientific home for her here on Mt. Desert Island. We see great things ahead.”
In late 2022, Spaulding published groundbreaking research on a little-studied type of cell structure, called nucleoli, that play a role in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and ALS.
Working with one of MDI Bio Lab’s unique array of models for human health, C. elegans roundworms, Spaulding upended some fundamental assumptions about the
architecture and functionality of the nucleoli, and she continues to pursue that investigative avenue. 
“The big idea of my lab is to study how nerve cells (neurons) organize their components into structures like nucleoli and how disrupted organization could lead to neuronal dysfunction and ultimately neurodegeneration,” she says.
Revealing how the normal mechanisms of neuron organization are disrupted can lead the way to therapies that prevent or repair the damage. “It’s really hard to study these dynamic structures in mammals, but it’s much easier in C. elegans,” Spaulding says. “And you can do it in a living animal.”
Updike says Spaulding has a remarkable knack for imaging cells in living organisms at resolutions smaller than one-thousandth of a millimeter. “But more than that” he adds, “she’s integrating the genetic tools she’s developed with her expertise in neurobiology to make some truly captivating discoveries.”
Spaulding says one of the biggest factors in deciding to establish her first laboratory at MDI Bio Lab was being able to stay in Maine. “My family is here, my kids are in school here, I love Maine,” she says. “I can live the life that I want here, and still do amazing research. MDI Bio Lab just fits my life.”