Carine Waase Maurer

B.S., Cornell University
Controlling the Onset of Cell Death in C. elegans by Transcriptional Induction of ced-3 Caspase
presented by Shai Shaham

It is a real pleasure for me to be here today, and to be a part of Carine’s graduation. Carine was the first student to officially join my lab, taking the brave step of entering the lab of a young recruit. She had heard that Caenorhabditis elegans research could be fun and decided to give it a try. From the outset it was clear that Carine enjoyed thinking about science and that she would learn a lot through her studies. Although Carine came to the lab inexperienced in some ways, she quickly realized that being a successful student required hard work and dedication, and she ended up making beautiful scientific discoveries concerning the regulation of programmed cell death.

Carine studied a C. elegans protein, called a caspase, that promotes cell death. To understand how this protein knows when to kill cells, she embarked on studying its activity in one cell destined to die. She showed that, unlike previous dogma suggesting that caspases are subject to only posttranslational regulation, transcription of this caspase was the determinant of cell death onset. This discovery has opened a new way of thinking about the regulation of cell death in animal development.

Carine has been a constant source of balance in the lab. She was adept at making those connections to the world beyond the lab, and for that I am very grateful. Carine has returned to medical school, where I am sure she is excelling. Whether or not she decides to continue in academic research, her impact on my lab has been strong and we still miss her.