Daniela Nicastro, Ph.D.

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Daniela Nicastro, M.S., Ph.D., is a structural cell biologist with almost 25 years of experience in electron microscopy of cellular structures. Driven by important biological questions, she develops and applies innovative imaging techniques that allow visualizing the 3D structures of native macromolecular machines and organelles inside cells with a resolution that is sufficiently high to accomplish goals such as detecting structural changes between conformational states. This is important for understanding how proteins interact, work, and are spatially arranged to perform normal cellular functions, and how their dysfunction leads to diseases.

Dr. Nicastro was born and raised in Germany, where she obtained her M.S. (1995) and Ph.D. (2000) in Biology from the Ludwig-Maximilians University (Munich, Germany), studying sensory neurons of insects. In parallel to her thesis study at the University, Dr. Nicastro also joined the Max-Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Munich from 1998-2001, where she transitioned technically from classical electron microscopy of chemically-fixed insect tissues to cellular cryo-electron tomography, a three-dimensional electron microscopy method that provides images of life-like preserved (rapidly frozen), sub-cellular structures at molecular resolution. She then continued here research career in the U.S., 2001-2006 as postdoctoral fellow in the National Center for Research Resources for 3D Electron Microscopy of Cells at the University of Colorado in Boulder, and since 2006 as Assistant Professor and later as tenured Associate Professor (since 2013) in the Biology Department at Brandeis University near Boston. The Nicastro lab has made important contributions both technically and biologically, e.g. by advancing cryo-electron microscopy methods to image cellular structures at higher resolution, by taking a multi-length scale approach from studying intact tissues to small molecular motors, and by applying cryo-electron tomography for the first time to samples from patients (with ciliary disease).

In 2015, Dr. Nicastro joined the Departments of Cell Biology and Biophysics at UT Southwestern Medical Center, where she played a key role in building a new state-of-the art cryo-electron microscopy facility. She is also expanding her research program in the rapidly growing area of cryo-electron microscopy; one new focus will be the visualization of native, dynamic DNA-interacting complexes inside normal and cancerous cells, which will provide unique views of nuclear machines and events that are highly relevant to a better understanding of cancer initiation, promotion, progression, and/or treatment.

Graduate School

Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat (1995), Biology

Graduate School

Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat (2000), Biology

• Study the 3D structures and biological functions of native macromolecular complexes inside cells (e.g. dyneins and microtubules in cilia, or DNA-binding complexes)

Featured Publications

Structural mechanism of the dynein power stroke.

Lin J, Okada K, Raytchev M, Smith MC, Nicastro D Nat. Cell Biol. 2014 May 16 5 479-85

Cryo-electron tomography reveals ciliary defects underlying human RSPH1 primary ciliary dyskinesia.

Lin J, Yin W, Smith MC, Song K, Leigh MW, Zariwala MA, Knowles MR, Ostrowski LE, Nicastro D Nat Commun 2014 5 5727

A high-resolution morphological and ultrastructural map of anterior sensory cilia and glia in Caenorhabditis elegans.

Doroquez DB, Berciu C, Anderson JR, Sengupta P, Nicastro D Elife 2014 3 e01948

The dynein regulatory complex is the nexin link and a major regulatory node in cilia and flagella.

Heuser T, Raytchev M, Krell J, Porter ME, Nicastro D J. Cell Biol. 2009 Dec 187 6 921-33

The molecular architecture of axonemes revealed by cryoelectron tomography.

Nicastro D, Schwartz C, Pierson J, Gaudette R, Porter ME, McIntosh JR Science 2006 Aug 313 5789 944-8

Membrane Charge Directs the Outcome of F-BAR Domain Lipid Binding and Autoregulation.

Kelley CF, Messelaar EM, Eskin TL, Wang S, Song K, Vishnia K, Becalska AN, Shupliakov O, Hagan MF, Danino D, Sokolova OS, Nicastro D, Rodal AA Cell Rep 2015 Dec 13 11 2597-609

ATP Consumption of Eukaryotic Flagella Measured at a Single-Cell Level.

Chen DT, Heymann M, Fraden S, Nicastro D, Dogic Z Biophys. J. 2015 Dec 109 12 2562-73

DRC3 connects the N-DRC to dynein g to regulate flagellar waveform.

Awata J, Song K, Lin J, King SM, Sanderson MJ, Nicastro D, Witman GB Mol. Biol. Cell 2015 Jun

The CSC proteins FAP61 and FAP251 build the basal substructures of radial spoke 3 in cilia.

Urbanska P, Song K, Joachimiak E, Krzemien-Ojak L, Koprowski P, Hennessey T, Jerka-Dziadosz M, Fabczak H, Gaertig J, Nicastro D, Wloga D Mol. Biol. Cell 2015 Apr 26 8 1463-75

Assembly of actin filaments and microtubules in Nwk F-BAR-induced membrane deformations.

Kelley CF, Becalska AN, Berciu C, Nicastro D, Rodal AA Commun Integr Biol 2015 Mar-Apr 8 2 e1000703

• Alberta Gotthardt and Henry Strage Award for Aspiring Young Science Faculty
  Brandeis University (2008)
• Research Excellence Award
  WM Keck Foundation (2008)
• Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences
  Pew Foundation (2007-2011)
• Postdoctoral scholarship
  Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Germany (2000-2001)
• Graduate scholarship
  Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Germany (1998-2000)
• Graduate scholarship for Junior Scientists and Artists
  Bavarian Government, Germany (1996-1998)