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Susan Banks, Ph.D.

  • Associate Professor of Biology
Susan Banks

Throughout my training, I have had the opportunity to teach students in the classroom and to mentor them on research projects in the lab. My scientific research background is in the areas of cell biology, genetics, biochemistry, and neuroscience. I earned my BA in Biology from The University of Kansas, my PhD in Cell, Molecular, and Developmental Biology from The University of Texas at Austin, and was a postdoctoral researcher at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA. As an undergraduate and graduate student, my research took advantage of imaging and the powerful genetics of fruit flies to study cell-cell communication. My dissertation was focused on Auxilin, which is involved in endocytosis, and its role in Notch/Delta signaling. As a postdoctoral researcher, I used biochemistry and imaging to study protein-protein interactions at synapses in the sea lamprey. More specifically, I studied how the presence of excess alpha-syn uclein, a protein linked to Parkinson's Disease, results in synaptic defects. I am looking forward to continuing this research with students at Florida Southern.