Frances Forrester joined the Department of Physiology and Cellular Biophysics as a graduate student in 2011. Under the tutelage of Dr. Andrew Marks, she currently studies the role of UNC-68/RyR calcium leak in age-dependent C. elegans muscle function loss. Frances hopes that in helping to elucidate the underlying molecular mechanisms of age-related muscle weakness, her research will lead to new therapeutics against sarcopenia.

Frances received her undergraduate degree in Biology from New York University, where she interned in the laboratory of Dr. Michele Pagano, an HHMI Investigator. Frances spent two years in the Pagano lab, researching how Skp-1/Cul-1/F-box (SCF) E3 ubiquitin ligases control cellular growth and proliferation. She helped discover a new Cyclin F (F-box 1) substrate called RRM2, a subunit of the common cancer target Ribonucleotide Reductase (RNR). Her efforts culminated in a co-authorship on the resulting, high-impact publication.