Angelo Iulianella
Candidate Statement: The AAA plays a key role in promoting the scientific life of anatomy educators and researchers. It has certainly connected me to a wider community of scholars in craniofacial and developmental biology, and anatomy educations. Being in a department that does a lot of medical school teaching and is home for the cadaver program of the medical school, I am well familiar with the critical importance of anatomy education in medical schools. I also run a lab in developmental neurobiology, and participate in peer review activities of the major funding organizations in Canada. I can certainly speak to importance of highlighting investigator driven discovery science. I view these two things--anatomy-based education and basic scientific research--as central pillars in AAA's mission. I am especially passionate about early career investigators and feel the society could do more to support their careers in general. There have been great strides in both DEI and early career-initiatives by AAA within the past few years, and these efforts need to be expanded upon and encouraged. As a Program Committee co-chair I would act to strengthen the involvement of early career investigators in our annual symposia, expand outreach to the paleontological and neuroscience communities, and continue to support basic anatomy and developmental biology research featured in AAA-sponsored international and regional meetings. I would also work with committee chairs and board member to continue efforts to prioritize awards and support grants for new investigators, expand DEI award initiatives to diversify our membership, and promote their activities in the annual meeting and social media. There is certainly opportunity to expand our membership and meeting symposia to appeal to a wide audience of developmental biologists, paleontologists, comparative anatomists, neuroanatomists, and educators.
Current Position/Institution: Professor, Department of Medical Neuroscience, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Ph.D. Institution: Ph.D. in Molecular Biology at the University of Montreal, 2002.
Earlier Positions: Postdoctoral Research Fellow and Research Associate, (2002-2009), Stowers Institute for Medical Research. Teaching assistant as the Marine Biological Laboratory Course in Embryology (2008-2014), teaching assistant in the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Course in Mouse Development, Stem Cells, and Cancer (2005-2008)
Teaching: Neuroanatomy (undergraduates; 2011-current), Principals of Neuroscience (graduate students, 2011-current, Course Coordinator 2021), Chemical Neurobiology (undergraduate and graduate students; 2014-current, course co-coordinator), Introduction to Human Anatomy, embryology lectures (undergraduate student, 2018-current), An introduction to Nervous Systems, directed studies (graduate students, 2021).
AAA Committee/Roles: Scientific Affairs Committee (2019-current; Chair, from Jan. 2021-Dec 2022), Program Committee (2021-current).
Other Professional Activities: Editorial Board Member Developmental Dynamics, Co-Organizer for the Annual Atlantic Regional Canadian Developmental Biology Symposium, Co-Chair of the Neurodevelopmental Cluster in the Brain Repair Centre (Affiliated with Dalhousie University), member of the Atlantic Mobility Action Project research group in the Bain Repair Centre.
Awards: Canadian Institutes of Health Research doctoral (1999-2002) and postdoctoral fellowship (2004-2007) awards. Industrial Research Fellowship, National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (2002).
Research Interest: Dr. Iulianella is a developmental biologist interested in the molecular and cellular events that lead to formation of distinct cell types in the nervous system. He also studies the genetic etiology of neurodevelopmental disorders by focusing on regulators of the neuronal cytoskeleton and how they promote the migration of newborn neurons, and maturation of their axons and dendrites. Another area of interest involves characterizing the role of signaling pathways in the development of peripheral nerves in the head and trunk of the developing vertebrate embryo.
Other Professional Memberships Currently Maintained: Society for Developmental Biology, Society for Craniofacial Genetics and Developmental Biology, Canadian Society for Neuroscience.
Web Links: https://blogs.dal.ca/iulianella/; https://medicine.dal.ca/departments/department-sites/medical-neuroscience/our-people/our-faculty/angelo-iulianella.html