Denver JnBaptiste

My lab is interested in RACK1-miRNA interactions. We study C. elegans genetics and use generative adversarial networks in A. thaliana to predict RACK1-miRNA interactions as these model organisms are exposed to stress.

Experimental Lab:
PTEN is mutated in various types of cancer inhibiting cell migration through integrin mediated signaling (Rouault et al 1999). Integrin connects the extracellular matrix to cell cytoskeletal element actin. Upstream of actin, CED10/Rac, a GTP protein regulates RACK1 and has been implicated in lamellipodia and filopodia formation that helps with cell migration (Demarco and Lundquist, 2010) and actin formation. RACK1 is, as a result also involved in cancer cell formation through migration and engulfment.

RACK1 is implicated with miRNAs where globally the regulation of RACK1 is positively correlated with these small RNAs (Speth et al 2014).

Our lab studied the effects of daf18 on RACK1 and related partners including miRNAs (miR34, miR71), nog1 and skn1. These genes are all known to be involved in longevity, locomotion and cell migration, features of the actin pathway. The effects of these genes were elucidated through dietary conditions.

Diet affects C. elegans growth and development, digestion, movement and mortality. We fed C. elegans a diet of S. aureus as opposed to the op50 E. coli diet that is optimal for development. Our results revealed slowed adult growth, this was complexed with increased death and dauer formation.

Since mortality and mobility was affected through altering C. elegans diet we analyzed the effects of S. aureus on C. elegans gut, measuring intestines as the worms aged.
Sifri et al 2003, shows distension in C. elegans gut when fed with an S. aureus diet. Our data shows that C. elegans gut increases in size when fed with S. aureus as the worms ages suggesting that development is altered as the worms are stressed through diet restrictions.

Because proper growth was suppressed and the worm’s gut was implicated in this altered growth, we continue to study gene expression.


Computational-Artificial Intelligence Lab
Growth of crops of agronomic significance is affected by stressful environmental conditions such as high soil salinity and cold. This leads to increased imports and expenditure to meet the nutrient needs of people in environments not conducive to grow a variety of food. To alleviate this problem, we examine a scaffold protein that is known to be regulated in plants' immune system. Receptor for Activated C Kinase 1 (RACK1) is that protein. We study RACK1s interaction with small RNAs (miRNAs). Under stress conditions such as NaCl, RACK1s regulation of miR393 leads to an inhibition of Auxin response genes that makes the plant more susceptible to salt conditions (JnBaptiste and Ullah 2019). From preliminary data we collected images of Arabidopsis thaliana growth under salt conditions and use generative adversarial networks to build new datasets to produce plant images predicting their growth conditions. Our network can be used to predict organism phenotype based on differing growth conditions.

- Ph.D Committee Member, Stevens Institute of Technology (2023)

- Undergraduate Course Continuity Leader, Stevens Institute of Technology

-Judge for NAACP Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics (2022)

-Tri Beta Biological Honor Society Keynote Speaker (2021)

-Judge for Metropolitan Association of College and University Biologists (MACUB) Conference (2020)

-Presentation: Denver Jn. Baptiste, Sushma Mannimala, Thejasvi Venkatachalam, Karla Larios and Martha Soto (2020)
The Allied Genetics Conference (TAGC) 2020
“Which GEF activates Rac1/CED-10 during epidermal morphogenesis?”

-Presentation: Denver Jn. Baptiste and Martha Soto “How cells move and molecules that help these cells move” (2020)
INSPIRE Teaching Presentation

- Assistant Professor- Biology Department (Saint Peter's University)

- Postdoctoral Fellow- Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (Molecular Genetics), Rutgers University

- Adjunct Instructor- (Biology Department) Chattanooga State University

- Just Julian Graduate Research Grant 2019
- American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) Travel Grant 2018
- Alliance for Graduate Education and Professoriate Fellowship 2016 (AGEP)
- American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) Travel Grant 2016

Physiology, Biotechnology, Cellular Molecular Biology,
Bioethics, Ecology and Evolution, General Biology