Affiliation: University of Toronto, Department of Biochemistry

Prior to joining the Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute and the University of Toronto, Dr. Ditlev earned his PhD at the University of Connecticut Health Center under the co-advisorship of Dr. Bruce Mayer and Dr. Les Loew. During his PhD, he studied cell signaling to the actin cytoskeleton through the adaptor protein Nck, nucleation promoting factor N-WASP, and the actin nucleator Arp2/3 complex using computational modeling coupled to cell biology and quantitative fluorescence microscopy. Dr. Ditlev was a Ruth L. Kirschstein postdoctoral fellow at UT Southwestern Medical Center under the mentorship of Dr. Michael Rosen. During his postdoctoral studies, Dr. Ditlev and his colleagues studied the role of liquid-liquid phase separation in organizing and regulating T cell signaling at immune synapses. Currently, Dr. Jonathon Ditlev is a Scientist in the Molecular Medicine Program at the Hospital for Sick Children and an Assistant Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Toronto.

The Ditlev Lab studies the role of liquid-liquid phase separation in cell signaling. Using a combination of in vitro biochemical reconstitution and cell biology, they seek to understand how the emergent biophysical properties and compositional control of phase-separated biomolecular condensates regulate signaling pathways at or near the membrane. They also study how membrane-associated condensates regulate their local lipid and cytosolic environments. Their overarching goal is to understand the fundamental mechanisms by which phase separation drives cell signaling.