Liz M. Haynes, Ph.D.

Liz M. Haynes is an assistant professor in the Department of Cell and Regenerative Biology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She earned a bachelor of science in molecular biology and microbiology from the University of Central Florida. She received her doctorate in cell biology and physiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the lab of James Bear, where she studied branched actin turnover in directed cell migration. She subsequently completed post-doctoral work in the lab of Mary Halloran, where she studied the role of Kinesin-1 in axon guidance during development in zebrafish. She received a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award to fund this work. Haynes was next awarded a Morgridge Post-Doctoral Fellowship to characterize neuroimmune aging in a regenerative species, the adult zebrafish, under the mentorship of Kevin Eliceiri and Tyler Ulland.

The Haynes lab studies the cell biology of neuroimmune cells across the lifespan, including how microglia become dystrophic during normal aging. To accomplish this goal, members of the Haynes lab combine the powerful genetic toolkit of zebrafish with development of multi-scale imaging techniques and custom open-source image analysis tools.