Rosa-Molinar named director of cellular imaging center
Researcher brings expertise in novel microscopy approaches
Eduardo Rosa-Molinar
Eduardo Rosa-Molinar, PhD, who develops and applies novel microscopy approaches to the study of neuronal connections that allow brain cells to communicate, has been named the new scientific director of the Washington University Center for Cellular Imaging (WUCCI) and has joined the faculty of the Department of Cell Biology & Physiology and the Department of Neuroscience at the School of Medicine. His appointment began July 1.
Brain cells communicate to one another across synapses – small gaps between cells that allow chemical and electrical messages to pass from one neuron to the next. Rosa-Molinar studies the proteins in the cell membrane of brain cells that act as channels through which signals pass into the synapse. He joins Washington University from the University of Kansas, where he was a professor of pharmacology & toxicology, of neuroscience and of bioengineering and the director of the Microscopy and Analytical Imaging Research Resource Core Laboratory.
WUCCI offers the research community cutting-edge cellular imaging technologies, including access to light, electron, cryogenic electron and X-ray microscopy. WUCCI’s staff collaborates with researchers on experimental design, sample preparation and data analysis.
Rosa-Molinar earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of Alabama, followed by a PhD in anatomy, cell biology and neuroscience at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Creighton University School of Medicine before starting his lab in the Department of Biology at the University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras and Institute of Neurobiology at University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras School of Medicine. He joined the faculty of the University of Kansas in 2015.
