Jeff Hardin

Dr. Hardin's laboratory studies morphogenesis, the cellular events that transform a fertilized egg into an animal, using the nematode, C. elegans, as a model organism. They use computer-assisted microscopy, genetics, and molecular biology to study how proteins within epithelial cells allow such cells to adhere, move, and change shape. The molecular mechanisms they are investigating are important for understanding common birth defects such as spina bifida, and for understanding how cellular processes are misregulated in cancer cells.

Dr. Hardin is the Faculty Director of Biocore, where he teaches in Biocore 303 - Cell Biology. In addition, Dr. Hardin teaches Introduction to Animal Development (Zoology 470). Dr. Hardin has been involved in many teaching activities, including his participation as a founding member of the UW Teaching Academy, and his selection as a Lilly Teaching Fellow. Dr. Hardin is currently an editor of the journal CBE: Life Sciences Education, and he is a coauthor, along with Wayne Becker, and Lewis Kleinsmith, of World of the Cell, 6th ed (Benjamin-Cummings). Dr. Hardin's web-based materials on early embryonic embryonic development have won numerous awards, and have been featured in Science magazine.