Specialties: Protein purification and interactions, recombinant DNA/molecular cloning, Drosophila genetics, quantitative western blotting, chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP), cell culture, immunostaining, CRISPRAlso experience with:microinjection and Drosophila transgenesis, qPCR, microscopy, recombineeringPublications:Stepanik V, Sun J, Stathopoulos A. FGF Pyramus has a transmembrane domain and cell-autonomous function in polarity. Current Biology Aug 17;30(16):3141-3153 2020.Sandler J.E., Irizarry J., Stepanik V, Dunipace L., Amrhein H., Stathopoulos A.A Developmental Program Truncates Long Transcripts to Temporally Regulate Cell Signaling. Dev Cell. Dec 17;47(6):773-784 2018. Stepanik V.A., Dunipace L.A., Bae Y., Macabenta F.D., Sun J., Trisnadi N., Stathopoulos A.S. The migrations of Drosophila muscle founders and primordial germ cells are interdependent. Development, 1;143(17) 2016.Jaiswal R., Stepanik V.A., Rankova, A., Molinar O., Goode, B.L., McCartney, B.M. Drosophila Adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) and formin Dia collaborate by a conserved mechanism to stimulate actin filament assembly. Journal of Biological Chemistry 10;288(19) 2013.Stepanik, V.A. and Harte, P.J. A mutation in the E(Z) methyltransferase that increases trimethylation of histone H3 lysine 27 and causes inappropriate silencing of active Polycomb target genes. Developmental Biology 364(2):249-58, 2012. Tie, F., Banerjee, R., Stratton. C.A., Prasad-Sinha, J., Stepanik, V.A., Zlobin, A., Diaz, M.O., Schacheri, P.C., Harte, P.J. CBP-mediated acetylation of histone H3 lysine 27 antagonizes Drosophila Polycomb silencing. Development, 136:3131-41, 2009. Copeland, P.R., Stepanik, V.A., and D.M. Driscoll. Insight into mammalian selenocysteine insertion: Domain structure and ribosome binding properties of Sec insertion sequence binding protein-2. Molecular and Cellular BIology, 21:1491-1496, 2001.