Piacentino Lab

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

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Welcome to the Piacentino Lab!

Mission: We in the Piacentino lab empower one another to grow as scientists and humans while seeking to understand how cells in the developing embryo migrate through their environment to construct our adult organ systems. Specific projects combine chicken embryology and cell culture with rigorous live imaging, molecular biology, and biochemistry to determine how cellular lipids drive migration. We foster a community built on curiosity, compassion, inclusivity, and determination.

We’re part of the Department of Cell Biology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Interested in joining the lab? See our Join page — or head to Meet the Lab to see who we are.

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Department of Cell Biology

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Baltimore, MD

news

Sep 01, 2026 Congratulations to Alli and Mallorie for their review article on how neural crest cell development is regulated by sphingolipids, cholesterol, and lipid rafts, out now in Developmental Dynamics!
Jul 01, 2026 Congrats to Alli Mancini and Mallorie Jenne for presenting their posters at the SDB Annual Meeting in Las Vegas, NV!
Jun 12, 2026 New preprint! Mallorie’s work on the lipid raft-linker gene Raftlin-2 in migrating neural crest cells is up on bioRxiv.
Jun 02, 2026 Thank you to the Emerald Foundation, Inc. for supporting our work through a Young Investigator Award!
May 02, 2026 Congrats to Mallorie Jenne for giving a talk at the Mid-Atlantic SDB Meeting in Pittsburgh, PA!

selected publications

  1. Dev Dyn
    ../research/lipid-rafts-neural-crest-preview.png
    Membrane lipid metabolism as a regulatory frontier in neural crest biology: Roles for sphingolipids, cholesterol, and lipid rafts
    Allison E. Mancini, Mallorie P. Jenne, and Michael L. Piacentino
    Developmental Dynamics, 2026
    DOI
  2. bioRxiv
    ../research/raftlin2-preview.jpg
    The lipid raft-linker gene Raftlin-2 is expressed in migrating neural crest cells
    Mallorie P. Jenne, Ilya Grabylnikov, and Michael L. Piacentino
    bioRxiv, 2026
    DOI
  3. bioRxiv
    ../research/otic-placode-preview.jpg
    Lipid-mediated reinforcement of FGF/MAPK signaling enables robust otic placode specification
    Stephanie R. Peralta, Natalia Maiorana, and Michael L. Piacentino
    bioRxiv, 2026
    DOI
  4. PLoS Biol
    miR-203 secreted in extracellular vesicles mediates the communication between neural crest and placode cells required for trigeminal ganglia formation
    Yamila E. Bernardi, Elisa Sánchez-Vásquez, Rocio Belén Márquez, and 9 more authors
    PLoS Biology, 2024
    DOI
  5. Dev Biol
    ../research/smpd3-soxe-preview.jpg
    SMPD3 expression is spatially regulated in the developing embryo by SOXE factors
    Michael L. Piacentino, Andrew J. Fasse, Alberto Camacho-Avila, and 2 more authors
    Developmental Biology, 2024
    DOI Code
  6. PNAS
    ../research/lipid-heatmap.jpg
    Temporal changes in plasma membrane lipid content induce endocytosis to regulate developmental epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition
    Michael L. Piacentino, Erica J. Hutchins, Camille J. Andrews, and 1 more author
    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2022
    DOI Code
  7. Dev Biol
    ../research/bmp-graphical-abstract.jpg
    Essential function and targets of BMP signaling during midbrain neural crest delamination
    Michael L. Piacentino, Erica J. Hutchins, and Marianne E. Bronner
    Developmental Biology, 2021
    DOI Code
  8. COCB
    Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition and different migration strategies as viewed from the neural crest
    Michael L. Piacentino, Yuwei Li, and Marianne E. Bronner
    Current Opinion in Cell Biology. Invited Review. PMID: 32531659 , 2020
    DOI
  9. PLoS Biol
    Intracellular attenuation of BMP signaling via CKIP-1/Smurf1 is essential during neural crest induction
    Michael L. Piacentino and Marianne E. Bronner
    PLoS Biology. PMID: 29949573 , 2018
    DOI