Stephen Stanio

I'm a Biological Sciences Ph.D. candidate at the University of Maryland, where I've been pursuing my studies in Molecular and Cellular Biology since 2022. Before coming to Maryland, I earned my B.S. in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of Connecticut. My graduate research focuses on understanding how cells in multicellular organisms communicate with one another to form complex tissue patterns. Using Drosophila melanogaster (the fruit fly), I examine how the distribution of signaling proteins patterns tissues in space and time. Through this work, I aim to uncover the fundamental mechanisms that enable developing organisms to coordinate cellular differentiation and tissue organization.