Rate My Professor Dana Ward

Dana Ward, Ph.D., is Professor of Biology and Chair of the Science Department at Mount St. Mary's University in Emmitsburg, Maryland. An alumna of the university, she received her B.S. in Biochemistry from Mount St. Mary's University in 1997 and her Ph.D. in Tumor Biology from Georgetown University in 2001. Following her doctoral studies, Ward completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Bioengineering at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, and continued postdoctoral research at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, investigating the role of physical forces on vascular growth. She joined the faculty of Mount St. Mary's University in 2007 as part of the Department of Science.

Ward's research focuses on how cells regulate the reorganization of their actin cytoskeleton to change shape and migrate, processes essential for wound healing and underlying cancer metastasis. Her laboratory examines Cdc42 effector proteins using microfabrication techniques and engineered extracellular environments at the intersection of cell biology and bioengineering. She has secured major grants, including National Science Foundation Major Research Instrumentation Awards in 2011 and 2012 for a Real Time PCR system, an American Heart Association Scientist Development Grant from 2008 to 2012 on adhesion, focal adhesion kinase, and smooth muscle cell proliferation, a National Institutes of Health Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award from 2004 to 2006 on Rho-mediated tension in cell proliferation, and a Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program grant from 1999 to 2002 on altered Cdc42 signaling in metastatic breast cancer cells. Ward is co-author on numerous publications in leading journals, such as 'A 3D biomimetic vascular model reveals a RhoA, Rac1, and N-cadherin balance in mural cell-endothelial cell-regulated barrier function' in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2017), 'An Inhibitory Role for Focal Adhesion Kinase in Regulating Proliferation' in the Journal of Cell Biology (2006), 'Commitment of stem cell fate by cell shape, cytoskeletal tension, and RhoA' in Developmental Cell (2004), and early work on Cdc42 effectors in the Journal of Biological Chemistry (2000-2001). She received a 2013 Travel Award from the American Society for Cell Biology and mentors undergraduate students presenting at conferences like the ASBMB meeting. Her lab recently acquired a confocal microscope for advanced cell migration imaging.