Rate My Professor Joseph Campanale

Joseph Campanale is an Assistant Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, joining the faculty in 2025. A Biology professor specializing in developmental and cell biology, he earned dual bachelor’s degrees and a master’s degree in biology from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. He obtained his doctorate in Marine Biology from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego. Campanale completed postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Denise Montell at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he held a Postdoctoral Fellowship from the American Cancer Society from 2017 to 2020. He also received the 2019 BMSE/MCDB Retreat and Symposium Poster Award during his time there. Originally from the suburbs of San Bernardino, California, Campanale identifies as a queer first-generation college student from an NIH-designated underrepresented population in STEM and is committed to advancing the careers and education of diverse individuals both in the laboratory and classroom.

Campanale's research investigates collective cell migrations, focusing on the interplay between conserved polarity signaling paradigms—such as Scribble, Discs Large, and Lethal Giant Larva proteins—in driving morphogenesis via collective cell movement. His laboratory uses fruit fly ovary model systems, including centripetal follicle cells, and mammalian pancreas organoids to explore epithelial behaviors, cell polarity regulation, pancreas organogenesis, metabolism, and duct morphology through Drosophila genetics, live cell microscopy, and 4-dimensional organotypic cell culture. Key publications include "Tissue topography steers migrating border cells" (Science, 2020), "Diverse follower cell behaviors in collective cell migration" (Developmental Cell, 2023), "Cell interactions in collective cell migration" (Development, 2019), "Coordination of protrusion dynamics within and between collectively migrating border cells by myosin II" (Molecular Biology of the Cell, 2019), and "Development and dynamics of cell polarity at a glance" (Journal of Cell Science, 2017). In March 2025, he delivered a public lecture titled "Leaders and followers in collective migration, who’s really in charge?" at the UNLV Science Café. His expertise encompasses developmental biology, cell and molecular biology, quantitative microscopy, collective cell behavior, genetics, and morphogenesis.